Wisconsin and Indiana.....

[tmvander]

Falcons fan?... in simple terms, they are losing 4 senior starters... this seems to represent an opportunity for the Gophers to become more competitive / surpass them. It's not conspiratorial - thanks.

Ha I don't think he's being a d bag it is just a common trend around here for folks to speculate that Wisconsin is going to be worse than the current year and it never happens.

 

[howeda7]

Ha I don't think he's being a d bag it is just a common trend around here for folks to speculate that Wisconsin is going to be worse than the current year and it never happens.

Much like Sid predicting Rose Bowls, eventually we'll be right!

 

[WindyCityGopher]

Wisonsin was 8-8 in the BIG that final four year and they finished 6th out of 11 teams. The next year Bennet tried to do what Ryan was sucessful at doing and hand it off to his top assistant Brad Soderberg who went 16-10 (9-7) and wasn't retained. Bo Ryan's first year as head coach he had a better BIG record(by percent) than any year under Bennet.

Christ, if any of our coaches would finish .500 and 6th place in conference then go to the Final Four we'd build a damn statue of him in front of the Barn.

 

[GibsonSG]

Christ, if any of our coaches would finish .500 and 6th place in conference then go to the Final Four we'd build a damn statue of him in front of the Barn.

Final Four? I'd settle for making the tournament 4 or 5 years in a row and winning a few games. Maybe even be a little above 500 in conference play. That would be statue worthy.

Hard to believe it's already been 20 years of mostly mediocre to terrible basketball since the 1997 team.

 

[Cayman]

Christ, if any of our coaches would finish .500 and 6th place in conference then go to the Final Four we'd build a damn statue of him in front of the Barn.

Wisconsin would have probably done the same thing at the time, after 4 tournament appearances and 0 conference titles in over 50 years. It still took them about a decade to make the field of 64 after the tournament was expanded.

 

[builtbadgers]

Exactly. Bennett also got to the Tournament early and left behind Alando Tucker,Devin Harris, Mike Wilkenson and Kirk Penney as well as the best recruiter and future star coach Tony Bennett. Also Bennett being hired in the first place brought with it the cavaet that if Richter hired Bennett then Ab Nicholas and Herb Kohl would deliver the Kohl Center. Al Maguire and Bob Knight pushed for the hire. They knew he was a slam dunk as someone who would build a solid foundation. He ran a clinic for years in Green Bay that Knight,k, keady, calhoun, Tark came to every year and raved about it. I was there for all of it. People knew all the way back to Stevens Point what he could do . They were horrible and he never took a short cut. Lastly, he got to that final 4 in a loaded big 10 . It was full of great coaches and he got to that final 4 with his first recruiting class. Got to that final 4 without a 1st,2nd or 3rd team all conference player. That has never been done. To get out of a team what he could was pure magic. He refused to play the recruiting game by AAU or traveling. His son is the guy who Pitino Sr. and Jay wright call the best coach in the game.

 

[Dunceswithwolves]

Bennett also got to the Tournament early and left behind Alando Tucker,Devin Harris, Mike Wilkenson and Kirk Penney as well as the best recruiter and future star coach Tony Bennett.

Tucker was in Bo Ryan's first recruiting class. Yes Bennett left Ryan a pretty good nucleus of young players. And that's a bit complicated because they lost two players before they really played -- Latrell Fleming -- never saw the flour because of heart problems. A friend said he watched Fleming dominate Devin Harris one-on-one. Julian Schwartz left with OCD too.

 

[Tim1406]

Christ, if any of our coaches would finish .500 and 6th place in conference then go to the Final Four we'd build a damn statue of him in front of the Barn.

True, But between the end of the regular season and the final four Ewart86PC and others on here would have been calling for him for him to get fired. Dick Bennett never would be remembered how he is without that final four. Had Arizona beat them in the 2nd round he would have been a good coach but not idolized like Builtbadger is trying to make him out to be. It's interesting how results in the tournament can change our perspective on coaches(which is also funny because the other 2 times Dick Bennett made the tournament he lost in the first round)

 

[Tim1406]

His son is the guy who Pitino Sr. and Jay wright call the best coach in the game.

That last bit has nothing to do with Dick Bennet. IMO Tony is a better coach than Dick Bennet ever was. Now Dick Bennet raised his son but Tony and Dick get to stand on their own merits in so far as how we analyze them.

 

[builtbadgers]

Bennett was a legend amongst his peers, Not fans. Tony Bennett was 100 % ALANDO'S Recruit and i was his host on his official. When he walked into the Kohl Center he saw the final 4 banner and said to me " I watched every game and i just wanted to know i could win here". To this day the Bennetts have very close relationships with Devin, Alando and Kirk Penney. Ask any coach what they think of Dick Bennett and you better be ready for a long response of awe and respect. My firm has represented over 75 D1 coaches over the years and the Bennetts not among them. Tony is a better all around coach because he is a really good recruiter, just short and to the point about having a chance to play and go to a school like UVA. He does spend time on the relationships but never cuts on character. Simple. In the gym as a teacher he is as his fathers equal. More relevant to this board is the difficulty in building programs. It takes time no matter where you are especially at mediocre programs. The Bennetts got that done at UW,Washington State and UVA. Pitino always had to have 5 years which i supported from the time he got the job even though he was not my top 3 of choices. he will earn a extension after next year if he shows he can win 13-14 games in the conference and recruit only high character guys that are not involved in tawdry outings. Young people do dumb things. Miss curfew,wander in public drunk, miss a class but they get reprimanded and learn but from day one they have to have the character to know what is too far and several recruits had low character histories before they ever got here. I will not name them. If Richard never cuts corners and teaches defense to the hilt he can win here and maybe approach .500 by year 8. Clem did not get to .500 IN 13 YEARS AND THAT WAS RUNNING A FILTHY PROGRAM. Build something that people not only celebrate but respect.

 

[WindyCityGopher]

Clem did not get to .500 IN 13 YEARS AND THAT WAS RUNNING A FILTHY PROGRAM.

Huh? He was 9-9 in conference in Year 3 and 11-7 in Year 4 (which, you have repeated ad nauseam, is the magical cutoff date of how successful coaches are measured). He also added another +.500 season in Year 7, not to mention another 5 more +.500 seasons that were vacated. Did you bother to look that stuff up before putting it in print?

 

[Cayman]

Huh? He was 9-9 in conference in Year 3 and 11-7 in Year 4 (which, you have repeated ad nauseam, is the magical cutoff date of how successful coaches are measured). He also added another +.500 season in Year 7, not to mention another 5 more +.500 seasons that were vacated. Did you bother to look that stuff up before putting it in print?

I assume he means .500 overall, not in a single season.

 

[justthefacts]

No one gets calls like Wisconsin at home. It's pathetic to watch. Their home record in the B1G in the Kohl Center is absurd. Yes, they've been very good. But not that good.

IIRC, Wisconsin had the best road record in the Big Ten under Bo Ryan. Not sure if that's still the case across the Ryan / Gard era.