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NCAA bid old hat for UW's Bennett
Posted: Sunday March 07, 1999 11:37 PM
MADISON, Wis. (AP) -- When the NCAA tournament pairings were announced Sunday, Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett was sweating it out, not in front of the television set but on an exercise bike. "I was working out," Bennett admitted. "I don't like fluff. Just tell me what I got to do and that's what I want to do. I just get too nervous waiting for that stuff, so I went and rode the stair-stepper and then the bike." An assistant had to inform Bennett that the Badgers (22-9), on the strength of their best season in a half century, were seeded fifth in the Midwest Region. They face 12th-seeded Southwest Missouri State (20-10) Friday night in Charlotte, N.C. "It's old hat for him," sophomore guard Mike Kelley said, "but he came down and told us he was excited for us." Bennett's players have won a school-record 22 games behind leading scorer Sean Mason (17 points per game) this season but lost six of their last nine. His players were not necessarily whooping it up after getting their second NCAA berth in three seasons. "When we were watching the announcement, we were watching all those teams jumping up and down. We were just eating our pizza and coach was riding the bike," sophomore guard Andy Kowske said. "He didn't want to be up there. He's not a very ceremonial guy." Not that Bennett stayed away from the tube all day. His daughter Kathi is the women's basketball coach at Evansville. Her Purple Aces won an NCAA tournament berth by winning the Missouri Valley Conference championship over the weekend. So he was eager to see whom she'll face. "They play LSU. I did watch that one," Bennett said. "She's on Cloud 9, because ours maybe came a year earlier than I thought it might. I still think our best days are ahead of us. Well she really feels that way because she starts four freshmen and a sophomore. "She's the successful Bennett. I'm just kind of hanging in there." Actually he's not so bad himself. This marks the first time Wisconsin has qualified for the NCAA tournament twice in a three-year span. The Badgers were one of seven Big Ten teams that were invited to the NCAA tourney. Southwest Missouri State is coached by Steve Alford and features the same deliberate style that Bennett preaches. When Bennett was at Wisconsin-Green Bay and Charlie Spoonhour coached the Bears, those teams had a history of hard-fought, slow-it-down games. "Southwest Missouri is a very fine team and program," Bennett said. "I'm familiar with the program because that was the league I was in for a lot of years. I have undying respect for those teams and they are three from that league, which suggests how good they are." Creighton and Evansville also made the tourney out of the Missouri Valley Conference. Bears coach Steve Alford wasn't as nonchalant as Bennett about the tournament announcement Sunday. "Our players have worked real hard and our program has come a long way in the last few years where we got an RPI of 42," Alford said. "This feels a lot better and we're excited about being in the tournament." He's less excited about their opponent, however. "That's the other side of it," Alford said. "You pull to get into the tournament and once you get in, you know you're going to be faced with an uphill battle. Coach Bennett does a tremendous job there. It's a very disciplined program. They don't beat themselves. We'll have to play very well. "But we've been playing pretty well and I think the character of our league hopefully will show through," Alford added. Bennett admitted he needed his homework on Alford's team in order to advance to face the Tennessee-Delaware winner. Kowske called it a crash course. "We don't know much about Southwest Missouri State but we know they have a good coach with a Big Ten mentality, so it's going to be a war," Kowske said.
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