According to a report by Vince Grippi of the Spokesman Review, Washington State head coach had preliminary talks with Indiana and has decided not to take it any further. In other words, he’s not coming to IU.

Indiana University called. Tony Bennett answered. He listened. Then he decided to stay put.

“I had an exploratory conversation with Indiana,” said Bennett Sunday afternoon, “and I am not going to pursue the Indiana job.”

Bennett said Indiana called Saturday evening to gauge his interest. He didn’t say whom he talked with, but added “they made contact last night and they went through the proper procedures by contacting (WSU athletic director) Jim Sterk and, like I said, I had an exploratory conversation with them.”

So it’s on to the next option for Indiana and it’s not clear at this time just who that might be. Two of everybody’s early favorites, Bennett and Sean Miller of Xavier, are likely out of the picture. We’ll continue to keep you posted as news is reported or if we hear anything of interest.

Related:

• Moving right along…to Sean Miller (The Hoosier Scoop)
  

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There’s been no shortage of reports today regarding Tony Bennett and the Indiana job. First, it was Jeff Goodman of Fox Sports reporting that IU offered the job to Bennett. Then, you had Andy Katz of ESPN come back with a contradicting story that IU had not contacted him with a quote from Bennett that said as much. If that wasn’t enough Gary Parrish of CBS Sportsline weighed-in with his side of things and told us we’ll know if Bennett is the man within 24 hours.

A lot of you have commented asking for my take on things, so here it goes:

First, it’s important to remember that Goodman, Katz and Parrish are all trying to break this story. After all, it’s a pretty big one. Since they’re not bound to the rules of normal print media, they’re going to write about anything they feel is legitimate information from a good source. As far as Bennett telling Katz that he hasn’t talked to Indiana, what do you expect him to say? That he’s in negotiations and will arrive in Bloomington tomorrow? That’s not how it works, folks. Katz is a very good reporter, but he’s been wrong before (see his report a few years back that Steve Alford was going to Missouri). I do believe that Indiana has made contact with either Bennett or his representatives to gauge his interest. And he’s probably interested.

I can’t think of a good reason for Bennett to stay at Washington State. No offense to what Bennett has done there or the fans of the program, but let’s be honest, it’s not a destination job. Indiana is a destination and given Bennett’s ties to the Big Ten and the prestige of the program, he’d be foolish not to give it serious consideration. On the surface, he seems to be an ideal fit for the situation.

I have been told by multiple people that IU would like to have a coach in place before the Final Four, so whether or not Bennett is the man, we should know a lot more in the coming days. Until then, stay tuned…

The latest:

• Will Tony Bennett stay at Washington State?
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer blogger weighs-in
• Washington St: “We haven’t been contacted by any university”

More from ITH:

• PostmanR profiles Washington State’s Tony Bennett
• Complete coaching search coverage

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According to Jeff Goodman of Foxsports.com, IU has offered its head coaching position to Washington State head coach Tony Bennett. Here are the details:

Indiana offered its men’s basketball coaching job to Tony Bennett one day after his Washington State team was knocked out of the NCAA tournament, a pair of sources told FOXSports.com.

The names that had surfaced were Bennett, Xavier’s Sean Miller, Pittsburgh’s Jamie Dixon and Vanderbilt’s Kevin Stallings. However, the Hoosiers’ administration wasted little time in making a play for Bennett — who may also draw interest from other jobs — including LSU and California.

I really don’t know what to make of this report. It would seem to me the “blue ribbon” committee would at least want to talk to some of the coaches still remaining in the tournament to gauge interest in the job. Perhaps they’ve already done that via representatives. Also, Goodman reported that IU had fired Kelvin Sampson about a month ago and that report turned out to be false.

Related:

• Bennett calls report inaccurate; IU hopes to name coach by Final Four

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Kelvin is out the door and Dan is not our man, so that can only mean one thing: It’s coaching search time! Here’s a look at the candidates that could land in Bloomington. We’ll give you the pros, the cons and the bottom line. This afternoon: Washington State’s Tony Bennett.

