Tough Spot For Badgers Coach

March 20, 2001 / 4:05 PM EST / AP

Brad Soderberg was Dick Bennett's disciple, trusted assistant and hand-picked successor. His biggest drawback might have been that he wasn't Dick Bennett himself.

"Either that or I wasn't a bigger name," Soderberg said Tuesday in his first public comments since he learned he will not return as Wisconsin's basketball coach.

Athletic director Pat Richter informed Soderberg of the move on Monday. Soderberg held the job on an "acting" basis since Bennett retired Nov. 30 because of exhaustion.

Bennett said Soderberg was a victim of unrealistic expectations after the Badgers had reached the Final Four last season for the first time in 59 years.

"I feel responsible to a degree for what's happened to him," Bennett said Tuesday. "I did not have the strength or the ability to continue this year. It was that. It wasn't a calculated move to get him in there. I simply couldn't go on and he was left holding those expectations.

"And he did it admirably both on and off the court. And I didn't have the strength to finish or help him and I will forever feel bad about that."

Richter hopes to attract a coach to Wisconsin with a "national reputation," and he acknowledged that Utah's Rick Majerus, a Wisconsin native, would be a prime candidate if interested.

"If he's able to get Majerus in here, then he's making the right decision," Soderberg said at a news conference.

Richter said he wanted a coach, preferably from college, who could recruit better athletes.

The athletic director said he hadn't spoken with Majerus, who is on sabbatical this season to recuperate from a heart operation and to care for his ill mother in Milwaukee.

"Any time you can find a coach that has some allegiance or some factor that ties us here, that you don't get a gypsy type that's going to come and go, I think that's a help," Richter said. "Dick Bennett brought that. And there are some that are out there that have that characterization."

Majerus was in Salt Lake City on Monday, but didn't return a phone message left by The Associated Press.

Richter said the decision to change coaches didn't entirely rest on the Badgers' first-round failure in the NCAA tournament.

"It has nothing to do with good, bad or indifferent job that's been done," Richter said.

"Someone asked the question, 'Is this a decision you make by your heart or your head?"' he added. "I think you have to make it with your head. If you make it with your heart, I think you know where you end up. And that's the nature of what we deal with in college athletics."

Bennett's son, Tony Bennett, and fellow assistants Shawn Hood and Paul Costanzo also are looking for jobs.

"I feel bad because there are four good men who are now looking for a job," Dick Bennett said. "All of them are like family to me, and one is."

The 38-year-od Soderberg said he already had inquired about several coaching jobs, but he wouldn't say which ones.

"What I learned is I can coach at this level," Soderberg said. "I thought I could. Now I know I can."

Richter said he considered inviting Bennett to come out of retirement. Bennett said he doesn't "think that's a possibility." He said he is working on his golf game and coaching again didn't interest him.

Sticking with Bennett's starters and style, Soderberg won his first eight games, the first Wisconsin coach to do that since 1911, and was the only first-year coach to take the Badgers to the NCAA tournament. But they were upset 50-49 by Georgia State in the first round Thursday.

The Badgers lost their first game in the Big Ten tournament to Indiana and finished 18-11, including 16-10 under Soderberg.