SPOKANE — The Bennett basketball era at Washington State University is over.
Head coach Tony Bennett, who with his father Dick helped revived the moribund Cougar program, is leaving to become coach at Virginia.
Bennett, 39, made the surprise announcement on Monday, shortly after Washington State completed a rebuilding year by going 17-16 and losing in the first round of the NIT.
“Dick and Tony Bennett have elevated the men’s basketball program at Washington State to an unprecedented level of success,” Washington State athletics director Jim Sterk said. “We will begin a national search for a coach immediately with the goal of finding someone with the integrity, experience, and values that Dick and Tony brought to the program.”
Sterk said Virginia asked for permission to speak with Bennett last Friday. Bennett told Sterk and WSU President Elson Floyd on Monday of his decision.
He informed his players at a Monday afternoon meeting in Beasley Coliseum, according to The Spokesman-Review newspaper.
“I was so shocked,” freshman guard Klay Thompson told the newspaper. “But it’s life. I’ll adjust. As far as my future, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’ll see who they’re going to bring in.”
Bennett did not return telephone messages left at his home on Monday.
He replaces Dave Leitao, who resigned after four seasons.
Bennett posted a 68-30 record in three seasons at WSU.
He led the Cougars, based in Pullman, to consecutive 26-win seasons his first two years, and was named AP college coach of the year in 2007. He turned down the Indiana job after last season, and also rejected overtures from Marquette and Louisiana State.
Bennett, who is married with two young children, has said his family is comfortable in Pullman, a town of 25,000 people 75 miles south of Spokane. But Cougar fans had feared for some time that he would be snapped up by a more prestigious program.
After his first season as head coach, Bennett agreed to a seven-year contract that paid about $600,000 a year. That was still relatively low by Pac-10 standards, as Pullman is the smallest market in the league.
Bennett came to Washington State in 2003 as an assistant coach when his father, Dick Bennett, came out of retirement to rebuild a program that hadn’t made the NCAA tournament since 1994.
Tony Bennett helped recruit a core of players who turned the Cougars into defense-oriented competitors in the Pac-10. When his father retired after his third season, Tony took over and led that group of players to consecutive 26-win seasons.
The Cougars lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament his first season and advanced to the Sweet 16 his second season.
With a team sporting nine freshmen, the Cougars finished 17-16 this season, but the future seemed bright as Thompson and DeAngelo Casto were named to the all-Pac-10 freshmen team.
Under the Bennetts, attendance at WSU basketball games nearly tripled.
In college, Bennett was a point guard for his father at Wisconsin-Green Bay, then played three years with the Charlotte Hornets of the NBA. He was later a player and coach in New Zealand before becoming an assistant to his father at Wisconsin.
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