New U-Va. Assistant Sees Step Down as a Step Up
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Thursday, April 2, 2009; 1:15 PM
CHARLOTTESVILLE, April 2 -- Just minutes into his introductory press conference on Wednesday, new Virginia men's basketball coach Tony Bennett revealed his plans for his first major recruiting job: hiring Liberty Coach Ritchie McKay as an assistant coach.
Later that day, Liberty released a statement saying that McKay had stepped down as head coach. In the statement, McKay indicated that he was joining Bennett's staff as "assistant to the head coach." Virginia has not officially announced the hiring.
Although Bennett and McKay are close friends with a long history together -- McKay counts Bennett's father, Dick Bennett, as one of his coaching mentors -- the move is relatively unprecedented in college basketball. McKay has been a head coach for 13 seasons at five schools, including Oregon State in the Pacific-10. An established college head coach seldom leaves voluntarily to become an assistant coach at the college level.
"I am leaving because my wife and I feel that we are supposed to start a new chapter in my professional career -- one that does not involve me being a head coach at this time," McKay said in the statement released by Liberty. "Not many people voluntarily leave a head coaching position to become an assistant. It speaks to my relationship with Coach Bennett and the opportunity that I have in assisting him to build a great program."
In two seasons, McKay had begun to rebuild the Liberty program, and this past season the Flames scored a win at Virginia. But this week it was announced that Liberty guard Seth Curry, the nation's leading freshman scorer at 20.2 points per game, will transfer to Duke.
"I think I may have hit a home run," Bennett said Wednesday. "He's been a coach in the Pac-10, a proven recruiter nationally. . . . I think if I do a good selling this place, I can get him. So I'm excited about that. And that speaks volume -- for a coaching to make a decision like that, if he does -- about this place."
Bennett said he also might bring "one or two" assistants coach from Washington State to Virginia, and Ron Sanchez will be one of them. Although it has not been formally announced, Sanchez was at Virginia's practice facility on Wednesday and was present for Bennett's introductory meeting with the team on Tuesday.
