Tony Bennett Declines Raise and Donates to UVa Instead

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National Champion. Two time ACC Tournament Champion. Two time National Coach of the Year.

The Virginia Cavaliers’ Tony Bennett.

On Sunday, UVa’s Jeff White published a piece on Tony Bennett that reported the obvious: after winning the first NCAA National Championship in program history, athletics director Carla Williams and UVa President Jim Ryan discussed re-working Bennett’s contract to include a well deserved raise.

He declined the raise.

Instead, Bennett asked Williams to provide raises to his staff while adding another year to his current contract, which will now have seven years remaining.

To put the cherry on top, Bennett and his wife Laurel have pledged $500,000 toward a career-development program started to assist current and former UVa men’s basketball players as they go pro in something other than sports.

Further details on the offered raise are unavailable, but it should have made Bennett competitive with some of the most well paid coaches in the sport.

It would have been deserved.