Pros: After his father Dick retired two seasons ago, the younger Bennett took over and in his first season led Washington State to its most wins in school history (tied it at 26), won AP Coach of the Year and Naismith College Coach of the Year. This all after WSU finished dead last in the Pac-10 a year before. This year, his team has the second-highest rated defense in the country at 56.1 points allowed per game and have advanced (so far) to the Sweet Sixteen — beating Winthrop and Notre Dame by a combined margin of 49 points. He’s young (38), he’s up and coming, he’s what IU could really use to jump start the program. He’s helped recruit the likes Devin Harris, Kirk Penney, Alando Tucker and Brian Butch while at Wisconsin. His father’s ties to Bob Knight might help reconnect a certain segment of the Indiana family too.

Cons: Too inexperienced? This is only Bennett’s second year at the helm of Washington State. Sure, he’s done a stellar job in his first two seasons, but do we need a larger sample size before we know he’s the real deal? Would it be a mistake to pull a trigger on a guy who’s still largely untested?

The bottom line: Out of the young up and coming crop, Bennett might stick out as IU’s No. 1 target. But does he want to flee WSU for a school where his sister resigned a few short years ago as head coach of the women’s team? His current salary is at least $800,000 a year and his contract runs till at least the 2013-2014 season. Perhaps a bit easier on the pocketbooks for IU than others.

Tomorrow morning, Big A will break down Sean Miller of Xavier.

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Two names that figure to be right at the top of the wish list for the “blue ribbon” search committee as well as Indiana fans will be in action this afternoon in the NCAA Tournament.

Sean Miller will lead the Xavier Musketeers against IU’s biggest rival Purdue in the East Region. Meanwhile, in the West Region, Tony Bennett’s Washington State Cougars will meet Notre Dame.

Xavier and Purdue should be a grind-it-out style game, eerily similar to what Hoosier fans are used to seeing in the Big Ten. As many of you witnessed earlier this season, Miller’s team prides itself on playing defense and doing the little things it takes to win. “I don’t think you can advance in tournament play unless you have a strong identity on defense,” he said.

Bennett’s Washington State team will get the challenge of slowing down Mike Brey’s Fighting Irish and Big East Player of the Year Luke Harangody. Notre Dame is averaging over 80 ppg on the season and Washington State is limiting opponents to 41 percent shooting, so something will have to give.

We’ll dig deeper into the coaching search over the next week, but my question for you ITH’ers is this: Where are Miller and Bennett on your wish list? Would you be happy if IU could land one of them or is there someone else out there you feel is a better fit? As always, thoughts are welcome in the comments.

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Since there is still a lot of basketball left to be played, we’ll try our best to keep the inevitable coaching search talk to a minimum. However, one trend I’ve noticed since Sampson’s resignation on Friday is the amount of media attention being given to Tony Bennett of Washington State. Pat Forde of ESPN.com called Bennett the best candidate almost immediately after Sampson stepped down.

And now, the media out in Seattle is also starting to begin the whispers about the possibility of Bennett coming to Bloomington. Bud Withers of the Seattle Times had the following to say this morning:

You’d assume Bennett would listen. Indiana drips with history, from its five national titles to its candy-stripe warmup pants. There’s a reason they made a movie called “Hoosiers.”

Just as there’s history at Indiana, there’s history with the Bennett family there. Kathi Bennett, Tony’s older sister and the member of the family Dick Bennett has said might be the best at it, was head coach of the Hoosiers’ women from 2000 to 2005 before resigning and getting out of the business.

Indiana would offer Tony Bennett a bunch more money than the Cougars can; they’re paying him $800,000 annually. Bloomington, at 70,000 population, would present a college town but not one as remote as Pullman. No more would he have to contend with the nettlesome travel issues in and out of WSU.

He can win a national title at Indiana. Realistically, he can’t at Washington State.

Sounds good, right? My only reservation at Bennett is his lack of head coaching experience (two seasons). He did, however, win National Coach of the Year in his debut last year. So I’ll give him a pass on that.

He’s proven he can recruit. As an assistant at Wisconsin, he helped bring in Alando Tucker, Kirk Penny, Devin Harris and Brian Butch. He’s also just 38 years of age which means he could be a long term solution, unlike Kelvin Sampson.

So what do you think, ITH’ers? Where is Bennett on your radar screen? Is he somebody that IU should seriously consider when the coaching search heats up? Let’s hear your take in the comments.