Under the Radar Game of the Day for Friday, Nov 13 — Vermont at Eastern Michigan

Posted on November 13, 2015 by Chad

Vermont at Eastern Michigan, 11:00 AM Eastern, espn3

For a preview of other highlighted games this weekend, CLICK HERE.

Welcome to the 2015-16 college basketball season!

The season tips off this year, as it does almost every year, in Ypsilanti, Michigan as the Eastern Michigan Eagles out of the MAC will be hosting the America East’s Vermont Catamounts.  As this is the first official game between two Division I programs, it is also our first Under the Radar Game of the Day.  The UTR Game of the Day will be coming to you almost every day between now and the first week in March, spotlighting games involving teams that are not in the nine historically multi-bid leagues (ACC, Big East, Big 12, Big Ten, Pac 12, SEC, American, Atlantic Ten and Mountain West) and that are not currently ranked in the Top 25 (sorry Wichita State and Gonzaga!).  We will be focusing in on games of note for one reason or another, and trying to have a lot of fun doing it.  Of course, don’t miss our weekly Under the Radar video podcasts either, where members of the HOOPS HD crew will go into even more in-depth analysis of some of our favorite programs that are not on being discussed by the national media.

 For today’s game, Eastern Michigan has developed a very “Under the Radar” tradition in the past few years of almost always playing the very first game of the college hoops season (though last year Eastern Washington hosted Texas Southern at some ridiculously early hour on the west coast to trump the Eagles).  Most years the game is played against a non-D1 opponent, but not this season.  The Eagles welcome in the Vermont Catamounts for what could be an entertaining game, especially if the Eagles can get their fans pumped up for some Friday morning hoops!

 EMU was a solid 21-14 last season, finishing in fourth place in the MAC’s West Division and advancing to postseason play in the CBI, where they fell in the first round to Louisiana-Monroe.  Unfortunately for the Eagles, only one starter returns from that squad.  The good news is that player is Raven Lee, who finished second in the conference in scoring at 16.7 points per game.  Lee, who is only a junior, should post even bigger numbers this season as he will be the Eagles first, second and probably third option on offense each time down the court.

 Vermont, in contrast to EMU, returns four starters from last year’s team that went 20-15 and finished tied for second place in the America East.  Vermont’s season was also ended by Louisiana-Monroe last year, in the semifinals of the CBI.  This year’s team should be led by Ethan O’Day, and bolstered by the addition of Hofstra transfer Darren Payne.  Although the top of the America East looks stacked this season (with the likes of Albany, Stony Brook and New Hampshire all expected to contend), the Catamounts are definitely eyeing the conference championship and a chance to return to the Big Dance for the first time since 2012.  They are also going for their 8th straight 20 win season, the longest current run by any New England team (and yes, that is a longer streak than UConn).

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Highlighted Games: Fri Nov 13, Sat Nov 14th, Sun Nov 15th (OPENING WEEKEND!!)

Posted on November 13, 2015 by David Griggs

For a complete viewing guide for all games, check out MattSarzSports.com by CLICKING HERE

FRIDAY, NOV 13TH

-BELMONT AT MARQUETTE (***Spotlight Game***).  On the surface this may not look like much, but Belmont returns a ton from last year’s team that finished strong and made the NCAA Tournament.  If they want an at-large bid, this is the kind of game they need to win, and I think it’s the kind of game they’re capable of winning.  Marquette should be much improved, and this is a good test for them to see if they actually are.

-SFA AT BAYLOR (***Spotlight Game***).  Baylor is a good team, and beating them at home is a very tall order, but SFA’s schedule is so weak that they really do need to win a game like this if they want any shot at an at-large, and this appears to be the best game on SFA’s schedule.  If they win this one, they’ll have a chance.  If they don’t, then they pretty much need to win the rest of them.

-PORTLAND STATE AT GRAND CANYON.  Your Lopes ladies and gentlemen!!  The Lopes are the Team of the People!!  They open what we feel can turn out to be their best season since moving up to div1 tonight, and you can watch your Lopes live by CLICKING HERE!!  They’re one of the best teams in the WAC, but are ineligible for the NCAA Tournament due to being a transitional program.  They need a waiver!!  Tweet at the NCAA!!  Emaill the NCAA!  Call the NCAA!  Let’s make this happen!!  #LopesWaiver

-VERMONT AT EASTERN MICHIGAN.  Highlighted only because it is the first official game of the 2015-2016 season, and the winner will be leading all of college basketball for a few short hours!!!

