Four college basketball coaches most likely to follow Jay Wright's retirement path

Over the past two seasons, college basketball has lost three of the most iconic head coaches of the last decade to retirement in Villanova‘s Jay Wright, Duke‘s Mike Krzyzewski and North Carolina‘s Roy Williams.

With NIL and the transfer portal causing an ever-shifting landscape throughout college basketball, it’s also changing how coaches need to approach their philosophies. With many Division I head coaches already being paid quite handsomely, some may grow fatigued of the changes and elect to head into an early retirement, instead.

Krzyzewski and Williams retired in their 70’s, while Wright is just age 60. It seemed as though Wright was just now building the legacy he wanted, even taking his team to a Final Four just last month. If Wright, can retire out of the blue, so can any other high-level college basketball coaches.

Here are four coaches that could follow Wright’s path into an early retirement over the next few seasons:

Todd Golden, Florida

Golden just received his big break, being chosen as the new head coach at Florida after leading San Francisco to the NCAA Tournament last season. At age 36, Golden is now making $3 million a year. If the new Gators headman continues his successes, the amount of money he’ll have piled up by the time he is Wright’s age, retirement might be on his mind a lot earlier than many anticipate for the sole reason that money indeed talks.

Ed Cooley, Providence

Following Providence’s Sweet 16 run and first regular-season Big East title in program history. His 221 wins are the most ever by a Providence head coach and is set to receive a major pay boost this offseason. At age 52, Cooley has said before that he doesn’t want to coach past 60, and with the money he’s set to receive and the accolades he continues to check off, don’t expect Cooley to be around 10 seasons from now.

Mark Few, Gonzaga

Few has brought a mid-major empire to Spokane, Washington since taking over the Gonzaga program in 1999. In fact, he’s worked in some coaching capacity for the Bulldogs since 1989. With annually dominant teams, countless WCC Championships, multiple No. 1 overall NCAA Tournament seeds, two Final Fours, but the one thing that has eluded Few — a national championship. If Few is able to get his team over that hump for the first time in program history, why wouldn’t Few, 59, ride out into the sunset with a championship ring on his finger? It’s the perfect culmination in a Hall of Fame career.

Tony Bennett, Virginia

Bennett, a coach that has a national title, five ACC regular season titles, two ACC Tournament titles and two Naismith Coach of the Year honors under his belt, there isn’t much else for the 52-year-old Virginia leader. His father, Dick Bennett, retired at age 62 back in 2006, so why wouldn’t the Cavalier head coach call it quits? He’s been apart of the lowest and highest moments in Virginia basketball history, and has made enough money to sit back in retirement and enjoy the fruits of his labor from his incredibly impressive tenure with Virginia.