[2][3] At Ripon, Bennett played basketball (guard), football (halfback and return specialist), and baseball (third baseman) four years each.
Bennett led Memorial to a runner-up finish to South Milwaukee at the WIAA State Tournament during the 1975–76 season.
[7] While head coach, Bennett completed a master's degree in education with an emphasis in professional development in August 1979.
The Green Bay Phoenix posted a 4–24 record the year before Bennett arrived, but had reached the second round of the NIT tournament by 1990.
A guard who played several seasons in the NBA, Tony Bennett led the team to its first NCAA tournament berth in 1991, where the Phoenix lost to Michigan State in the first round.
In Bennett's final year with the Phoenix, his team returned to the NCAA Tournament where they lost to Big Ten champion Purdue.
In 1995, Bennett replaced Stan Van Gundy at the University of Wisconsin–Madison as the head coach of the men's basketball team.
Making strong defense a cornerstone, he started building around veterans Thomas Kelati and Jeff Varem and brought in what arguably was the greatest recruiting class in school history in 2004 (Kyle Weaver, Derrick Low, Robbie Cowgill, Chris Henry, Daven Harmeling and Josh Akognon).
[17] His influence on defense brought him fame in the 2014 NCAA Tournament, when four teams in the Sweet 16 (Arizona, Dayton, Virginia and Wisconsin) used the "pack line.
His son, Tony Bennett, was hired as Washington State's head men's basketball coach after his father's retirement.
Three years later, Tony accepted the position as head men's basketball coach at the University of Virginia.
His brother Jack Bennett, retired as head men's basketball coach at the University of Wisconsin–Stevens Point after winning back-to-back NCAA Division III national titles, in 2004 and 2005.