It’s an ordinary Monday afternoon practice at the Kohl Center for the Wisconsin men’s basketball team. The starters are running through their offensive sets when a long rebound caroms to the second team’s point guard.
“Break! Fast Break!” can be heard as the guard pushes the ball, racing past first-team players as if they are sedentary statues. Last time down the court, he came off a screen and drained one from downtown with his picture-perfect left-hand stroke. This time, he loses a Badger starter with a lightning-quick crossover, takes an angle to the hole and draws two defenders before dishing to a wide-open teammate for the easy layup.
Is this the Badgers’ next superstar, Travon Davis’ successor, who, for now, sits on the bench, biding his time and waiting for his big chance?
Nope. It’s 31-year-old assistant coach Tony Bennett, who seems to enjoy breaking the ankles of men 10 years his junior before stroking a three in their face.
“It’s very humbling, let’s put it that way,” the modest Bennett said of his practices with the team. “I used to have a couple extra gears that don’t seem to be there anymore.”
Tell that to the starters forced to guard Bennett every day in practice.
“I look at it as my chance to get the team ready,” Bennett said. “If we’re playing against a great team or a great player, I can give them a look at what they might see when they play, and that might help them.”
Getting beat by Bennett in practice should be nothing for members of the Badgers to be ashamed of, however. In getting drafted by the NBA’s Charlotte Hornets, the former record-setting UW-Green Bay star proved he is one of the elite players in the game.
“The NBA is just incredible,” Bennett said. “To play against guys like Shaquille [O’Neal] and Michael Jordan, to see the size and athleticism and skill of those players on an individual level, it’s phenomenal.”
Bennett, who is the son of legendary Wisconsin coach Dick Bennett, was selected 35th overall in the 1992 NBA entry draft by the Charlotte Hornets. He spent three seasons with the Hornets backing up Muggsy Bouges before a foot injury ended his career earlier than he expected.
“I thought that I had an opportunity to be a quality player in the NBA for 10, 12 years,” Bennett said. “I always said I’d never get into coaching because I thought I’d have a longer career, but [the injury] was just the hand I was dealt. I’m just thankful I got a chance to be there.”
Some would have called him crazy, the six-foot, white point guard from a small school in Wisconsin who wanted to play in the NBA. Bennett knew exactly what he was capable of, though, and he never doubted himself and his abilities.
“It makes it that much sweeter when you’re an underdog and can accomplish your goal,” Bennett said. “I think it was my dad who said, ‘Quality basketball knows no divisions or limits.’ When you step out on the floor, it doesn’t matter if you have Duke or UWGB on your jersey — everything is equal, and I used that to my advantage.”
Bennett, whose father didn’t coach him until UWGB and never pressured Tony to play basketball, looked to the elder Bennett to help him reach his goal of making it to the NBA.
“He wasn’t one of those fathers who was telling me to shoot 100, 200 jump shots a day when I was younger,” Bennett recalled.
“He pretty much left me alone until my senior year of high school when I said to him, ‘I want to try and play in the NBA. Help me do that.’ He said that he’d do it, and that’s when it became pretty serious. He kept pushing me at times when I thought I was going to break, but he kept pushing and I made it. Without him, I don’t think I would have gotten to the league.”
Before getting drafted, Bennett enjoyed a stellar career at UWGB while his father was head coach at the university. He averaged 19.4 points per game and also posted five or more assists per game during each of his four seasons. His incredible long-range shooting ability allowed him to shoot 49.7 percent from behind the arc, still the highest career three-point percentage in NCAA history.
“I’m a lefty,” Bennett explained, as if it were that simple. “We’re all good shooters. As a little kid, I would tag along with my dad at the gym and I always just loved to shoot, shoot, shoot –just groove that thing. It’s always been one of my strengths.”
His stunningly accurate jump shot also allowed Bennett to post a 52.8 percent shooting percentage from the field over his UWGB career, an astoundingly high total for a non-low-post player.
Although playing under his father may have helped Bennett develop his jumper and certainly prepared him for the NBA, it was not always an easy road.
“Playing for my father was great, but the good was great and the bad was terrible,” Bennett said. “It seemed like everything was exaggerated. When you’re going through a successful season, it makes it so much more special when you are with someone of your own flesh and blood. When it’s bad, though, it hurts a little more.”
Bennett may be better able to understand his father’s perspective after trading the court for the bench. After his NBA career was cut short, he traveled to New Zealand, where he coached and played for three and a half years before returning to Wisconsin to coach under his father.
While in New Zealand, Bennett met and coached current UW guard and New Zealand native Kirk Penney, the Badgers’ leading scorer this season. Bennett’s influence was a major reason Penney chose to attend Wisconsin.
“The majority of the reason I’m here is Tony,” Penney said. “I mean, I’m in Madison, Wisconsin, which would be a little random otherwise. It’s always been a dream of mine to come over here and play, and Tony is a big reason I fulfilled that dream. He’s a good friend and an awesome coach.”
Bennett feels that kindling close relationships with the players he recruits is essential, for personal as well as professional reasons, and credits those he has worked under with helping him grow personally and as a coach.
“The opportunity to invest in young men’s lives is great,” Bennett said. “Once the players come in, you have a chance to make an impact on their lives, to have a positive influence, and just to build a relationship.
“I’ve been very fortunate to have been able to play under my dad, who I consider a great coach, and [current UW head coach Bo] Ryan, who is a tremendous coach as well. I just try to be like a sponge, just soak up whatever I can from each of them.”
Bennett tried to soak up a little bit of musical greatness when he and former Packers sackmaster Tony Bennett met up with Tony Bennett the singer in a lighthearted media event held during his playing days at UWGB. The three men who share a famous name posed for photographers and exchanged stories about others with the same namesake that they had met over the years.
“Tony Bennett the singer said the only time he met another Tony Bennett was when he met a lady who was a stripper and spelled her name with an I at the end,” Bennett recalled.
Despite what some might think, Bennett claims that his parents did not name him in homage to the jazz singer.
“I’d be a rich man if I had a nickel for every time someone made a joke out of it,” Bennett said. “I wasn’t named after him, and I can’t sing.”
But boy, can he shoot.
