CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Virginia’s new interim head men’s basketball coach Ron Sanchez is not concerned about the “interim” label because, just as Tony Bennett said the job was on loan to him the last 15 years, the job is “on loan” to him as long as the institution will have him. Addressing the media in a Zoom conference for the first time since Athletics Director Carla Williams said last Thursday Sanchez would be the interim, he describes the past five days as busy and emotional. He said he’s spent a lot of time expressing the worth of players, and that it’s the institution they are a part of.  Sanchez said other than what Coach Bennett and the staff had discussed over the summer, we’re not going to see a whole lot different on the court and around the program. He says the “Virginia way” has taken years to establish, and there’s no need to change when it’s been so successful.

Sanchez said he was not aware of the depths Coach Bennett had gone in regard to the state of the game. He said they spend a lot of time together, working out, playing tennis, and doing other things together.
“I actually felt disappointed in myself because I wasn’t aware because I never really asked. You know, in this new space we’re all occupying not just in basketball, but basically globally, it’s okay to ask someone ‘how you doing, how you doing today, what’s going on’, and I didn’t do that for him. That was hard for me.”
Audio of Sanchez’s entire press conference is below.