Dean Vander Plas and his wife, Mary, have University of Virginia gear in their wardrobes, and the collection of sports memorabilia in their Minneapolis home includes a UVA pennant and photos taken on a historic night at U.S. Bank Stadium.
That arena in downtown Minneapolis, of course, is where the Cavaliers won the NCAA men’s basketball championship in April 2019, and the Vander Plases were among the thousands of fans cheering for Tony Bennett’s team at the Final Four. Even so, a little redecorating is in order as the weekend approaches.
“I’m turning all the pictures over,” Dean Vander Plas said with a laugh Monday night. “I’m taking them down. They’ll go back up eventually, but we’re bleeding green this week.”
Bennett won’t hold that against his former University of Wisconsin-Green Bay teammate. Vander Plas’ younger son, Ben, starts at forward for Ohio University, UVA’s opponent Saturday in the first round of the NCAA tournament.
“I just love that family and love Dean,” Bennett said Monday night.
The Wahoos (18-6), seeded No. 4 in the West Region, meet the 13th-seeded Bobcats (16-7) at Assembly Hall in Bloomington, Indiana. TruTV will televise the 7:15 p.m. game.
Dean Vander Plas, above, coached for many years at Ripon High School, where his teams regularly faced Winneconne High, coached by Sam Hauser’s father, Dave. (Contributed photo)
Ben Vander Plas, who played for his father at Ripon High School in Wisconsin, is averaging 12.8 points and 5.7 rebounds, and the 6-foot-8 redshirt junior leads Ohio in steals and blocked shots. He’s second on the team in assists.
“His dad was a great teammate,” Bennett said. “So physical and so tough, and actually as I’m watching Ben play, I’m starting to see some of the similarities. He’s really having a good year.”
The younger Vander Plas’ full given name is Bennett, and that’s no coincidence. It’s a tribute to Dick and Anne Bennett and their three children: Tony, Kathi and Amy.
“Mary and I think the world of their whole family,” Dean Vander Plas said.
Like Tony Bennett, Dean Vander Plas is in the Green Bay athletic hall of fame. As teammates, they helped the Phoenix earn the program’s first NCAA tournament berth in 1991. Their head coach was Dick Bennett.
The younger Bennett was a sharp-shooting guard who led the Phoenix in scoring. The 6-foot-5 Vander Plas, who later had a tryout at tight end for the Green Bay Packers, protected his smaller teammate on the court and helped free Bennett for many of those shots.
Tony Bennett, left, was a high-scoring guard in his father Dick Bennett’s teams at Wisconsin-Green Bay; among his teammates were Dean Vander Plas, whose son plays for Ohio University. (Contributed photo)
“He used to set Jack Salt screens,” Bennett said. “Dean was so wide and so tough. He could really play, and he would always say, ‘If somebody’s giving you a hard time, bring them my way.’”
Connections abound in this UVA-Ohio matchup. When Ben Vander Plas, who grew up in Ripon, Wisconsin, was in the first grade, his teammates on the Fox Valley Skillz included a towheaded second-grader named Sam Hauser.
That’s the same Sam Hauser who now, as a fifth-year senior, leads Virginia in scoring and was named to the All-ACC first team this month.
Hauser was then living in Winneconne, Wisconsin, where his father, Dave, was head boys basketball coach at the local high school.
“Dave was a heck of a coach,” Dean Vander Plas said. Ripon and Winneconne were in the same league, “so we’d play them two times a year. One year, when we both had really, really good teams, we played them three times.”
Neither Sam Hauser nor Ben Vander Plas remembers much about their time together on the Fox Valley Skillz travel team – “It was a long time ago,” Ben said, laughing – but they played against each other periodically in AAU ball as they grew older, and they’ve stayed in touch over the years.
