Bennett arrives at Virginia while Washington State prepares to interview candidates

When Tony Bennett's abrupt departure from Washington State to Virginia as basketball coach became known Monday, it seemed to send greater shock waves through the Northwest than it did his destination, where he was a relative unknown to many.

That may also be the case with the news Bennett broke Wednesday in his introductory news conference on the Virginia campus: One of his staff members will be Ritchie McKay, 43, the former Seattle Pacific guard, ex-Washington assistant and veteran of five head-coaching jobs.

"I think I may have hit a home run," Bennett told a crowd of about 200 at a dining hall in the arena at Virginia.

McKay thus continues a pattern of two-year stints in his coaching résumé. He was considered a bright prospect as an aide to Bob Bender at Washington in Bender's first two years (1994-95). McKay later had two-year head-coaching runs at Portland State, Colorado State, Oregon State and Liberty, his latest post in Lynchburg, Va., where he was 39-28.

McKay was fired at New Mexico in 2007 after going 82-69 in five seasons.

In Pullman, meanwhile, WSU athletic director Jim Sterk was reviewing candidates for Bennett's replacement. One, Portland State's Ken Bone, is expected to be interviewed over the weekend.

The Cougars hope to make a quick hire to maintain stability. Sterk told KJR radio that the school was not going to release four November signees with the program, a day after the father of Sacramento-area point guard Xavier Thames said they wanted a release.

"Coaches [needing to fill holes] try to make a living off changes like this," Sterk said. "We want to settle things down."

To do that, Sterk indicated he would like his new hire to consider retaining someone from Bennett's staff.

Bennett said "there are opportunities for two others" at Virginia from his Washington State staff. Ron Sanchez is joining Bennett, either as video coordinator or a basketball-operations chief. Tuesday night, assistant coach Mike Heideman told The Times only Sanchez would be going with Bennett.

"I came here to build a great team," Bennett told his first Virginia audience. "But more importantly, I came to build a program that lasts."

Bennett inherits 11 scholarship players and this season's top five scorers, including 6-6 guard Sylven Landesberg, the ACC freshman of the year, who averaged 16.6 points.

Bennett referred to academic standards at Virginia and said, "Not many places could have pulled me out of Washington State at this point in my career. This just fit. I saw what Mike Montgomery [did] at Stanford. The kind of student-athletes you can get here are going to be fun to coach."

The team he leaves behind had freshmen Klay Thompson and DeAngelo Casto on the Pac-10 all-freshman team, "and we had real good recruits coming in," Bennett said. "I was excited. I liked what's coming back."

Yet Bennett was known to be concerned about the austere budget at WSU during hard economic times. Sterk has said Bennett offered to donate $100,000 of his million-dollar salary back to basketball.

He disputed the notion that he had "bailed" on WSU.

"I'd been there six years [counting three years as an assistant]," said Bennett. "The hardest thing is to sit in that room and every recruit that comes in and asks, 'Coach, are you going to be there for me?' What I told everyone: 'I plan on being there, but I don't know what the future holds.'

"I was upfront with guys. I thought I'd be staying, but there was always that chance."

Bennett said he called each of the four WSU November signees and told them, "There's something very good on the horizon there," and added, "I encouraged them to honor their letter."

Bud Withers: 206-464-8281 or bwithers@seattletimes.com