-COLORADO VS IOWA STATE (Souix Falls, SD).  We feel Iowa State will contend for a high seed.  We’re not expecting much out of Colorado, but a win in a game like this can catapult them a long way in a hurry.  I don’t know why this game is in Sioux Falls.

-PITTSBURGH AT GONZAGA (Okinawa, Japan).  Twelve hour flights make me want to ram my head against the wall.  This is about an eighteen hour flight for both teams.  We feel Gonzaga will contend for a high seed and that Pitt will struggle to make the field.  This would be a huge win on Pitt’s profile and really change the complexion of their season if they’re able to pull it of.

-NORTH CAROLINA VS TEMPLE (Annapolis, MD).  I’m expecting this one to end badly for Temple.  UNC is ranked #1, and I don’t feel they’re overrated.

-SIENA AT DUKE.  I realize this is a buy game, but it’s interesting enough to be with the highlights because Siena is a potential sleeper in the MAAC.  That being said, this is probably way too tall of an order.

-CHATTANOOGA AT GEORGIA.  Another buy game with higher than buy game interest.  Chattanooga is our pick to win the SoCon, and if they want to do the seemingly impossible and land inside the bubble, these are the kinds of games they need to win.  Georgia is a team that we think will make the tournament.  Well, some of us think that, anyway.  It should be a fun matchup.

-UTRVG @ MIAMI FL.  A huge mismatch of a game, but we highlight it so we can officially welcome UTVRG into existence!!!  We’re not just merely welcoming them to div1.  We’re welcoming them into existing as a basketball program!!

-JAMES MADISON AT RICHMOND.  James Madison is really good this year, and some of us feel they can land inside the bubble.  Richmond isn’t exactly a world beater, but they are likely a challenging team to go on the road and beat.  But, it’s the kind of game that an at-large team is expected to be able to win, so JMU will be tested right out of the gate.

-NORTHEASTERN AT BOSTON U.  Hoops HD is collectively not as big on Northeastern as I am.  I think they can be an at-large team.  But, to do that they need to win on the road, and they certainly need to do it against teams of the caliber of Boston U (no offense, but BU is not exactly an at-large caliber team).  I hope they don’t embarrass me because if they do, I’ll not soon hear the end of it.

-NORTH FLORIDA AT ILLINOIS.  We believe North Florida to be the best team in the Atlantic Sun and Illinois to be below the middle of the standings in a very strong Big Ten.  That makes for a potentially interesting game.

-WILLIAM & MARY AT NC STATE.  A really good game here between two tournament hopefuls.  I like this William & Mary team, and a win tonight would be hugely important to their profile and to their at-large chances.  Many think they’re an outside shot at best, but that will start to change if they can get wins in games like this.

-NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT UC DAVIS.  This may seem like an odd game to highlight, but I like this NDSU team, and could see them ending up around the bubble if they win the games they’re supposed to.  That would include this one, BTW.

-UTAH STATE AT WEBER STATE.  Utah State is one of the Hoops HD sleepers.  Starting things off with a win on the road against a rival would be huge.

-WOFFORD AT MISSOURI.  Not only can Wofford win this game, I expect them to.

-BOISE STATE AT MONTANA.  Boise is a team that most of us are expecting to land inside the bubble.  Whenever you open the season on the road in a game like this it’s an early test, but it’s a chance to get a road win on their profile against a team that will likely be strong at home this year, and although that doesn’t set the world on fire, it is at least noteworthy when looking at a team’s profile.

-UAB AT AUBURN.  An intriguing in-state match up between two tournament hopefuls.  This game is probably bigger for UAB seeing as how they have far fewer chances on their schedule to pick up quality wins.  I’d go so far to say that even though it’s the season opener it has a huge sense of urgency to it for UAB since they have so few chances.  The media isn’t as big on Auburn as we are, but it wouldn’t shock me at all to see them inside the bubble come March.

