Story originally printed in the La Crosse Tribune or online at www.lacrossetribune.com
Published - Thursday, January 24, 2008
Bonnett guides UW-L men to win
 UW-L asst. coach Aaron Bonnett argues a call with a referee. Bonnett was filling in for head coach Ken Koelbl, who was suspended for a game. Erik Daily |
The entire experience lasted less than an hour and a half. And Aaron Bonnett wasn’t sad to see it end.
Today, he’ll once again be Aaron Bonnett, UW-La Crosse assistant men’s basketball coach. He had had his moment in the head coach’s chair Wednesday in UW-L’s 76-61 WIAC victory over UW-River Falls at Mitchell Hall. And he had come through it just fine.
Bonnett, who left UW-Stevens Point’s coaching staff as an assistant last season to take a similar role at UW-L, was a reluctant leader. He was in charge only because UW-L coach Ken Koelbl was serving a one-game suspension handed down by WIAC commissioner Gary Karner.
So you can forgive Bonnett for simply walking off the court once UW-L (8-9, 3-5) had beaten the Falcons (7-10, 1-7) and downplaying what had just happened.
“You really don’t have time to think about something like (being the head coach),” said Bonnett, who like Koelbl had served under former Stevens Point coach Jack Bennett before coming to UW-L.
“You’re thinking about making sure you’re running the right plays and making the right substitutions. You don’t get caught up in everything that’s going on around you.”
The one thing that did hit home with Bonnett was the fact the Eagles had played arguably their best game of the season.
He saw freshman guard Tony Mane score a game-high 23 points. He saw junior point guard Brandon Brown, still working his way back into playing shape after missing five games with a high (right) ankle sprain, score 19 points. And he saw senior guard Chris Fehrenbach score 14 and become the 14th player in UW-L history to surpass 1,000 career points.
Both Brown and Fehrenbach saw something, too. Namely, a team that would find a way to overcome last week’s losses to both UW-Platteville (74-65) and UW-Oshkosh (81-68) no matter what.
“Losing those two games was a big letdown because we felt like we played well,” Brown said. “We were determined to get this win.”
“We came together tonight,” Fehrenbach said. “We knew we had to battle not only for coach Koelbl, but also coach Bonnett, (assistant) coach (Doug) Russell and all of the assistants.”
Bonnett was grateful the Eagles did just that. He also was grateful to someone who made his job a lot easier Wednesday.
“(Koelbl) had this team prepared,” Bonnett said. “He’s a real mentor to me, and this is his victory.”
Kirk Bey can be reached at (608) 791-8414, or at kbey@lacrossetribune.com
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