The first-year basketball coach, who led the Cougars to their finest season is six decades, said Wednesday he had agreed in principle to remain for seven years at the Pullman school.

His salary and other details will be worked out after Bennett returns from this weekend's Final Four in Atlanta.

"I want to be a part of Cougar basketball," Bennett said in a conference call with reporters from Salt Lake City.

"I think our journey has just started," Bennett said. "We don't want to be a flash in the pan."

There had been speculation that Bennett, who has already won several coach of the year awards, might jump to a more prestigious program after leading the Cougars to a 26-8 record and the second round of the NCAA Tournament, where they lost 78-74 in double overtime to Vanderbilt.

Bennett, 37, and athletics director Jim Sterk have been discussing a contract extension for the past week. Bennett, who made about $350,000 plus incentives this season as the lowest-paid coach in the Pacific-10, will see a significant raise, Sterk said.

"It will be more competitive," Sterk said. "But it also takes into account it is not as expensive to live in Pullman as LA."

The contract is likely to include a variety of incentives, plus deferred compensation and a larger buyout clause, Sterk said.

Daven Harmeling, who will be a junior on the team next year, said players had expected Bennett to return.

"I think the whole team is just excited to have him back," Harmeling said. "We're looking forward to taking another step in the right direction next year."

Bennett succeeded his dad this season after Dick Bennett spent three years rebuilding one of the most downtrodden major conference programs in the nation.

The Cougars had not had a winning season since 1995-96 and qualified for the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1994, and only the fifth time in their history.

The Cougars had been predicted to finish last in the Pacific-10. Instead, they climbed to No. 9 in the Top 25, finished second in the Pac-10, and re-energized the moribund basketball atmosphere at Friel Court.

Attendance at Friel Court jumped from an average of 3,797 per game in '05-06 to 7,177 this season -- 8,869 for Pac-10 games. Sterk said that produced a $250,000 increase in ticket revenues.

Young women showed up at games with signs reading "We love you Coach Dreamy," a reference from TV's "Grey's Anatomy," and "Bringing Sexy Back to Basketball," a reference to Bennett's looks.

Bennett recruited nearly all the key players on the team, many of them ignored by other major college programs. All but senior Ivory Clark are expected back next season.

That includes guards Derrick Low and Kyle Weaver and forward Robbie Cowgill, who will all be seniors. Also expected back for their junior years are center Aron Baynes, guard Taylor Rochestie and Harmeling. Nikola Koprivica, a freshman who provided some good play before a knee injury ended his season early, is expected to recover and come back.

Bennett was an assistant at Wisconsin, and moved with his father to Pullman. The Bennetts had an informal agreement that Tony would be given a chance to succeed his father.

As this year's team tied the 1941 team for most wins in program history, Sterk and new WSU president Elson S. Floyd said keeping Bennett was one of their top priorities.

But it was feared that WSU could not match the money offered by some basketball powerhouses. An e-mail campaign among Cougars' boosters raised pledges of more than $250,000 to keep Bennett.

Tony Bennett and his wife, Laurel, built a new house in Pullman, and have said they consider it a good place to raise their children, Anna, 5, and Eli, 4.

Bennett was born in Wisconsin, played for his father at Wisconsin-Green Bay and then spent a few years in the NBA at Charlotte before moving into coaching.

Tony Bennett said he had been contacted about other college jobs, but declined to discuss them. He also recalled advice to seek a new job if he had a good season.

But he said he was grateful to Washington State for giving him a chance to be a head coach.

"I knew I wanted to be back," Bennett said, adding that his family is comfortable in Pullman, a town of 25,000 people 75 miles south of Spokane.