Tony Bennett turned down a $500K raise from Virginia and, separately, donated the same amount to a career-development program

Tony Bennett's reputation is about as pristine as possible as college basketball coaches go, and that was before his Virginia team turned in a whale of a comeback story, winning the 2019 national championship after a historic first-round loss one year earlier.

This news certainly doesn't detract from the type of person he appears to be. Bennett, the former UW-Green Bay star and son of Wisconsin basketball godfather Dick Bennett, turned down a $500,000 raise from his employer, asking that the university instead focus on additional compensation for his staff and other program improvements. 

"That just does not happen in our industry," Virginia athletics director Carla Williams said in an article by Jeff White that appeared on the University of Virginia web site. 

It doesn't stop there. Bennett, who will coach in his 11th season this winter, also pledged $500,000 to a career-development program launched for former and current UVA men's basketball players. Mind you, he's not redirecting half a million from Virginia in lieu of a salary increase; that's an EXTRA half a million already in his pocket. 

“I have more than I need,” Bennett said in the article. “I’m blessed beyond what I deserve.”

According to The Daily Progress, Bennett's annual base salary stands at $500,000 in 2017 and his annual supplemental compensation (paid for by sponsors and donors) stands at $2.5 million. He received $1.175 million in team competitive bonus performances in 2019, so it's not as if he's just getting by, but half a million isn't exactly a drop in the bucket.

Bennett did receive a one-year extension of his current deal and has seven years left under contract with Virginia.

Bennett's stately public persona was perhaps best exemplified in the aftermath of his team's loss to UMBC in 2018, the first time a top-seeded team had ever lost to a 16 seed in the NCAA Tournament. Bennett was eloquent and deferential in the interviews that followed. One year later, his team bounced back to finish atop the college basketball world with an overtime win over Texas Tech in the title game.

JR Radcliffe can be reached at (262) 361-9141 or jradcliffe@gannett.com. Follow him on Twitter at @JRRadcliffe.