-ILLINOIS STATE AT SAN DIEGO STATE.  Illinois State appears to be around the middle of the Missouri Valley, but some of us feel they are a potential sleeper.  If they can pull off a win like this in their season opener, they won’t be a sleeper anymore.

-TEXAS AT WASHINGTON (Shanghai, China).  Shaka Smart officially makes his debut at Texas!!  And he’s going half way around the world to do it!!

 

SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 14TH

-COLORADO STATE AT NORTHERN IOWA.  Both teams are in big time rebuilding mode and I’m not expecting much out of either one, but it’s a slow day and one of these teams is gonna start off with a win.

-HARVARD AT PROVIDENCE.  The thing about the Ivy League is that the teams don’t need to play their way inside of the bubble in case they lose in the conference tournament because their is no conference tournament, so the same sense of urgency isn’t quite there in November and December.  But, this is a game between a tournament hopeful who could end up hovering around the #12 line in Harvard, and a likely tournament team in Providence.  The styles are contrasting, so this one should be fun.

-UCF AT DAVIDSON.  I don’t think this is a buy game, but I do think it is a rather big mismatch and may end up looking like one.  Davidson should roll.

 

SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15TH

-WAKE FOREST AT BUCKNELL.  Kind of an odd road game for a Wake team that should be much improved this year.

-IONA AT VALPARAISO.  Most casual fans won’t think of it this way, but this is a great game between what we believe to be the best team in the MAAC in Iona, and what we believe to be a potential at-large caliber team in Valpo.  If Iona can pull off the win, it could be a bigger win on their profile than what most people currently realize.  Both teams are good.

-NORTH DAKOTA STATE AT ILLINOIS.  I like this North Dakota State team, and it’ll be interesting to see what they can do against Illinois.  It’s a big opening weekend for the Bison.

 

BUY GAMES (Brought to you by Hostess)

-Northwestern State @ Ole Miss (Friday)
-Wagner @ Saint John’s (Friday).  The Johnnies looked so bad in their first exhibition game that it wouldn’t shock me if they lost.
-Niagara @ Old Dominion (Friday).  I like ODU, but they have a somewhat smaller margin for error.
-North Carolina A&T @ Purdue (Friday)
-Albany @ Kentucky (Friday).  For buy game standards, this one isn’t bad.  Albany is one of the better teams in the America East, but they’re punching way over their heads in this one.
-Northern Kentucky @ West Virginia (Friday)
-Prairie View A&M @ VCU (Friday)
-Western Carolina @ Cincinnati (Friday)
-Mount Saint Mary’s at Maryland (Friday)
-Morgan State at Virginia (Friday).  Virginia plays very few cupcakes.  This is one of them.
-Southeast Missouri @ Dayton (Friday)
-Northern Michigan (nondiv1) @ Michigan (Friday).  Why??
-UNC Asheville @ Tennessee (Friday)
-Lehigh @ Syracuse (Friday)
-Eastern Illinois @ Indiana (Friday)
-Florida Atlantic @ Michigan State (Friday)
-Samford @ Louisville (Friday)
-Fairleigh Dickinson @ Villanova (Friday)
-Miami OH @ Xavier (Friday)
-Sacramento State @ Arizona State (Friday).  The Curtain of Distraction!!!!
-Maine @ UConn (Friday)
-Saint Francis U @ Notre Dame (Friday)
-Northern Colorado @ Kansas (Friday)
-Tennessee Martin @ Oklahoma State (Friday)
-UMass Lowell @ Northwestern (Friday)
-Charleston Southern @ Wichita State (Friday)
-UMBC @ Wake Forest (Friday)
-American @ Rhode Island (Friday).  Rhody is one of the better teams in the A10 this year.
-Austin Peay at Vanderbilt (Friday)
-UTSA @ Loyola Chicago (Friday).  I think Loyola was much improved last year, and even more improved this year.
-Kennesaw State @ Alabama (Friday).  The Avery Johnson era begins at Bama
-IPFW @ Valparaiso (Friday)
-Utah Valley @ BYU (Friday)
-McNeese State @ LSU (Friday)
-Western Illinois @ Wisconsin (Friday)
-Eastern Washington @ Mississippi State (Friday)
-Pacific @ Arizona (Friday)
-Chadron State (nondiv1) @ South Dakota State.  SDSU is a good team, but they’re not exactly swinging for the fences in their opener.
-Pepperdine @ Fresno State (Friday)
-Jackson State @ Oregon (Friday)
-Southern Utah @ Utah (Friday)
-Monmouth @ UCLA (Friday)
-Rice @ California (Friday)
-Northwest Christian @ Oregon State (Saturday)
-Radford @ Georgetown (Saturday)
-Central Arkansas @ Tulsa (Saturday)
-Norfolk State @ South Carolina (Saturday)
-The Citadel @ Butler (Saturday)
-NJIT @ Kentucky (Saturday)
-Bryant @ Duke (Saturday)
-Mount Saint Mary’s @ Ohio State (Sunday)
-Vermont @ Purdue (Sunday)
-Robert Morris @ Cincinnati (Sunday)
-Nicholls State @ Florida State (Sunday)
-Southeast Missouri @ Evansville (Sunday)
-Fairfield @ North Carolina (Sunday)
-Coppin State @ Iowa (Sunday)
-South Alabama @ NC State (Sunday)
-Siena @ Wisconsin (Sunday)
-Cal Poly @ UCLA (Sunday)

