Tony Bennett walked into the first team meeting of the season earlier this month, and in his hand he held a DVD.

“Enjoy this,” he said, looking around the room full of players. On the DVD was a highlight reel of all the great moments from last season.

And so for about five minutes, the team that revived basketball in this town relived the season that changed everything here.

They watched the fans rush the court after Gonzaga. Watched the sweep of UW. They watched, one more time, how greatness was born. Then Bennett flipped on the lights, popped the DVD out of the player, and raised it up for everyone to see.

“This was last season,” he said. And then he dropped it into the garbage can below.

Instinctively, every arm in the room jerked toward the falling highlight reel, but the coach made it clear this was exactly what he had in mind.

“Guys,” he said, “last year’s over.” And this is the biggest challenge facing the 2007-08 men’s basketball team. Making sure last season, and all the glory and expectations it brought this program, doesn’t trip it up for this one.

In 12 months, the Cougars have gone from the targeters to the targets. No longer do they live in the shadows of the more famous programs, and if they were still sneaking up on people late last season, they won’t be now. Bennett has been hearing all the talk of top 10 and national championship contenders, and he had strong message of caution for his team.

“Take from last year what can help us: the experience you gained, playing with expectations, just the different things that have helped us,” he said as he stood over the garbage can, the metaphoric burial of last season. “Take that and remember that and use that the right way. But don’t think your status or success is going to help you win ball games like people are going to be intimated (by you) or anything like that.” “When he dropped that (DVD), I was like ‘no,’” senior Kyle Weaver said. “It was a great point, though. Because we can’t play with that confidence or that same feeling as if we can repeat just based on last year. That can’t happen. I think guys realize that.” Strange, really. If ever there were a group that didn’t need a lesson on how hard they had to work to achieve success, it would be Weaver and the other big three recruits – Derrick Low, Robbie Cowgill and Daven Harmeling – who took a chance on a little town called Pullman years back.

Back then, when the program was in shambles, no one gave them a chance at doing this.

“I didn’t imagine it happening like this,” Cowgill said. “They were selling us on turning around the program, and I was like, ‘Yeah, I believe in this.’ But I had no idea what that was going to look like. To be honest, I didn’t come in with these grandiose visions. I kind of wish I had looking back.” “If you would have told me this three years ago, I would have laughed at you,” Weaver admitted.

Now, one trip through the new basketball offices, and it’s clear how far this program has come in recent years.

Big plasma televisions are on the walls. Nice leather couches fill the room. You can even smell the fresh paint on the walls.

It has all the makings that every rich program seems to have. But as quickly as you might think they may get wound up in all the elegance and prestige that comes with this, there are reminders in the rooms of just what this team’s true identity is.

One wall is filled with pictures of players, on the court, around town and their experiences on the Australia trip.

On another wall is a mural of the foundation this program. The five principles of Cougar Basketball, something Dick Bennett always built his teams on and something dear to all the players’ hearts.

Humility. Passion. Unity. Servanthood. Thankfulness.

“We’re never going to lose that fighter mentality,” Bennett said. “We’re kind of always going to be an underdog program.” The long-awaited sequel to the Cinderella Story starts in two weeks. And if nothing else is clear quite yet about what the season ahead holds, this much is.

Success hasn’t taken the humble out of Cougar basketball.