MBB: Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference

[buf]

The last time I heard rumors that Jack Bennett wanted to get back into coaching I gave him a call to see and he said there wasn't anything to them. Considering the jobs that were out there then, I don't think Eau Claire would be one he'd come out of retirement for. He seemed to really be enjoying life.

Although, he was an assistant at UWEC for a few years.

[mythicalbird]

I had the honor of learning from Coach Gibbons while at UWEC.  He's a great man and I learned a great deal from him that I have taught to other youth in the area.  I wish him the best of luck in his future endeavors.  I would probably have a heart attack from shock if Jack Bennett ever coached on UWEC's sidelines as the top dog.  I'd bet my house on the fact that he doesn't.  There are definitely some attractive options out there in Randall, Drake, Coach Cam, the Asst. from George Mason whose name escapes my mind.  Should be interesting.

[wizbegs1304]

Here is a list of candidates per HoopDirt.

http://www.hoopdirt.com/blog/95d3153f/small-college-update/

UW-Eau Claire opened up the other day when Terry Gibbons resigned as the head coach. This is a big time job in the state of Wisconsin. At one time it was one of the premiere small college programs in America. Ken Anderson turned down UW to stay here back in the day because the camp money was too good.

Some candidates here will be

Greg Gard- associate head coach at Wisconsin, would he go the route of his mentor Bo Ryan?
Lance Randall - associate head coach UW-Stevens Point, former head coach at Webster University
Gary Grzesk - head coach at St. Norbert College (former UW-Green Bay defensive star who was in the running at his alma mater last year)
Jeff Rutter - Iowa State dobo who is from WI originally and coached at Cameron H.S., which is in northwest WI.
Todd Adrian - head coach at Edgewood College
Todd Skyrvseth - assistant coach at UW-Whitewater
Aaron Aanonsen - head coach Lakeland College
Joel DePagter - head coach Lawrence University

----------
Other names that are not listed that come to mind that were not listed in article:
Oliver Drake - head coach Ashford University, former assistant at Wartburg College and UWEC
Dave Buchanan - head coach Carroll University, former UW-Superior head coach
Eric Gardow - head coach at Qatar Sports Club, former assistant at UW-Stout, former Blugold
Eric Konkol - assistant at George Mason University, former Blugold
Jason Rabedeaux - former assistant coach at Marquette University
Cam Schuknecht - head coach of Nebraska Wesleyan, former assistant at Wartburg College and UWEC
Nick Bennett - assistant coach at UTPA, former Pointer

[John Gleich]

At the Final Four yesterday, Pryor Osser, head coach of Colorado School of Mines was the inaugural winner winner of a new award by College Insider.com...

the Jack Bennett man of the year.


http://www.collegeinsider.com/bennett/


Here's part of the write-up, describing the award:

The Jack Bennett Award, which represents winning with integrity, is named in honor of former head coach at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. Bennett won five Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference titles, made five NCAA tournament appearances and won two national championships. He's the program's all-time winningest coach with a 200-56 record. In 34 seasons as head coach he compiled a record of 480-175.



The selection committee has a lot of names that should be familiar to those who have followed the WIAC.  Coach Miller @ UWW and Coach Koelbl at LaX are on the list, as is former Pointer assistant David Adelman.  Steve Fritz, this year's coach of the year and current St. Thomas coach, former Pointer Brad Soderberg, current Hillsdale coach and former Lawrence coach John Tharp, St Norbert Coach Gary Gresk, current Bucknell and former coach at Williams Dave Paulsen (who Coach Bennett coached against when Paulsen was in high school in Wisconsin and then in the final four in 2004).

[Hoops Junkie]

Matt Siverling is a former UWEC assistant and all the talent for UW-Superior is fixin to graduate.

[jimhoops1234]

Shanagolden- I agree that Siverling could be in play and should have his name in the conversation.


I just don't see Greg Gard having much interest in the EC job. The guy is an associate head coach in the Big Ten. My guess is that his next move would be a head coach at the D1 level.

Jeff Rutter is an interesting name. Was top assistant at Iowa State and was retained by Hoiberg but only as director of basketball ops. Question here is does he want his program or want to get back as an assistant at D1 level.

Edgewood coach could be a sleeper here too.

Will be fun and interesting to follow.

[stoutguy]

The last time I heard rumors that Jack Bennett wanted to get back into coaching I gave him a call to see and he said there wasn't anything to them. Considering the jobs that were out there then, I don't think Eau Claire would be one he'd come out of retirement for. He seemed to really be enjoying life.

I completely agree with your take on this, Pat, but would add that Jack and I have had several discussions about his time at EC.  At least at one time, probably not any more, he would have loved to have returned and put EC back on the basketball map.

[wcbsas]

Jeff Rutter is an interesting name. Was top assistant at Iowa State and was retained by Hoiberg but only as director of basketball ops. Question here is does he want his program or want to get back as an assistant at D1 level.

Rutter is an interesting name.  He was offered an assistant's job at Creighton when McDermott left.   He chose to stay in Ames sitting family reasons to not the move the family.

Would he leave for a head job at a premier D3 conference - maybe.

[Hoops Junkie]

The Greg Gard line of thinking is laughable.  He is the associate head coach at Wisconsin and would have to take a tremendous pay cut to goto UWEC.  Not to mention you are the lead assistant at one of the top 30 jobs in the country with all the job security you could possibly want. 

Greg aint going to UWEC.

I also dont see the Jack Bennett rumors just not real plausible in my book

[wcbsas]

The Greg Gard line of thinking is laughable.  He is the associate head coach at Wisconsin and would have to take a tremendous pay cut to goto UWEC.  Not to mention you are the lead assistant at one of the top 30 jobs in the country with all the job security you could possibly want. 