Posted in News and Notes | 1 Comment

Season preview: Wake Forest coach Danny Manning

Posted on November 12, 2015 by Jon Teitel

There are a lot of good coaches in college basketball…but there is only 1 who scored 2500+ PTS as a player and won NCAA titles as both a player and assistant.  Danny Manning’s resume on the court is as stacked as this year’s ACC: undefeated state champ as a junior in high school, 3-time Big 8 POY and 1988 national POY/tourney MOP at Kansas, #1 overall pick in the 1988 NBA draft, 2-time All-Star during his 15-year pro career, and a 2008 inductee into the College Basketball Hall of Fame.  His coaching career is looking pretty sweet as well: 2008 NCAA title as assistant to Bill Self at his alma mater, 2014 C-USA COY at Tulsa, and now he is running the show for the Demon Deacons.  HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to chat with Bob Davis, 13-time winner of the Kansas Sportscaster of the Year Award who was the play-by-play radio voice of the Jayhawks during Manning’s career in Lawrence, about the magical 1988 NCAA tourney and why Coach Manning got back into the college game on the sideline after the end of his pro playing days.

manning

Danny was a 1984 McDonald’s All-American after playing in Lawrence, KS: did he always know that he was going to stay in the area for college, and how high were the expectations when he arrived on campus? He only played his senior year of high school in Lawrence after his family moved here from North Carolina so his father Ed could become an assistant under head coach Larry Brown. My 1st year here was his freshman year, but people were obviously hopeful he would come to school here. His high school team finished 2nd in the state after losing the 6A title game to Wyandotte High and he was named the 1984 state high school POY.

What are your memories of the 1985 NCAA tourney (Manning scored 7 PTS but missed a 16-footer at the buzzer in a 2-PT loss to Auburn)? I thought that Auburn was really good even though Charles Barkley was gone by then. That Kansas team was very young and was developing as a team but you could still see the possibilities down the road.

What are your memories of the 1986 NCAA tourney (he scored 4 PTS (2-9 FG) before fouling out in a 4-PT loss to eventual national runner-up Duke)? He got in foul trouble, as did a few of his teammates, but they were still in the ball game. Duke had Jay Bilas/Johnny Dawkins, and even though I am biased I still thought we were the better team that night. I would have liked to see a rematch against eventual champion Louisville because we had already beaten them twice that season.

What are your memories of the 1987 NCAA tourney (he scored 42 PTS in 40 minutes while taking 26 of his team’s 45 shots and 12 of the team’s 14 FT in 4-PT win over Missouri State)? The team needed him to have that big game, as Missouri State had a pair of really good guards. It was a low-scoring game and he just happened to have 1 of his career games. He had to be much more of a force during his junior year because the team had lost a lot of talent from the previous year.

