COACHES WELCOME MORE WORK BADGERS' BENNETT, ALBRIGHT-DIETERLE TO LEAD BIG

TEN ALL-STARS

Wisconsin State Journal

Madison

May 6, 1999

The college basketball season can be rather lengthy. It will be even longer

next season for University of Wisconsin men's coach Dick Bennett and women's

coach Jane Albright-Dieterle, who will be leading Big Ten Conference all-star

teams on two-week tours to Europe in August.

While that might seem like an intrusion into already brief periods of down

time for some coaches, Bennett and Albright-Dieterle are embracing their

opportunities. Bennett volunteered for his position and Albright-Dieterle

quickly agreed when her turn came up in the rotation.

The men will play games in Austria, while the women will play in Germany

and Belgium.

"I'm really looking forward to it," Bennett said. "I'm eager to work with

the team. I love the coaching part of it, that's what I do. It's probably

who I am."

It will be an especially hectic off-season for Albright-Dieterle, who will

also be taking the UW women to Australia later this month.

"I think any time I can get in a gym over the course of the summer and

coach some more, it does nothing but get me a little better prepared for

what I need to be doing during the course of the year," Albright-Dieterle

said.

By agreeing to coach, Bennett and Albright-Dieterle get to bring along

two of their own players, rather than one. Bennett will be taking guard

Travon Davis, who will be a sophomore next year, and forward Andy Kowske,

who will be a junior.

"I want to try some different things with Andy and I really want Travon

to get some experience running the show," Bennett said. "I think it'll

be good for both of them."

Albright-Dieterle has chosen one of her players, center Missy Konieczny,

the former Portage High School athlete who will be a senior, but is waiting

to fill the other spot until she gets a look at her roster and sees where

the team needs help.

"The way we do it is based on seniority," Albright-Dieterle said. "I had

no idea (Konieczny) would even want to go. She's a person who doesn't even

like to leave Portage. . . . But she was just ecstatic about the chance

to go to Germany."

Full rosters have still not been set. The teams will gather in Madison

Aug. 2 for a couple practices, before departing Aug. 5.

The men's team, in particular, tends to be made up of inexperienced players

and has not fared well on recent trips.

"The last several Big Ten teams have not won very many games on their trips,

because you play pro teams that are in their season," Bennett said. "Your

(team) is more of a developmental kind of thing. Most coaches will send

players they want developed."

This will be the first type of summer all-star coaching experience for

Bennett. Albright-Dieterle has coached U.S. teams in foreign competition

in the past, although those teams placed more emphasis on winning.

"Basically, your job is just to put them in some type of a blue print and

then even out their playing time," Albright-Dieterle said. "I think you

want to feel you would help them individually grow over the summer."

Along the way, both coaches hope to pick up tidbits that could benefit

their own teams.

"I want to experiment a little bit with some ideas I have for our team

next year," Bennett said. "This is a great way to work with that."

Help for Bennett: Dick Bennett's son, Tony Bennett, will be an unofficial

aide with the Badgers next season, as he tries to decide if college coaching

is in his future.

"One way for him to find out if he wants to pursue coaching seriously is

to observe and see first-hand if college coaching is what he wants," said

the elder Bennett.

Tony Bennett, a former UW-Green Bay and NBA player, has spent the past

several years in New Zealand.