CORVALLIS — It was as poignant a moment as you can find in this sports world cluttered with so much trash.
Oregon head coach Ernie Kent, voice hoarse, addressed the media in the basement of Oregon State’s Gill Coliseum less than a half-hour after his team had become NIT-eligible by beating the Beavers 69-60.
Less than four feet away, on a 32-inch television, Kent’s son, Jordan, a forward for the Churchill High Lancers, was celebrating his victory in the Oregon Class 4A boys basketball title game and was also facing the media.
The camera cut to Kent’s wife, Dianna, in the crowd.
Fox Sports Net launched a Jordan Kent highlight reel, as a broadcaster interviewed the high school junior. Still, the coach was oblivious to the praise his son was receiving.
Someone told Kent that his son and wife were on the television.
“What? What am I talking to you all for?” the coach exclaimed, and leaned over the table in front of him in an attempt to see the TV. “The game’s on TV and I can’t even see it?”
It was a winning evening for the Kent family. Jordan scored a game-high 20 points to lead Churchill to a 78-46 victory over Benson that, by all accounts, was never really close. Meanwhile, in Corvallis, Jordan’s dad coached the Ducks through one of their ugliest games of the season to a victory that, finally, qualified them for the NIT (even though Oregon was not selected).
Churchill’s victory was felt by both father and son. Standing outside the Ducks’ locker room after Saturday’s game, reporters heard the coach launch into a joyous tirade after he found out that Churchill was winning by 30 points.
“How ’bout that?” Kent said. “How ’bout THAT?”
“He just went bonkers,” Oregon center Julius Hicks said afterwards.
At that point, Coach Kent didn’t know that Jordan was the star of the state title game. Along with the television exposure and the points, Jordan was named to the OSAA/US Bank All-Tournament Second Team. As the Lancers gathered at Portland’s Memorial Coliseum to accept the championship trophy, Jordan lofted the hardware above his head triumphantly, in a moment that obviously was one of the most emotional of his life.
The other Kent, meanwhile, dissected Oregon’s win over in-state rival Oregon State, but his mind was with Jordan and Dianna in Portland.
“It will definitely be a happy household in the Kent house tonight,” Kent said.
For good reason.
Emotional night for Kents as Ernie, Jordan both win
Daily Emerald
March 11, 2001
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