SPOKANE, Wash. — Retired coach Dick Bennett, who rebuilt the Washington State basketball program, left in June for Wisconsin and hasn’t been back to Pullman since.
This weekend, he’ll be in town to watch his first group of recruits play their final home game when the No. 23 Cougars host archrival Washington on Saturday.
“He’s on a train as we speak, probably going through Montana,” Tony Bennett, Dick’s son and successor, said Tuesday. “He said `I don’t want to be an inconvenience, but I get in at 1:30 in the morning and want to be picked up.”’
Dick Bennett will attend practice, go to Saturday’s game and then accompany the team to next week’s Pacific-10 tournament in Los Angeles, Tony Bennett said.
“He’s excited to see them,” Tony Bennett said.
That first group of recruits after Dick Bennett was hired in 2003 includes starters Kyle Weaver, Derrick Low and Robbie Cowgill, plus reserve Chris Henry. They endured two years of tough losses before surprising the basketball world by going 26-8 last year.
This season the Cougars are 22-7 overall and 10-7 and third in the Pacific 10. They’ll be playing Saturday to remain in third place, hoping that will ensure a better seed in the NCAA tournament.
With most of the Pac-10 teams bunched in the middle of the pack, Tony Bennett said it doesn’t matter much who the Cougars draw first in the league tournament next week.
“Number two through nine in our league is so close,” he said.
Washington State has beaten Washington (16-14, 7-10) six consecutive times, but the Huskies are playing well, Bennett said.
Saturday’s game is the only one this week for the Cougars, so Bennett was able to give them two days off instead of one.
The game has long been sold out, but because Saturday in the start of spring break, there were concerns many students might be gone.
Bennett said school officials have decided to keep the dormitories open through Saturday night, to allow students to watch the game before leaving town on Sunday.
The Cougars have drawn 109,453 fans at home this season, and are likely to break the team record of 110,206.
Talk to us
> Give us your news tips.
> Send us a letter to the editor.
> More Herald contact information.
