Kathi Bennett, the women's head basketball coach at Indiana over the last

five seasons, today announced that she has resigned her position. The Lady

Hoosiers are 10-17 on the season and just 3-13 in Big Ten play. Bennett is

72-74 in her five years at Indiana. She will coach the team through the

end of the season including a Big Ten tournament game against Wisconsin this Thursday

at 3 pm.

After struggling through a 10-17 regular season, women's basketball coach

Kathi Bennett will be coaching her final games for Indiana this week at the Big

Ten tournament at Conseco Fieldhouse. Here is the

official press release from Indiana:

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. - Indiana University head women's basketball coach Kathi

Bennett has announced a decision to leave her position with the school at the

end of the season.

Bennett has a 72-74 record in five seasons at Indiana and a 296-177 career

record in 17 seasons as a head coach. She opened her Hoosier tenure with a 20-11

record in 2000-01. In 2002, she led Indiana to the Big Ten Tournament

Championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. Indiana became the lowest

seeded team (No. 5) to win the Big Ten Tournament, upending top-seeded Purdue,

55-41, and second-seeded and regular season champion Penn State, 75-72 en route

to the crown.

During her tenure, the Hoosiers have knocked off two top 10 teams, three top

15 teams and six top 25 teams. Bennett became the first coach in school history

to defeat at least one nationally-ranked opponent in each of her first three

seasons.

Bennett also boasts substantial international coaching experience. She led

the 2004 Big Ten Foreign Tour team to a perfect 4-0 record in Australia and she

served as assistant coach of the 2003 Pan American Games two summers ago.

Although she is leaving, Bennett says the Hoosier program has a promising

future.

" First of all, I would like to thank the administration and the university

for the opportunity to be a part of such a great program for five years," said

Bennett. "It has been truly rewarding, and I appreciate being a part of such a

great tradition. While I have found this experience very rewarding, at this time

I also feel that it is mutually best for myself and for the IU women's

basketball program to go in a different direction. This team has a lot of

potential, and Hoosier fans should look forward to watching them achieve success

in the coming years."

Indiana Director of Athletics Rick Greenspan appreciates Bennett's efforts

during her tenure.

"In the short time that I have worked with Coach Bennett, I have seen nothing

but hard work from her and her players," said Greenspan. "She has worked

extremely hard and we thank her for everything she has done for this program.

Her passion, dedication and hard work will be missed here at Indiana. We wish

her the best in her future endeavors."

Although Greenspan did not specify a timetable, he intends to work

expeditiously to find the next Indiana coach.

"We will form a search committee that will represent a broad cross section of

constituents involved," Greenspan said. "We will use the search committee as we

have in the past - to provide wisdom, guidance and support in determining the

characteristics and attributes that will be ideal in the next head coach.

"I know that Kathi will continue to work hard in the transition period,

monitoring the players' academic progress and offseason conditioning program,"

Greenspan said. "We will follow the proper professional protocol in our search

and not interfere with other teams' postseason play. The new head coach will

have the opportunity to build their staff at their own discretion.

"We're looking for a coach with proven success, a great academic profile and

unquestioned integrity," Greenspan continued. "We want someone with a passion

for recruiting and building a highly-successful program in the classroom and on

the court."