Season preview: Washington State coach Ernie Kent

Ernie Kent has spent almost 2 decades a head coach in the Pacific Northwest and hopes to bring some luck to Washington State on Friday the 13th as the Cougars host NAU in their season opener.  He is best known for his time at Oregon: after playing 4 years for the Ducks in the 1970s, he later won 235 games in 13 years as head coach of his alma mater and made 5 NCAA tourneys.  Even after spending the last several years doing TV work, his 109 conference wins still ranks among the top-20 in Pac-12 history.  HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Coach Kent about coaching in Saudi Arabia and working for the National Association of Basketball Coaches.

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As a player at Oregon in the mid-1970s you were known as “Million Moves” and were part of the “Kamikaze Kids”: how did each of those nicknames come about? “Million Moves” was a nickname I got in high school from the playgrounds of Rockford, IL. “Kamikaze Kids” started during Coach Dick Harter’s 1st year: the kids were diving on the court and going over the front row as they tried to get the ball.

You spent most of the 1980s as a coach in Saudi Arabia: how did you get the job, and how did it compare to college basketball? I was coaching for Oregon when the NCAA reduced the number of assistant coaches, and I ran into a guy who knew the guy who founded the Shiite culture and owned the 2nd-largest dairy plant in the world. They had an athletic club featuring soccer, basketball, and other sports, and were looking for a coach. It was an excellent opportunity for me to start building my resume. I only planned to stay 2 years, but then I met a guy who was a VP at Aramco who was amazed that an American could adopt to their culture so well, so I worked for Aramco’s recreational department while also coaching.

In the 1991 NIT title game as an assistant to Coach Mike Montgomery at Stanford, NIT MVP Adam Keefe scored 12 PTS in a 6-PT win over Oklahoma: what did it mean to you to win a title, and how on earth was your team able to stay focused while taking their final exams right in the middle of the tourney?! When I initially came back to the US in 1987 I got a job with Boyd Grant at Colorado State. Mike had worked for Boyd a long time ago and called him to say that he was looking for an assistant, so I ended up getting a job with Mike, who was an outstanding coach. We had great kids who knew how to grind through school and balance it with basketball.

In 1997 you won the WCC title as coach of St. Mary’s: how did it feel to win the school’s only conference tourney title of the 20th century, and what was it like to face Tim Duncan in the NCAA tourney (22 PTS/22 REB in a 22-PT win by Wake Forest)? That was an incredible year: we won a tournament in Hawaii, a tourney at BYU, the regular season title, and the conference tourney title as well. Brad Millard was 7’2”, 320 pounds and battled Duncan for most of the game, but just could not hold up at the end.

In 1997 you were hired as head coach at your alma mater: how big a deal was it to become the 1st African-American head coach of any Oregon sports team in history? It was my dream job to come back there to coach, even though it took 20 years to happen: I was heartbroken when they did not call me 5 years earlier. It was a special moment for me and for other coaches around the country who reached out to me, but people did not make a big deal of it in the Northwest. We did not have much of a recruiting base at the time so it was amazing to get some great African-American kids to come play for me and my staff.

In the 2000 NCAA tourney Shaheen Holloway scored 27 PTS including a coast-to-coast drive/layup off the glass with 1.9 seconds left in a 1-PT OT win by Seton Hall: where does that rank among the most devastating losses of your career? It is #1. When we made the field I had hoped that my dad was going to be able to join us in Buffalo. However, he died of cancer so I went to bury him in Rockford, but had to leave before they actually put him in the ground.

In the 2002 NCAA tourney Fred Jones scored 4 PTS including a layup with 2.8 seconds left in a 2-PT win over Texas: how were you able to pull out the win despite getting outrebounded 41-19? We had an outstanding group of players on that team, including a trio who ended up becoming 1st round picks. We had a lot of size on our team, as well as 2 guys off the bench who shot 50% from behind the arc. Freddy did not have a good game but helped us take over: I felt that it was destiny for him to make plays at the end.

In the 2007 NCAA tourney Aaron Brooks scored 27 PTS in an 8-PT loss to defending/eventual champion Florida: where does that Gators team rank among the best you have ever seen? I think they are the best I have seen during my coaching era, as they won back-to-back titles but Coach John Wooden’s UCLA teams were the best I saw during my playing days. We had them on the ropes and were playing very physical but had a few guys foul out at the end. We had 5 guys who were 1000-PT scorers, including 3 guys who had already graduated, so we had a very experienced team.

Since leaving the Ducks you have worked as a TV analyst and as an executive of the National Association of Basketball Coaches: how did you like the 2 gigs? I started out with FOX because it helped me stay connected with the game, and then I switched over to the Pac-12 Network. I have enjoyed getting to watch teams to see how they practice, how they care about academics, etc. I served on the NABC board for over a decade and was preparing to serve as president until Oregon let me go. It was special that they still wanted me to be president even though I was no longer a coach, so I just tried to work with coaches like Tom Izzo/Jim Boeheim and help stamp my legacy on the game. I also received the chance to do a coaching clinic with Craig Robinson in China, which was wonderful.

Your son Jordan played football/basketball/track at Oregon, becoming the Pac-10’s 1st-ever 3-sport letterman: what sport was his favorite, and who is the best athlete in the family? Jordan is by far the best athlete in the family…but I wish I would have had a chance to compete against him if we were both the same age! I loved coaching both him and my other son and they taught me a lot as well.

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