Greg aint going to UWEC.

I also dont see the Jack Bennett rumors just not real plausible in my book

I agree with all of your comments except the top 30 assessment.  UW isn't quite there IMO.

I do agree Gard is in a better position to leverage his current job into a mid-major D1 position much like Jeter before him!

[wcbsas]

The Greg Gard line of thinking is laughable.  He is the associate head coach at Wisconsin and would have to take a tremendous pay cut to goto UWEC.  Not to mention you are the lead assistant at one of the top 30 jobs in the country with all the job security you could possibly want. 

Greg aint going to UWEC.

I also dont see the Jack Bennett rumors just not real plausible in my book

I agree with all of your comments except the top 30 assessment.  UW isn't quite there IMO.

I do agree Gard is in a better position to leverage his current job into a mid-major D1 position much like Jeter before him!

No doubters - North Carolina, Duke, UCLA, Kentucky, Kansas, Syracuse, Indiana, Louisville, Arizona, St. John's, Texas

Room for little debate - North Carolina State, Gonzaga, Illinois, Notre Dame, UNLV, Arkansas, UConn, Temple, Utah, Michigan State, Purdue, Florida, Georgia Tech, Maryland, Villanova, Pittsburgh, BYU, Princeton, Penn, Cincinnati, West Virginia, Oregon State, Washington, Tennessee, Alabama, Georgetown, Ohio State, St. Joseph's, Michigan, Missouri, USC

Note - Criteria includes all-time winning performance, current state of the program, history, legacy, championships.  For example - Princton is 22nd in all-time victories.  UW is not even in top 50.

Another way to look at this would be ... if Bo Ryan retired which of these school's head coaches would leave if offered to become UW's head coach?  Not many.

[BoBo]

Just looking at the final score last night, I thought that somehow Wisconsin made it to Houston...and LOST.  What a stinker!!

[Hoops Junkie]

Ill be your huckleberry and debate with you-

Your no doubters are all pretty accurate and all are great jobs

NC State-is a dormant program and is over shadowed so much by Duke and UNC that it cant even find a coach.  

Gonzaga was media darling but whats there level of success in the NCAA tourney

to put the ivy league schools in the mix is laughable.  For petes sake the Princeton coach just left for fairfield.  I would think they would jump at WI

Oregon State- again a program that has been bad bad bad for twenty years

St Joes- why cause its in philly and part of the tradition.  They are not a big ten school.


Here is my list.  
Duke, North Carolina, Maryland and Georgia Tech-ACC
Kansas, Texas- Big 12
Uconn, Gtown, Louisville, ND, Pitt St Johns, Syracuse, Villanova, WV- Big east
Alabama, arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee- SEC
UCLA, Washington, AZ- Pac 10
UNLV, SD State- MWC
Gonzaga WCC
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mich St, Ohio state, Purdue

Thats about it, you maybe able to throw a few others in there, but WI has become a premier job.

[wcbsas]

Ill be your huckleberry and debate with you-

Your no doubters are all pretty accurate and all are great jobs

NC State-is a dormant program and is over shadowed so much by Duke and UNC that it cant even find a coach.  

Gonzaga was media darling but whats there level of success in the NCAA tourney

to put the ivy league schools in the mix is laughable.  For petes sake the Princeton coach just left for fairfield.  I would think they would jump at WI

Oregon State- again a program that has been bad bad bad for twenty years

St Joes- why cause its in philly and part of the tradition.  They are not a big ten school.


Here is my list.  
Duke, North Carolina, Maryland and Georgia Tech-ACC
Kansas, Texas- Big 12
Uconn, Gtown, Louisville, ND, Pitt St Johns, Syracuse, Villanova, WV- Big east
Alabama, arkansas, Florida, Kentucky, Tennessee- SEC
UCLA, Washington, AZ- Pac 10
UNLV, SD State- MWC
Gonzaga WCC
Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Mich St, Ohio state, Purdue

Thats about it, you maybe able to throw a few others in there, but WI has become a premier job.

Huckelberry huh?  I like that.

I understand your point on Ivy League schools but you understand my point that they have a huge legacy and rich history behind them.  That doesn't mean Brad Stevens is going to leave Butler and coach them but if you were writing the history of college basketball and listed the top 30 schools I suspect Penn and Princeton would be there before UW.

The list above is still 31 teams.

If Bo Ryan left I suspect you'd have a lot of interest but probably not much interest from entrenched coaches at the schools you've listed.

UW has a lot going for it - good arena, good support, good conference, good recent history.  I do think UW is stuck though - Bo Ryan's system and coaching style guarentee them 20+ wins every year but the type of athletes he recruits for that system are not the type of athletes that can win a NC.  Look at his recent success or lack thereof in the B10 and NCAA tournaments.  UW has underwhelmed there.

If Bo Ryan leaves its not like Roy Williams leaving Kansas.  Kansas is going to find the next guy and he's going to be able to recruit and win NCs there.  I just get the feeling that the same isnt true at UW - obviously a lot of what-ifs but what the heck - its a message board!

[Hoops Junkie]

I agree with you on the fact that Wisconsin may not be a destination school and may find it hard to win a national title based on the system and the type of athletes that Coach Ryan recruits, but I would think the masses are extremely satidfied to put a winning product on the floor, that gets to the NCAA sweet sixteen or better every year.

Most programs and AD's would kill for that level of sucess.  Also the program is not being disgraced by troubled kids or NCAA violations.  Kentucky et all can have their cheater coaches who have sold their soul.  Ill take the winning and toughness of Wisconsin.

With recruits history is very fleeting.  They could care less what you used to do they want to know what your gonna do.  Indiana used to be a major player in college basketball and yet I think Mr Crean is finding that the rich tradition and storied past can only get him so far.