NIU has called a presser for Tuesday to announce the new women's coach.

Any idea who it is?

No idea- but DePaul has a couple assistants that could be nice fits.

big east gal i am guessing........with no connections to NIU or Chicago....I hope I am wrong but these AD's seem to fall in love with assistant coaches........I was rooting for Levens from SIUE

Word leaking out of athletics is it's Wisconsin assistant Kathi Bennett, who previously was head coach at Indiana, Evansville, and Wisconsin-Osh Kosh but is better known as the daughter of former Wisconsin men's and Wisconsin-Green Bay coach Richard Bennett.

damn! if so THAT is a great hire.........Maybe dad dick will be asst.......and brother tony can send some players her way and give kids some tips on 3 pt shooting (he is all time NCAA record holder beyond the arc)

Maybe she could bring her brother with her to coach the men's team, lol.

That's impressive. HC experience is big.

(05-18-2010 12:29 AM)cagy cager Wrote:  damn! if so THAT is a great hire.........Maybe dad **** will be asst.......and brother tony can send some players her way and give kids some tips on 3 pt shooting (he is all time NCAA record holder beyond the arc)

Yeah, I think he set it by shooting those f*&^ers against us.

If its Bennett, she'd have strong ties to Indiana and Wisconsin for recruiting. She was brought to Wisconsin to install the same "pack defense" that her father used and it greatly improved the Wisc. defense.
She's been looking around lately as she had her name in on the Wright State and Indiana State jobs this year, and the Southern Illinois job last year.

(05-18-2010 08:23 AM)DogTracks Wrote:  That's impressive. HC experience is big.

But doesn't always translate into wins... see our men's coach.

(05-18-2010 09:12 AM)HuskiemobileMan Wrote:  

(05-18-2010 08:23 AM)DogTracks Wrote:  That's impressive. HC experience is big.

But doesn't always translate into wins... see our men's coach.

having been burned by can't lose bball hires, have to just wait and see what happens. Hope her the best, have to get this bball thing going

(05-18-2010 09:12 AM)HuskiemobileMan Wrote:  

(05-18-2010 08:23 AM)DogTracks Wrote:  That's impressive. HC experience is big.

But doesn't always translate into wins... see our men's coach.

True enough, you can get burned on whatever path you take, but push comes to shove- I'm one that prefers candidates with HC experience.

In her favor she had huge success at D-3 and, per her Wisconsin bio, was 42-18 her last 2 years at Evansville (a big turnaround w/l wise) before the IU job where she was a .500 coach.

The minuses would be the decline of her last IU teams, the fact her success was in the 90s, and that UW has risen to be a solid but has no NCAA appearances under their current coach.

She could be women's Patton, but a big assistant could be a repeat of Owens. GCD's right- all we can do is give it time and see what happens. But for now, I think we might as well look at the positive.

Bennett would be a solid hire.

To me the key to success would be who she brings in as assistants. Assistant coaches with strong Illinois ties would be essential.

This did not take very long....probably in the works for quite a while.
Most AD's have a list of prospects just in case.....