Take me through the magical 1988 NCAA tourney:
The team was nicknamed “Danny and the Miracles”: who came up with the nickname, and how did Danny and/or the team like it? I do not know who came up with that: it could have been 1 of many people. Danny did not like taking all the credit but his teammates thought that it was kind of fun. Larry demanded that the offense run through Danny but that group was better than people gave them credit for.

He had 31 PTS/18 REB/5 STL in a 4-PT win over Oklahoma to win the title in Kansas City and be named tourney MOP: what did it mean to him to win the title, and how much of a home-court advantage did they have? I do not think it hurt to play only 50 miles from the campus in Kemper Arena: they played a lot of games there. The Sooners beat them twice during the regular season and had a magnificent year themselves, but it just came down to who was better in the final game.

He was a 3-time Big 8 POY, 1988 national POY, 2-time All-American, and later named Big 8 Player of the Decade: what did it mean to him to win such outstanding honors? Obviously anyone enjoys receiving honors like that, but he has always been a pretty humble guy. Even today he deflects praise and is more of a team guy.

He remains the all-time leading scorer in Big 12 history and the Jayhawks’ all-time leading rebounder: did people realize at the time how prolific a player he was, and do you think that anyone will break his records? Kansas had great players like Wilt Chamberlain/Clyde Lovellette but not many guys with Danny’s stats these days end up staying all 4 years. He deferred a bit to his older teammates during his 1st 2 seasons, but he was unbelievably good and took over during his final 2 seasons. He was also a great defender. After getting hurt in the NBA he had time to study a lot of techniques, which is how he became such a great teacher (like with the Morris twins).

He is 1 of 3 players ever with 2900+ PTS/1100+ REB (Lionel Simmons/Oscar Robertson), and 1 of 2 players over 6’9” to ever score 2500+ PTS (along with his 1988 Olympic teammate David Robinson): do you consider him to be 1 of the best players in NCAA history, and how big a factor was his height in his success? I consider him to be 1 of the best. His height was nice but he was so versatile that he could have played well even if he was a 6’5” guard.

He won a bronze medal at the 1988 Olympics after getting into foul trouble and failing to score in a 6-PT loss to the Soviet Union in the semifinals (which he later called “1 of the biggest disappointments of my life”): how devastating was that loss? I am sure that all those guys took that loss hard.

In the summer of 1988 he was drafted 1st overall by the Clippers: did he see that as a validation of his college career, or the realization of a lifelong dream of reaching the NBA, or other? It was the next chapter for him: his dad had also been in the NBA.

He scored 14 PPG during his career, was a 2-time NBA All-Star (1993/1994), and in 1998 he was named NBA 6th Man of the Year: how satisfied is he with his professional career? I would have loved to see him if he was 100% healthy during his whole career. He is not the kind of guy who tells stories for hours and hours so I am not sure exactly how he feels about it.

He played only 26 games as a rookie after undergoing arthroscopic knee surgery due to a torn ACL, but later became the 1st NBA player to ever return from reconstructive surgeries on both knees: how much of an impact did his knees have on his legacy, and how good do you think he would have been if he had an injury-free pro career? I think that he would have been 1 of the premier players in the NBA if he had been healthy. He still has a great legacy despite the injuries: to come back from 3 ACL injuries is just mind-boggling.

Despite making over $50 million in salary before he retired, he returned to campus to work for the basketball team and in 2008 he won a title as an assistant coach when tourney MOP Mario Chalmers scored 18 PTS and made a 3-PT shot with 2 seconds left in regulation en route to 7-PT OT win over Memphis: why did he go into coaching, and how did winning a title as a coach compare to winning a title as a player? I know that he had a great influence on the team going into the Final 4 in terms of what effect it would have on the rest of their lives. He enjoyed the 2008 title but was happier to watch the players get to celebrate. I think he and his family just wanted to come back and live in Lawrence after the end of his NBA career, which says a lot.

In 2008 he was inducted into the National Collegiate Basketball Hall of Fame: where did that rank among the highlights of his career? I went to the induction and I think he really appreciated that, as it was obviously well-deserved. He gave a nice speech: he is a very articulate guy even though he is not an extrovert.

His father Ed Manning was a former NBA player/assistant coach and an assistant coach during Danny’s college playing career: what impact did Ed have on Danny’s career, and how close were they? We saw Ed on the road a while back and they would always have a nice private visit. Ed had a lot of influence on Danny as a basketball player. When Ed was on Larry’s staff we all liked him: he was a quiet guy who had a little fire in him.

