Coach Bennett comes into her own

Women's basketball coach Kathi Bennett came to IU six-and-a-half months ago in the shadow of two men: her father, Dick, who was busy guiding the Wisconsin men's program to the Final Four and Bob Knight, who was busy making headlines with his actions on and off the court.\nWith one 350 miles away and the other plucked from the IU sidelines, the shadows have been removed and the stage is set for Bennett to hit the lights of Assembly Hall.\nThe glares will strike her one minute past twelve, tonight.\n"If there was a better word than excited, I think I'd use it," Bennett said. "I'm ready to get going, and so is the team."\nBennett will officially introduce herself to IU fans at the Hoosiers' Midnight Madness practice alongside the men's team and their interim head coach, Mike Davis. Just over a month ago, this wasn't the way Bennett expected to meet the Hoosier family.\nUnder Knight, Midnight Madness had been a regular practice with none of the frills fans will see tonight. And it was a practice that didn't include the women's team. Knight had approached Bennett with some ideas to put the two team's together, but it was Davis' idea to include the women's team in the season's first team practice.\n"It's an awesome opportunity for us to get some exposure," Bennett said. "I just can't think of a better way to start your season with that rush of excitement of having 8,000 fans watching in to start your basketball season.\n"I think that energy should carry over. Then you think about that next game and the excitement should carry over." \nJunior forward Jill Chapman has seen a lot of cooperation between the men's and women's programs in her three years, she said. \nOn a daily basis, the women's team practices immediately before the men's program at Assembly Hall, work out on similar schedules and are even in many of the same classes. Chapman said some of the men and women even live together. She says tonight will be a chance for the fans to see that bond.\nFreshman Andre Owens of the men's team agrees.\n"People have never seen us on the same court at the same time, so that will be a little different," Owens said. "(The two teams) have a good relationship. A lot of us joke around with each other and hang out. These two teams are real tight."\nBennett will enjoy the limelight of tonight's exposure like the rest of her team, but will immediately re-focus her team on the season's opener Nov. 17 against Washington. The team will stay on the floor for a full practice once the fans leave Assembly Hall.\nWhereas the men's team had some difficulty accepting the transition after the removal of Knight, the women's team has not had the same problems, Chapman said.\n"Everybody is really excited about this season," Chapman said. "We want a lot more fans in the stands this year because we are going to be a good team.\n"We're going to play defense. We have the offense. This year, we're adding the 'd.'"\nDefinitely music to Bennett's ear.\nMolded in the style of her father, Bennett considers herself a defensive coach who will stress those fundamentals daily in practice, she said.\n"I hope at the end of their first practice, they're going to be saying 'I love defense,'" Bennett said. "Because they're going to be getting a lot of it every day, they may not have a ball for a three-hour practice. They might have to get use to that. \n"I wouldn't take the job unless they committed to defense. That's going to be the majority of our practices."\nBennett has taken her defensive fundamentals a long way in a short period of time. Only five seasons ago, she was coaching Division III women in Oshkosh, Wisconsin.\nAfter a successful stop at Evansville, she's now a Big Ten women's coach, a privilege reserved for a minority of coaches. The change in jobs had made things easier, but hasn't changed her personality, Bennett said.\n"Most of the time I'm still the first one here, so I turn on the light in the morning," Bennett said. "And if I see dust, I'll still go out and wipe it up. It's just the way I am.\n"When I first started at Oshkosh, we did the van thing. I could barely see above the steering wheel. I was sitting on stacks of things because the seats wouldn't adjust.\n"That would never happen here"