Ron Sanchez Returns To Virginia Basketball

For the third time in his tenure, Virginia basketball coach Tony Bennett has hired an active head coach to join his staff as an assistant. He didn’t have to scroll through his contacts list to find Ron Sanchez.

Sanchez, former UVA Associate Head Coach, resigned at Charlotte after five seasons to return to Charlottesville on Tuesday. He served on Bennett’s coaching staffs at Virginia and Washington State for 12 combined years before taking the lead job with the 49ers. He returns to a spot vacated by Kyle Getter, who accepted a new coaching post at Notre Dame.

Bringing in a sitting head coach has not been an unusual move in Bennett’s career at UVA. He previously hired Ritchie McKay away from Liberty in 2009 for a six-year stint with the Hoos before he returned to the Flames in 2015. To replace McKay, Bennett hired Brad Soderberg, who stepped down as the head coach of Division II Lindenwood University to join the Cavaliers.

“We are thrilled to welcome Ron and his family back to the University of Virginia,” Bennett said in a news release. “Ron played an integral part in building this program and was a pillar in the community. He is an outstanding recruiter and coach, and really connects with student-athletes. Ron’s last five years as a head coach enhances what he will bring back to our basketball program.”

At Charlotte, Sanchez inherited a team that had gone 6-23 the previous season and the program had produced four straight losing seasons. He went 8-21 in his first season, but then posted winning records in three of the next four campaigns, the only exception being the 2020-2021 year that faced COVID-19 challenges. Overall, he had a 72-78 record with the 49ers.

Those three winning seasons increased in victories each time, going from 16-13 to 17-14 to 22-14 this past year. He won 10 games in Conference USA, the most since 2006 for the program, in two separate seasons. In 2022-2023, Charlotte made the Conference USA Tournament Quarterfinals for the first time since 2016 and won the College Basketball Invitational Championship, the program’s first postseason tournament title ever and the first title of any kind since the 2013 Puerto Rico Tip Off Tournament. The 22 wins were the most since the 2000-2001 season for the 49ers.

With Sanchez, Virginia is adding someone that helped produce a lot of success when he worked in Charlottesville previously. During 9 seasons on the staff, UVA won 212 games, three ACC Regular Season Championships, and two ACC Tournament titles. In 2017-2018, the Hoos reached No. 1 in the Associated Press poll for the first time since 1982-1983 and became a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament for the third time. That season ended with the historic loss to UMBC; Sanchez left for Charlotte that March and watched the redemption run to the 2019 National Championship from afar. Sanchez worked with Bennett for three seasons at Washington State as well.

Sanchez joins a program that won the 2019 National Championship and ACC Regular Season titles in 2019, 2021, and 2023 since his departure.

The Cavaliers return ACC Defensive Player of the Year Reece Beekman to a roster that will look quite a bit different this season. Jayden Gardner, Ben Vander Plas, and Kihei Clark finished their college eligibility and Armaan Franklin bypassed his final year (pandemic bonus year) to pursue a pro career, while Kadin Shedrick, Francisco Caffaro, and Isaac Traudt transferred to Texas, Santa Clara, and Creighton respectively. Taine Murray, Isaac McKneely, Ryan Dunn, Leon Bond III, and Dante Harris returned with Beekman, while the Hoos added Jordan Minor, Andrew Rohde, and Jacob Groves from Merrimack, St. Thomas (Minnesota), and Oklahoma as transfers plus Blake Buchanan, Elijah Gertrude, and Anthony Robinson as incoming freshmen.

“The University of Virginia is truly special to me and my family,” Sanchez said in a news release. “It is the only institution I would vacate my head coaching position for. I’m thankful for the opportunity to return to Grounds with a new-found lens and perspective. I’m also excited to reconnect with the staff and join their efforts in sustaining the incredible success this program has had over the last decade. I look forward to serving Coach Bennett, the staff, the student-athletes and our community.”