UW's Stone hires Bennett as assistant
Lisa Stone and Kathi Bennett have been rivals on the basketball court dating to a matchup in the Class A semifinals of the 1980 WIAA state girls basketball tournament.
(For the record, Bennett's Stevens Point team beat Stone's Oregon club and went on to win the state title.)
The rivalry later moved to the coaching ranks, where a mutual respect was built as Stone and Bennett went head-to-head at both the Division I and III levels.
Finally, the two will be on the same side. Stone, the head coach of the UW women's basketball team, announced Thursday that she had hired Bennett as an assistant.
"I have battled her my whole life," Bennett said. "And to be on the same side with her, taking Wisconsin to the top of the Big Ten, it's a challenge and it's something that I'm really looking forward to."
Joining forces makes sense in at least two regards.
Bennett, who spent the last three seasons away from basketball, has been itching to get back into coaching. Stone, meanwhile, needs someone to fix a defense that finished second-to-last in the Big Ten last season in points allowed at 66.9 per game.
"It's an area we need to work on and I'm bringing in the best," Stone said. "She's by far the best in the business."
Defense, of course, is in Bennett's blood. Her father Dick is a coaching legend in the state of Wisconsin, including a successful run at UW that included an unexpected trip to the 2000 Final Four.
Dick Bennett resigned early the following season, citing burnout as a main reason for stepping away from the game. But he returned to the coaching ranks at Washington State in time for the 2003-04 season. Refreshed and reenergized, he led the turnaround of a program that he eventually handed over to son Tony.
Kathi Bennett appears to be refreshed and reenergized as well after her hiatus from basketball. The last five seasons of her 17 as head coach were spent at Indiana, where she announced her resignation late in the 2004-05 season. Bennett began her career in Bloomington with 20 wins in her first season and a trip to the NCAA tournament the next season. But the combination of three consecutive losing seasons and constant change at Indiana -- the school had three college presidents and four athletic directors in her five seasons -- soured her experience. She said she lost her passion and her energy.
Bennett began a new career as an orthopedic sales representative until taking a job last November as a national Nike sales representative for Impact Sports. The more time she spent around basketball coaches, the more she realized she missed the game. She even admitted to "sticking my nose into Tony's business" a few times last season, her brother's second as Washington State's head coach.
"I knew it was immediate and I knew I had to get back between the lines and coach again," Bennett said. "I think I fought it for awhile, (but) it is who I am. I love the game. I have a great deal of passion. I'll never be lukewarm about it. The minute I let myself get close to it again, I knew I had to do that."
Bennett and Stone crossed paths about a month ago when the former paid a visit to the latter's office to talk about basketball camps. On Bennett's way out the door that day, she told Stone, "I gotta get back in."
A spot on Stone's staff opened up last month when lead assistant Donna Freitag announced her retirement from the profession in order to pursue other career opportunities. Shortly thereafter, another Stone assistant, Tasha McDowell, took a head coaching job at Western Michigan.
Stone said she knew exactly who she wanted to fill one of those open slots.
"I'm partnering with one of the best basketball minds in the country," Stone said of Bennett, who was 296-177 in her 17 seasons as a head coach, including stops at Teiyko Marycrest, UW-Oshkosh, Evansville and Indiana.
"There's not a better hire out there."
Stone may need all the help she can get if she wants to save her job. She's 72-78 in five seasons at UW and has yet to lead the Badgers to the NCAA tournament. This past season, with a strong senior class led by the program's all-time leading scorer, Jolene Anderson, UW failed to build off a runner-up finish in the WNIT the previous season and finished with a 16-14 record and a first-round exit in the WNIT.
UW athletic director Barry Alvarez told the Wisconsin State Journal last month that Stone would be returning for a sixth season. But he also made it clear she needs to produce in a hurry.
Stone understands that message loud and clear.
"It's time to climb and we're ready to do it," said Stone, whose contract, which paid her a base salary of $274,205 last season, runs through 2011. "I've got a very thirsty team. I've got a very eager staff."
It shows. When Stone arrived at the Kohl Center Thursday prior to her team's 6:30 a.m. offseason workouts, Bennett already was there.
As for the players' reaction to Bennett, Stone said "they were wide-eyed and salivating and excited about the opportunity to embrace change in a positive way."
Bennett, meanwhile, said she's content in her role as an assistant. She said she got to the point late in her career where games weren't fun anymore. Now, she's reenergized and eager to help out Stone however she can.
"She fits with me," Stone said. "She shares my passion. We have such a mutual respect for one another. She's not after my job. She's after (helping my program improve) and helping us win championships."
File photo
Indiana coach Kathi Bennett shouts instructions to her team as they played Wisconsin in an opening round game in the Women's Big Ten tournament in Indianapolis on March 3, 2005.
