It’s still his family

PULLMAN – The phone rang at Dick Bennett’s house on Sunday and the retired basketball coach’s 9-year-old grandson had a question.

“Only from the mouth of babes,” Bennett recalled. “He says, ‘Grandpa, aren’t you embarrassed?’ He said, ‘Your son is much younger than you and he’s a much better coach than you.’ “

Bennett leans back in his recliner and lets out a laugh of contentment as he tells the story, looking out over the hills behind his Pullman home.

For him, this has been the most interesting of basketball seasons, one where he has been as invested as ever and yet removed from the action almost entirely. Meanwhile, the team he helped to construct is 20-4 and having a year of historic proportions.

Save for the occasional appearance at a practice, Bennett has made a conscious effort to stay out of the spotlight in this, his first year after retiring from Washington State. He’s been especially aware of it because some might draw the conclusion that he is still the man behind the curtain when it’s his son, Tony, who now has the head coaching reins.

Never is that on display more dramatically than during home games, where the elder Bennett has claimed seats for him and his wife, Ann, that are tucked in a corner of Beasley Coliseum.

“I didn’t want to be anywhere, any place where anyone on the bench could see me,” he said. “I knew if I got too close to the action I’d probably get involved with the referees and I didn’t want to do that.”

But don’t think for a second that Bennett has divorced himself from the game, or from this Cougar squad. His son talks to him nearly every day, and the topic of conversation veers towards their team on many occasions.

After WSU’s lone loss before Pac-10 play, Tony Bennett brought the game tape to his father to see if he had any suggestions.

“I just love talking ball with him. That’s been our life,” the current coach said. “I like to just talk to him and see what he’s seen. He watches a lot of college basketball on TV. Iron sharpens iron, as they say, and that’s a wealth of knowledge stored up in his noggin. I try to ask him what games he’s seen, what teams, any insights on us.”

The insights, as any conversation with Dick Bennett reveals, are plentiful. Speaking before the Stanford game this week, he expressed fears that teams with talented big men like the Cardinal’s could be the downfall of this turnaround season. The critiques of individual players sound no different now than they did during many a practice over the previous seasons, either.

Those come naturally to the former coach. What’s new is an appreciation for something that his own father once told him.

When Bennett became the head basketball coach at Wisconsin in the mid-1990s, he struggled through a rough first season while his father, who ended up passing away the following off-season, largely stayed away from the arena.

“I couldn’t understand it,” Bennett said. “He knew how badly I wanted to coach in the Big Ten. And he didn’t come to one game … expect for the last home game when we played Indiana. He wanted to see Bobby Knight. And I remember saying, ‘Dad, why didn’t you come to any games?’ And he said, ‘Dick, I suffer too much with you.’ “

And now, the same pain that his father once felt is his. The former coach doesn’t sleep well the nights before games, and he’s already imposed a one-game suspension on himself after a contest where “I said some things I shouldn’t.”

Having a roster full of players that he coached, and seeing them as extended family, has made things even more difficult.

“I want to believe all these wonderful things that are happening, but I keep seeing Kyle (Weaver) with his moments of distraction or Robbie (Cowgill) getting to the basket, getting bumped a little and the ball doesn’t make it to the rim,” he said. “My feelings for them, my fears, my knowledge of their flaws, is much like a parent. You worry for your children because you know who they are. And I’m the same way. And then you throw my son in there and then the coaching staff – they’re all my friends and guys I picked to come here – and you can see why I’m pretty anxious.”

Bennett has had time to think about it all, too. Hip-replacement surgery in early December has prevented him from traveling, and the stack of books on his library bookshelf serves as proof that he is indeed making it through more than one a week in the recovery process.

Meanwhile, the Cougars keep on winning games. This year’s players, all but a handful of whom were coached by Bennett last season, are quick to thank their former coach.

“Dick, he made defense our identity,” forward Daven Harmeling said. “He instilled in our minds that if we want to have a chance in any game we have to play hard defense.

“It wasn’t like Tony had to coach us from scratch. A lot of things were in place for Tony, not to minimize what he’s done for us this year. But Dick deserves a lot of the credit for the year we’ve had.”

No one around WSU would deny that, it seems. But what about the more vexing question: Would the Cougars be as good if Bennett had decided to hang on for another year before handing things over?

After all, the Cougars have played with more confidence and calmness this season under the son than they ever did under the father. And the younger Bennett has made some stylistic changes that seem to suit the personnel well.

The retired coach paused at the question and admitted that maybe his grandson wasn’t so wrong after all.

“If I were a player, I would love to play for Tony Bennett and I’m not sure I’d want to play for Dick Bennett,” he said. “I never, ever said I was the coach for every man. I was a coach for downtrodden programs. I was a coach for guys that were willing to bust their hump and run through walls. But sometimes I was not the best coach for guys who were gifted and had a different way of doing things. In other words, I wasn’t as flexible. So I think this team probably would not be where it is now.”

The son has another, more subtle, take.

“For him to say that is kind,” Tony Bennett said. “He’s a good dad.”