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WSU Men's Basketball Head Coach Tony Bennett

2008-09 Season Ticket Information

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Join WSU Men's Basketball Head Coach Tony Bennett in a live chat Tuesday, June 24 at 12:00 pm PT.

Moderator: Good afternoon Cougar fans and thank you for visiting wsucougars.com and spending your lunch hour with us for today's online chat with WSU Men's Basketball Head Coach Tony Bennett. Before we begin, you will notice there is a 2008-09 Season Ticket Information link at the top of this page. Please click on the link for details on how to purchase season tickets for the upcoming season. Tony, I know you are in the midst of camp right now, so thank you for taking the time out of your schedule to join us today.

Tony Bennett: Hey Coug fans, this is Coach Bennett joining you. I'm looking forward to answering some questions. I'd love to get to all of them, but unfortunately time won't permit that. Obviously this is an exciting time for our program and I am hopeful good things are on the horizon for Cougar basketball. As I've gone around the state this summer, I have spoke at many Cougar fundraisers and want to express how appreciative I am to the Cougar Nation for their support of our program. What makes it unique is that when things go well the Cougar faithful celebrate it more than most, and in times of rebuilding and struggle the Cougar faithful are patient more than most. I am thankful to be your head coach.

Moderator: Okay, let's get to some questions.

John (Touchet): Coach thanks for making this an exciting time to be a season ticket holder!!! My questions center around Beasley Coliseum. I think that with the level of play the Cougars are achieving they deserve a landmark place to play. How can we enhance, remodel, or rebuild upon what Beasley is now to give players and fans an enhanced gameday experience? Also what can fans do to help get the changes you would like to see finished?

Tony Bennett: We are making improvements slowly but surely thanks to President Floyd, Jim Sterk, and the generous contributions of Cougs. Hopefully, this upcoming season you will see some minor changes to the interior of Beasley Coliseum. The big thing that I believe can enhance the gameday experience would be a scoreboard with video replay capability, which is hung directly above center court, similar to what most Pac-10 venues have. I appreciate all of your support to the basketball excellence fund. That support has already made a positive difference in our program.

Bubba T.: 1.Do you and your team have any arrangements for a foreign trip this summer? If yes, where are you going this time? How satsified are you with the recruitment this year?

Tony Bennett: The NCAA allows you a foreign tour once every four years. Since we took ours last year, we have to wait until the summer of 2012 for our next foreign trip. Europe and Australia are your two main options so we will decide when that time approaches. We just finished our weekend advanced camp that our incoming freshman participated in, and our coaching staff was able to work with them. We like what we saw. We feel it is a recruiting class that has a variety of strengths in different positions. The key for them will be their development over the next few years; their toughness, and how well they gel. From a character standpoint, they have been great to work with and are cut from the same mold of our past and present players.

Ty (Bellevue): Coach, what's your idea of the perfect day off?

Tony Bennett: When Pullman's new golf course is finished, breaking 80!

Kennewick/Beaverton: This question is from two kids that are at your basketball camp today. Mitchell and Tanner want to know "How do you plan to be good after losing three of your star players?" Thanks

Tony Bennett: First of all, you should be working hard at camp instead of typing me questions, so I'll deal with the two of you in a second! To overcome the loss of those players, this year's team will have to be more unified than last year's. They'll have to do it collectively on both ends of the floor because we won't be able to rely on a Derrick or a Kyle to take over a game. The leadership of the returning players, and a few of the first-year players, besides the freshmen this includes Charlie Enquist, Abe Lodwick, and Fabian Boeke, will have to contribute without any game experience. There will be a learning curve but I think our preseason schedule will show us where we need to improve to be ready for Pac-10 play. This will be our most competitive non-conference schedule since I have been here so it will be a baptism by fire for our young kids.

Pullman, WA: Where do you see Kyle Weaver going in the draft?

