Describing himself as “a square peg in a round hole,” a tearful Tony Bennett said Friday he suddenly retired from coaching at Virginia because he wasn’t suited to navigate the current landscape of college basketball.

Tony Bennett’s retirement from coaching was a major loss for the University of Virginia. It was an equally damaging loss for all of college basketball. In an era when it seems as if nothing is certain in the sport, Bennett represented everything good — a class act in every way, and a Hall of Fame coach as a bonus.