Man of the people
PULLMAN – Tony Bennett watched his jersey rise to the rafters at Wisconsin-Green Bay and then he fell down on a knee to propose to his girlfriend of 3 1/2 months.
After the victory that followed on the court, his father, still coaching the Phoenix at the time, had something to say about the surprise.
“He said, ‘That was great! That really loosened up the guys and got them ready to play! And by the way, congratulations,’ ” Bennett recalled.
That day, in a nutshell, tells you everything you need to know about the Cougars’ wunderkind of a first-year head coach: unafraid of the big moments and always surrounded by basketball.
For Laurel Bennett, that life has become the norm as she’s watched her husband – she said yes back in Green Bay, much to the delight of the crowd – go from NBA player in Charlotte to an assistant coach in Wisconsin, then on to Washington State as an assistant and now head coach.
This year, of course, has been quite something for the 37-year-old coach. He’s gone from anonymous assistant to national coach of the year in a matter of months. His team has gone from cellar-dweller to the NCAA tournament.
Bennett has became the object of adulation and adoration from the crowds in Pullman, from the college coeds toting signs saying, “I love Coach Dreamy,” to the blue-collar set that cheered him on as he verbally sparred with USC coach Tim Floyd along the sideline.
“Tony’s been tested that way and I think he’s come out on the right side of it,” Laurel Bennett said. “He’s humble. He knows just because he’s won some basketball games doesn’t make him a better person or more important. I think he just truly believes that.”
His life is sure to become more interesting in the coming days, with his big dance debut – no tie required, as a T-shirt seen in Pullman notes – on Thursday and then the inevitable contract situation coming to the forefront after the season’s completion. (WSU hopes to begin negotiations with the coach shortly after the Cougars’ tournament run is over, and Minnesota appears poised to make a run at hiring Bennett away.)
It may seem that the success has come in an avalanche for Bennett, and in a way it has. But it’s also the product of the years before it, time spent as the younger brother of two sisters, as the son of a demanding father and coach, as the star of a college program hoping to make history.
“Same guy. He hasn’t changed very much,” said WSU assistant Ben Johnson, who played basketball with Bennett in junior high school, against him in high school and then with him again in college. “We played everything. We competed at everything. When we were young kids growing up, he was kind of the catalyst for developing a work ethic or a passion for something. He very quickly was the ringleader and got seven, eight guys (together).”
Those closest to him chuckle at the notion that Bennett is always the easy-going, collected type some seem to picture. The Floyd incident was one example that there is a significant flip side to Bennett, and there are plenty of others.
“There’s this very calm, poised outward demeanor,” Johnson said. “But inside that coal is burning, those embers are burning bright.
“He competes at everything he does. He always has and he always will. He’s always holding a few trump cards. Always.”
His wife tells of the times when they’ve played a computer game together, only to suddenly find herself being trash talked relentlessly, and of pingpong games that turned fierce.
Of course, those are the same qualities that turned a shooting guard who doesn’t even hit 6-foot into an NBA player.
Bennett still holds the Division I record for 3-point shooting percentage, having made 49.7 percent in four years at UW-Green Bay.
“Incredible,” Johnson said, cutting off a question about Bennett’s shooting. “We would work out in the summers … there were times where he would go around, somewhere between the college and the NBA 3-point line, and he’d go 50 in a row. No word of a lie, he’d miss two and be extremely upset with himself.”
It’s no surprise, then, that his picture still dots countless pages of the school’s media guide. Many of those shots are alongside his father, Dick, who by all accounts was as rough on his son as any coach has been on a player in memory.
The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree. Even if Tony Bennett is calmer and more controlled than his father on the exterior, they see the world with the same sense of caution.
“At home, between he and I, he’ll say to me, ‘I don’t know how we’re winning all these games,’ ” Laurel Bennett said. “They’re just wired that way … Dick more so for sure. But I think that is part of the success. They have that underdog mentality. They feel like, we have to fight and give it our all.”
That’s led to a burgeoning reputation as a detail-oriented coach, one who has his team doing the most basic of defensive drills in the last weeks of the season.
It’s become increasingly obvious that Bennett wants to leave nothing to chance.
“We don’t do anything for the sake of doing it,” Johnson said. “Everything is well thought out, planned, timed. There’s a purpose to everything he does. It’s calculated. That’s the way he played the game.”
Just what is the plan for the future?
“When he went to the Final Four with Dick at Wisconsin in 2000, I remember he told me: ‘I want to do this one day,’ ” Laurel Bennett said. “He wants to be the best.”