Tony Bennett: Kyle has worked out for numerous NBA teams and has done well according to many sources. I know many teams are intrigued by his versatility and ability to play the point guard position. My hope for Kyle is obviously that he gets drafted as high as possible, but equally important is that he lands with a team that he can develop with and get an opportunity to play early on. The first round will be great.

Pullman: Character seems incredibly important to you, if not, the most important aspect of an athlete: would you sacrifice raw talent w/out character for an athlete who has less athletic ability (still a good athlete), but impeccable character? Why? Why not? Please explain.

Tony Bennett: No I wouldn't. When you are building a program you cannot take a short cut on character. When you do, more times than not, it will end up hurting your program in the long run.

Dawn, Bellevue: Coach Bennett: So much of the local talent in many sports choose UW over us, how have you "sold" WSU basketball to our very valuable in-state recruits during the off season?

Tony Bennett: As a staff, we work very hard trying to identify at a young age high-quality players and people from our state. When we first arrived, players from the Northwest had very little interest in us so we just wanted to find kids who wanted to be part of playing in the Pac-10 and trying to rebuild a program. As our basketball team has had success over the last two years there seems to be more interest from players in the state and the Northwest. I believe Washington State is a school that has to continue to cast a wide net in recruiting both nationally and internationally to try to find hidden gems. But we are excited with the additions of our in-state student-athletes: Casto, Enquist, and John Allen, and our players from Oregon: Lodwick and Michael Harthun. Hopefully, there will be more to come in future years.

marc spokane: do you have an idea on who is going to be in your starting lineup this year?

Tony Bennett: You would like to lean on your experience but I feel this year more than any other there will be great competition for a starting position and playing time.

spokane, wa: do u have any predictions with this ball club in the 2008-2009 season?

Tony Bennett: It is very hard to predict from a quantitative measure. Our focus will be from a qualitative measure. High quality basketball will produce good results. We've learned that from the past two years. As I mentioned in a previous answer, so much will depend upon staying healthy and how much leadership we get from our returners, and if we can get significant contributions from some of the new players.

Dale Braunger (Los Angeles): Coach Bennett, I just want to take this opportunity to thank you for the loyalty that you and your staff have shown to this University. It is something that is all too uncommon in this day and age and I think that what you will find is that whatever kindness you bestow upon the Cougar Nation will be returned to you and yours many fold.

Tony Bennett: Thank you for your kind comments, but let me take this time to express my gratitude for the opportunity Jim Sterk gave me to coach here at Washington State. I had no Division I head coaching experience and was unproven, but he saw enough in the direction of the program to give me the chance to continue what my father started. Besides that, my family loves Pullman and many players, former and current, and our coaching staff have invested a lot to put Washington State basketball back on the map.

Moderator: Okay, we have time for one more question.

Jason (San Diego): That last home win against the huskies was one of the greatest games I have ever seen in person (especially with Sr. night). Does it rank up there for you?

Tony Bennett: Yes it does. Because it was the last time the seniors, who have done so much for our program would play in Beasley Coliseum. The fashion in which it played out was like a Hollywood script. I couldn't help but laugh when I watched the video replay of the camera shots of my father. I asked him afterward, `What was the deal with that?' He said, `As the game wore on, I kept thinking it just wouldn't be right for those seniors to not win this game. So I tried to give some constructive criticism in the process to the officials and some of the players. I realized pretty quickly I was too old for this.' The topper was when, after the game, the Huskies' plane had mechanical difficulties and they had to fly in a different plane to take them back to Seattle. The plane they brought in was the Horizon plane that had the Washington State colors painted on it with the Cougar logo on the tail.

Moderator: That's all the time we have. Tony, thank you once again for joining us today.

Tony Bennett: Thanks. Got to run to camp. Go Cougs!

Moderator: Thank you to everyone for your questions. Remember, to get all the information about WSU Athletics, go no further than wsucougars.com, the official website of Cougar Athletics. Please check back to wsucougars.com for future online chats.