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After this year gotta go with Kyle. And it is a shame we end up losing him and players because of zero NIL....
What a shame...the two hoop teams are very good and the fans are not going. Wait til the Mountain West and WCC kick us out because of crappy attendance and we are playing in the conference Idaho belongs to.I will take Smith as well. He built it "himself" rather than having His Dad build it. Also it won't be NIL it will be Student Fan support and the lack thereof.
Both are a couple of fine Coaches in the history of Cougar Basketball
What a shame...the two hoop teams are very good and the fans are not going. Wait til the Mountain West and WCC kick us out because of crappy attendance and we are playing in the conference Idaho belongs to.
Kick us out? Come on sad sack not happening.What a shame...the two hoop teams are very good and the fans are not going. Wait til the Mountain West and WCC kick us out because of crappy attendance and we are playing in the conference Idaho belongs to.
I would modify your first statement by saying Bennett would be more likely to struggle in Pullman in today's environment. I think he's had enough success and resources at Virginia to be able to reload each year and I'm not sure the NIL era is really hurting the product he's putting out on the floor. They may not always be considered a deep NCAA tourney team, but the Cavaliers are consistently in March Madness under Bennett and that to me is evidence Tony is able to still thrive in today's brave new world of NIL/Portal....at a place like Virginia. Certainly don't think he would do better than Smith at WSU.Bennett is obviously the more accomplished coach and nobody can take away his national championship but I agree with the comments above that he is likely to struggle in today’s environment.
It’s hard to imagine players being excited about Bennett Ball in the NIL era and Virginia clearly peaked a few years ago. Can Virginia reload every year when it takes time to understand how to properly run the Bennett offense?
Smith has proven that his moneyball approach to basketball helps him identify good ball players. Our rise hasn’t been fast, but it also means that we aren’t good just because of one dude.
The knock that I have on Kyle is that our team feels particularly prone to scoring droughts and this has been a thing his whole time here. Bennett wasn’t immune to that but our defense was so stifling that it didn’t matter as much.
I just wish that we had the fan support and NIL money to allow Smith to thrive so we could really see what kind of coach he is. Today’s environment sucks.
At the end of this word salad, I’ll say that I would love to have kept Bennett but I wouldn’t fire Smith to bring him back.
I’ve heard the Lake City CDA kid playing for Virginia has close to a $500k NIL package. Not sure how accurate that is but WSU is not even close to that.I would modify your first statement by saying Bennett would be more likely to struggle in Pullman in today's environment. I think he's had enough success and resources at Virginia to be able to reload each year and I'm not sure the NIL era is really hurting the product he's putting out on the floor. They may not always be considered a deep NCAA tourney team, but the Cavaliers are consistently in March Madness under Bennett and that to me is evidence Tony is able to still thrive in today's brave new world of NIL/Portal....at a place like Virginia. Certainly don't think he would do better than Smith at WSU.
Interestingly, Smith and Tony Bennett are the only two WSU coaches in history to never have a losing season. Tony only had 3 seasons in Pullman and benefited from his Dad's foundation. Smith has that distinction now for 5 seasons after inheriting the Kent mess.
Glad Cougar