PULLMAN — Tony Bennett is aware that Washington State basketball fans are upset he left to become coach at Virginia.
“I’m sure there are a lot of hurt feelings and misunderstandings,” Bennett told The Spokesman-Review on Thursday. “I hope this is a situation over time that, instead of the hurt and maybe the anger in what happened, they’ll look back and say there were some real good things that happened.”
Bennett spent the past six years turning the Washington State program from doormat to NCAA tournament team. The first three he was an assistant to his father, Dick Bennett. The past three he led the Cougars to a 69-33 record, the best three-year run in program history.
School officials, caught by surprise, are scrambling to hire a replacement for Bennett and retain his recruits. They have asked for permission to speak with Portland State coach Ken Bone, who has not returned telephone messages from The Associated Press.
Bennett knows his abrupt departure shocked Cougar fans.
“I think because it was so (quick), people didn’t have a chance to process,” Bennett said, adding that offers were bubbling up more publicly last year, “but this one was such a surprise and it didn’t really get out because it happened fairly quick and it was kept under wraps.”
Bennett said he left because the Virginia job seemed to offer a bigger upside than remaining in Pullman.
The 15,219-seat John Paul Jones Arena, which opened in 2006, is among the best in the nation, a basketball center with everything from a dining hall to practice courts to offices in one place, Bennett said.
Virginia also is a prestigious academic institution in the Atlantic Coast Conference with a rich recruiting base, Charlottesville is closer to the families of Bennett and his wife and his salary jumped from $1 million to $1.7 million a year.
“This had nothing to do with money,” he maintained. “Never has, never will, but I don’t expect people to understand it. That’s not the issue.
“Washington State did more than enough for me in my time there and were more than generous,” he said. “That issue, in my opinion, is not real at all.”
He agonized over letting people down at Washington State but in the end decided moving was right for his family.
“Really, what it ultimately came down to, is we just tried to make a decision and not think of hurting people, because I think, in time — maybe not, maybe I’m wrong, but in time — the kids will recover and, I think, having been there six years, I really feel like the program is left in a better place.”
He also believes the future is strong for the program, which “made me feel a little more freedom to go.”
Asked who should replace him, Bennett put in a plug for assistant coach Ben Johnson, a childhood friend who is not coming to Virginia with him.
“I don’t know if Ben is an option,” Bennett said. “I hope he gets consideration for the Washington State job. I think he would be terrific and he is, you talk about a guy who is loyal and is rock-solid as possible and stands for the right things.”
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
