The pursuit that led to happiness

When Spokane last hosted an NCAA tournament subregional four years ago, the most important game in town may have been played off the court.

Forget the Connecticut Huskies and BYU Cougars teams that joined six others in opening their postseason efforts here.

No, the most significant positioning was taking place between Washington State athletic director Jim Sterk and the apple of his hiring eye, retired Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett.

Four years later, Bennett is again retired, and the NCAA tournament is back in Spokane. But WSU’s success in this same season has everything to do with Bennett’s decision to take the job Sterk offered.

“Oh, I think they made it the best move (of my career),” Sterk said this week. “Both of them, Dick coming and doing the hard work, and Tony, he was the one out recruiting.”

The Spokane subregional – WSU is the official host – begins Friday. But today is saved for the Cougars and their NCAA tournament debut in Sacramento, Calif.

Sterk’s pursuit of Dick Bennett began as a self-described long shot, a trip to Madison, Wis., to visit with the coach and his family.

“I still wasn’t terribly interested,” Bennett said. “After he spent the day with us, I was somewhat interested but not heavily. It was my wife who insisted that if he came all that way then the least I could do is come out and look at it.”

Days later, Wisconsin ended up getting placed in the Spokane subregional. Since Tony was an assistant with the Badgers, Dick Bennett had an easy excuse to make the trek west.

“It worked out,” Sterk said. “He came the day before the game, and I drove him down to Clarkston and showed him the golf course down there.

“If you remember, I was trying to drag a guy out of retirement who had been playing every day of the year.”

After the tournament weekend, Bennett told Sterk he would have an answer by the following Wednesday, and on that day he called to accept the job. Although there were no explicit guarantees, the fact that his son would have a chance at the head coaching job, if the program had improved, played heavily in Bennett’s mind.

“I would not have come had Tony not been involved. That was the clincher,” Bennett said. “I always have doubts as to whether I can do the job, but I don’t have doubts as to whether I can improve the program. So I thought there’s a very good chance that he will end up with this job.”

As for Tony Bennett, he still remembers his initial reaction when he heard about the WSU job and his father’s interest.

“Where? What?” he said. “It shocked me because I thought he was done. I thought he was on the golf course.”

Now, the younger Bennett is being named national coach of the year in one publication after another, and his father will be watching from the stands in Sacramento – after getting in a round of golf with some friends Wednesday.

“I’ve always been intrigued by programs that have not won over a long period of time,” Dick Bennett said. “Several of the high school jobs I took were like that, and all of the college ones.

“I’m so happy I did it.”