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Bleeding Red and Blue
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Apr 12 10 8:40 AM
It's clear that RB is very comfortable at SMC and just as important has bought into the vision that the program can be far more than it is today. He has at least temporarily established SMC as not only an east bay area team but also as "Australia's team". The students he has recruited almost always love the school and the community. There is every reason to think that with continued success, the program can be thought of as a quasi-major like Gonzaga presently is and as Butler may become. Can that be a successful long term career choice for a D1 coach? Just ask Mark Few. Still, it is iffy. Only the recent tournament run seemed to wake up the local community and there is no assurance that such interest will continue.
From his perspective, the Oregon position would be entirely different. He might still get some players from Australia but only the truly "elite" players as he would be under enormous pressure to recruit the McDonald's All American types with all the dirty laundry that can often entail. He would have to build a program, something that takes time.
At a certain point money talks for most people but RB should be comfortable financially for some time no matter what he does. But all D1 coaches know that long term security is very elusive no matter where you are as you are only as good as your last few teams. An unlucky run of injuries can sidetrack the careers of even very capable coaches.
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Apr 12 10 12:02 PM
I think the biggest question is why would you leave a rising program that you built for a mediocre major program who is in rebuilding mode. The last major WCC coach to make that move was Dan Monson. He took GU to the Elite 8 and Sweet 16 and then proceeded to take his show to Minnesota. And as we know, that worked out really well for him???? Im sure he loves LB State as opposed to Gonzaga. Bennett, as we listened to in his interviews, is very in tune with the WCC conference. Listening to him you can tell that he is comfortable in the WCC (here he grew up as coach) and understands not only the landscape, but also how to win here. Moreover, why leave with a team coming back that has the potential to make the tournament for the next 2-3 seasons minimum. You've got the best backcourt in the league returning (Delly and Mick), a former All WCC Player coming in (Rob Jones), the best senior in Oregon coming to town (Holt), and a trio of experienced underclass (Young, Page, and Beau). Add to that two raw but talented big men (Walker and Williams) and you've got a team that could compete in any league on the west coast, especially the Pac Ten. Also, as he has mentioned he loves the Bay Area. This is his program, one that HE built from the ground up. He could have taken the Oregon State job, as previously mentioned and he didn't. Moreover, we have to consider that this is different age for SMC athletics. We are in the post football age, where the concentration is clearly on Men's basketball. That means Bro. Ron and Mark Orr will do whatever it takes to retain Bennett. It's not a coincidence that enrollment and applications are up. There are just so many reasons the administration must retain Bennett, will make all efforts to do so, and most importantly there are too many reasons for Bennett to stay.
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Apr 12 10 3:49 PM
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