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By Staff and wire reports
Arizona Daily Wildcat
October 30, 1996
PHOENIX - Arizona State's Mario Bennett talked a good game. Ben Davis of Arizona showed what one looks like.
It was a fine difference yesterday as the Phoenix Suns waived Bennett, center John Coker and forward-center Marty Conlon.
The Suns will start the season with Kevin Johnson, John Williams and Mark Bryant on the injured list, so the cuts produced the 12-man roster Phoenix will submit to the NBA tomorrow.
Coach Cotton Fitzsimmons kept all four of the players - forwards Bryant, Robert Horry and Chucky Brown and guard Sam Cassell - obtained in a trade with Houston for Charles Barkley.
The quartet, along with free agent Rex Chapman and 1996 draft picks Davis and Steve Nash, represent a 50 percent turnover in last season's roster.
''I like the team,'' Fitzsimmons said. ''I like their attitude, I like their work ethic, and they'll make a good showing.''
Davis, the No. 43 pick overall in the second round, won a spot through hard work.
"I'm thrilled for Ben," Arizona head coach Lute Olson said. "The Suns told me what a great team player Ben is. Ben would go out and work hard and do the best things for his team."
''It isn't just rebounding,'' assistant coach Paul Silas said. ''He has the ability to score, and he handles himself well around the basket.''
Davis, a 6-foot-9 forward who played center part of the time for the Wildcats, averaged 14.2 points and 9.5 rebounds last season and led the Pac-10 in rebounds and double-doubles (17).
But he felt he was lucky to be drafted, and he never let down through summer play, training camp and the preseason.
''There were guys that had played six years here, five years here, and they were on the bubble, so how could I feel more confident than they were?'' Davis said.
He prepared for the worst and kept his belongings in Tucson.
''Nothing ever came easy for me, and I didn't expect this to be easy, and it wasn't,'' Davis said.
Bennett, also 6-9, had the inside track on being the Suns' future power forward after Phoenix drafted him No. 27 in the 1995 first round.
Before he declared for the draft as a junior, he set school career records in blocks (191) and field-goal percentage (58.7) and led the Sun Devils to four wins in six games against Arizona's high-profile program.
But he sat out 55 games last season after arthroscopic surgery on his left knee, went to a Los Angeles clinic in defiance of the Suns' request that he rehabilitate in Arizona, and pulled a hamstring in training camp.
By then, Bennett said, the die was cast - he told Fitzsimmons at the start of camp that he wanted to play for another team.
''I did what I had to do this summer, and they weren't happy,'' Bennett said. ''I came back ready to go, and they still weren't happy, so I didn't feel like dealing with that too much longer.''
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