Tony Bennett was a great coach. Handsome. Dignified. A two-time NIT quarterfinalist. But for as impressive of a meaningful postseason record as 4–3 is, Bennett’s greatest contributions to college basketball will always be the ones he made as a player.
Entering the 1990’s, the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay had never won a Division I postseason game. The Phoenix had only moved to D-I in the early 80’s, and while the transition from Dick Lien to Dick Bennett had borne fruit, it hadn’t borne much of it just yet. That changed in the 1989–90 season, when UWGB was not only invited to the NIT, but made history once there. On a March night in Carbondale, Dick Bennett’s son—Tony—went off, hitting a pair of threes and six free throws as the underdogs blew past SIU in the game’s second half. The next day, the Associated Press wrote:
“…Tony Bennett scored 26 points to lead Wisconsin Green Bay to a 73-60 victory over the Salukis in the opening round at Carbondale, Ill.”
Breathless praise, to put it mildly.
UWGB fell in the next round, Anthony Bonner’s double–double leading Saint Louis to a nail-biting win. The Billikens would go on to make the NIT Championship for the second year in a row. Tony Bennett would never win another NIT game as a player. But the legend wasn’t done writing his college basketball story. In 1992, in a game so massive that Manhattan students stormed the court with two seconds remaining on the clock, Bennett again proved his postseason chops, sinking nine threes in his career finale while playing through a pulled muscle in his back. The game ended on a Bennett turnover, and it’s often remembered for that play. But real college basketball fans—those of us who can discern the righteous postseason performances from the damned—remember the nine threes, and remember Bennett’s heroic efforts to gut it out for his team. Had the game been an NCAA T*urnament game, we can assume he would have opted out and focused on a pro career.
So, as Bennett prepares to announce his retirement tomorrow, we bid farewell to a legend. A legendary coach, sure, but a legendary competitor above all else. From the hills of Illinois to hallowed hallways in the Bronx, Bennett’s name is engraved on the soul of American sports. Congratulations, Captain. Until time, like the Phoenix, gives us all our glorious rebirth.
