Kathi Bennett Hometown: Clintonville, Wis. High School: Stevens Point Last College: UW-Green Bay Position: Head Coach Experience: 2nd Season

Press Conference Photo Gallery

What They Are Saying About Kathi Bennett

Career Summary in PDF Format

Kathi Bennett, a veteran collegiate head coach who has guided three programs to eight NCAA Tournaments and five conference championships while posting a career winning percentage of .613, was named head women's basketball coach at Northern Illinois University, May 18 2010. Bennett is the ninth head coach in program history.

"Kathi brings experience, she brings knowledge of the game, excellent communication skills and above all, she cares about the student-athletes," said NIU Associate Vice President and Director of Athletics Jeff Compher. They will work hard, play hard and have a great experience. I am confident this program will make significant competitive strides and, under Kathi's direction, will achieve our goal to compete for conference championships in the near future."

In just one season, Bennett's impact has already been felt. Under her guidance, the Huskies went from a 10-win team in 2009-10 to a 13-win team in 2010-11, despite losing three starters. More importantly, NIU improved from a 4-12 record in Mid-American Conference play to a 7-9 mark last season.

Thanks to Bennett's signature pack defense, NIU held opponents to less than 40 percent shooting in 15 of 30 games. Opponents were stifled to less than 30 percent shooting on five occasions. Along the way, Bennett also collected her 300th career win to join her father, legendary coach Dick Bennett, on the 300-career-win list.

Bennett came to NIU after two seasons as an assistant coach at Wisconsin, where she coached the Badgers' defense and was instrumental in UW making its first NCAA Tournament appearance in eight years in 2010. Wisconsin finished tied for third in the league and led the Big Ten in scoring defense in 2010 after ranking 10th in the league in that category prior to her arrival.

A native of Stevens Point, Wis., Bennett is the sister of University of Virginia head men's basketball coach Tony Bennett; her father won 316 games as a collegiate coach at Washington State, Wisconsin, UW-Green Bay and UW-Stevens Point. Kathi Bennett played collegiately at both Stevens Point and Green Bay and earned her bachelor's degree from UW-Green Bay in 1986.

Bennett's 18 years of experience as a collegiate head coach include stops at Marycrest College (1988-89), Wisconsin-Oshkosh (1989-96), Evansville (1996-2000) and Indiana (2000-05). Her career record of 309-194 includes 12 winning campaigns and nine postseason appearances. Bennett is looking forward to developing another winner at Northern Illinois.

"I'm a builder. It's who I am. I know that's what is in me," Bennett said. "The opportunity to build this program... that thumps in my heart."

Fundamental to Bennett's formula for building programs are the "five cornerstones:" passion, servanthood, unity, humility and thankfulness. Developed by her father, Bennett has implemented the cornerstones in their current form since her days at Evansville.

"(The cornerstones) are intangible qualities that we want to instill and stand for in our program," Bennett said. "Hopefully when our players leave, they are things they will carry with them."

Bennett was successful coaching even before the cornerstones were inked into her coaching handbook. Under her guidance, UW-Oshkosh won the 1996 NCAA Division III National Championship with a perfect 31-0 record after playing in the national title game the previous season. She was named Wisconsin Intercollegiate Athletic Conference Coach of the Year five times and was the Women's Basketball Coaches' Association Division III Coach of the Year in 1996.

At Evansville, Bennett took over a program that had an all-time record of 18-113, engineered a 13-game turnaround and led the Purple Aces to their first NCAA Tournament appearance in 1999. She was named the Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year that season. In 1999-2000, she led Evansville to a school-record 23 wins and a WNIT berth.

The next year, Bennett took over an Indiana program that went 10-18 the year before. Immediately, the Hoosiers embarked on a seven-game winning streak, their longest in two years. Under Bennett's guidance, the Hoosiers doubled their win total to finish with a 20-11 record, and tied for sixth in the Big Ten standings, their best finish since 1997-98.

A season later, Bennett's 2002 Indiana team won the Big Ten Conference Tournament title as the No. 5 seed, defeating No. 1 seed Purdue and regular season champion Penn State. It was the first trip to the NCAA Tournament for Indiana since 1994-95. In five years in Bloomington, Bennett's Hoosier teams defeated six Top 25 opponents and claimed a pair of victories over Top 10 foes. For her part, Bennett is confident that Northern Illinois' women's basketball team can and will be successful.

"This is a place where we can contend for the MAC title, and become a player on the national scene," she said. "The university is diverse, it's strong academically and it is big enough - with 24,000 students - to offer a great atmosphere, but small enough to give its students personal attention. The location and the facilities are excellent. I'm excited to work with Dr. Peters, Jeff Compher and the rest of the staff to reach our goals."