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Throwback Thursday: 1974 NCAA Tournament

Posted on November 12, 2015 by John Stalica

Today, we begin to look at the evolution of the NCAA Tournament as we know it today.

Click here for the 11-11-15 HoopsHD Report

 In 1974, only conference champions (or tournament champions in the case of conferences who held a tournament to determine their champion). One of those teams was North Carolina State, champions of the Atlantic Coast Conference. They were 24-1 going into ACC Tournament play with their only loss coming against 7-time defending champion UCLA.

The most notable team that did not make the NCAA field were the #4 Maryland Terrapins. Led by John Lucas, Tom McMillen and Len Elmore, the Terps faced the Wolfpack in the ACC Championship in Greensboro that season. Neither NC State nor Maryland committed a turnover in regulation of the ACC Championship, and the Wolfpack would ultimately win 103-100 in overtime. This was probably Lefty Driesell’s finest team at Maryland, but they would not play in any postseason, not even the NIT.

Back in 1974, only 25 teams were selected for the NCAA Tournament. For the most part, teams were placed in their natural regions (East, Mideast, Midwest and West). This was also the 2nd to last year that featured “3rd-place games” in each region; it was conceivable that a team could go 0-2 in tournament play if it received a bye into the round of 16. There was no seeding of the teams like there are today; seeds were not implemented until 1979.

In the East regional, NC State (led by David Thompson, Tom Burleson and Monte Towe) would defeat Providence and Pittsburgh to earn a return trip to Greensboro. In the Mideast regional, Marquette would defeat the Ohio Bobcats, Vanderbilt and Michigan en route to Al McGuire’s first trip to the Final Four. In the Midwest regional, Kansas would defeat Creighton and the hometown Oral Roberts Eagles to advance to Greensboro. In the West regional, UCLA had the easiest route in defeating Dayton and San Francisco to advance to the Final Four.

When the Final Four commenced in Greensboro, NC State would end UCLA’s reign of terror in an 80-77 double-overtime win. Marquette would defeat Kansas in the other half of the Final Four. On Monday night, UCLA defeated Kansas for 3rd place in the opening game. In the championship game, NC State defeated Marquette 76-64 before a national television audience on NBC for their first national title. David Thompson would be named Most Outstanding Player for the tournament.

At the Division II level, there were 44 teams selected for the tournament. As is the case today, the teams were split into 8 regions and the champions would advance to the “Elite Eight” played in Evansville, Indiana. Much like their big brother in Division I, the regionals in Division II also featured 3rd-place games in each region. The regional champions were Norfolk State, Assumption, Morgan State, Bloomsburg (PA), St. Joseph’s (IN), Southwest Missouri State (now Missouri State), New Orleans and UC-Riverside. Assumption College defeated New Orleans for 3rd place overall and Morgan State won the national title with a 67-52 win over Southwest Missouri State.

Click for a video recap of the 1974 NCAA Final Four

 

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The Hoops HD Report: Thurs, Nov 12th (Preseason Bracket Edition)

Posted on November 11, 2015 by David Griggs

Chad, who has written previews for all 32 conferences (which you can see by CLICKING HERE) unveils what he thinks the NCAA Tournament Bracket will look like on Selection Sunday.  Jon, John, Joby, and David are there to offer heavy criticism in some cases, and to say that he’s completely nuts in others.  Each member of the panel also reveals who they think will make the Final Four, and ultimately end up winning it all.

They look at the highlighted upcoming games taking place this weekend, and last but not least, reveal the team that they will be adopting and unconditionally supporting for the 2015-2016 season….

 

Below is what the final bracket looked like….

Screen Shot 2015-11-11 at 9.41.48 PM

Screen Shot 2015-11-11 at 9.41.34 PM

 

And for all you radio lovers, below is an mp3 version of the show…

Posted in Bracketology, CBB, Commentary, Daily Rundown, Podcasts, Videocasts | 1 Comment

Season preview: Washington State coach Ernie Kent

Posted on November 11, 2015 by Jon Teitel

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.

ernie

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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