The news broke during the early evening of Wednesday night: Oregon head basketball coach Ernie Kent was Notre Dame’s No. 1 candidate to fill the Fighting Irish’s head coaching vacancy.
The news finally reached a conclusion late Thursday night: Kent decided to stay at his beloved alma mater and continue coaching the up-and-coming Ducks.
But between that approximate 30-hour window, Kent’s name was being thrown around all over the nation on sports Web sites and TV stations.
Heck, he even was featured during the opening theme song of ESPN’s SportsCenter late Wednesday night.
Which, in the end, seems to have worked out to Oregon’s advantage — and you better believe Kent realizes this.
“It’s been a hectic 48 hours for me, my family, my team and the administration,” said Ken on Friday in a quick media telephone conference call. “At the same time, it’s a tribute to have a school as prestigious as Notre Dame to ask to sit down with me.”
Granted, Notre Dame is a top-notch school with a national reputation that is heads and shoulders above Oregon.
But what everybody seemed to be missing in this whole scenario is that Notre Dame’s actual basketball program is not that much better than the one Oregon has going for itself.
Kent has built a solid program during his first three seasons with the Ducks, taking them to the NIT Final Four in 1999 and then to only its second NCAA Tournament appearance in 39 years this past season.
His team lost three valuable seniors in Alex Scales, A.D. Smith and Darius Wright, but the four recruits he has coming in are, in Kent’s words, “special.”
Headlined by McDonald’s All-American Luke Ridnour — the No. 1-ranked point guard on the West Coast — the Ducks are building something in Eugene that has the potential to do great things. Ridnour will be joined by two of the top high school players in the West in forward Luke Jackson and guard James Davis. Minnesota prep standout Jay Anderson, a 6-9, 220-pound center, rounds out the class.
The foursome gives Oregon a recruiting class that was ranked No. 1 in the West.
Jackson, for one, was the first recruit to make public that half the reason he chose Oregon was because of Kent.
Kent insists that this Notre Dame experience will not affect his current recruiting this year or in the future, saying that it is “only a positive for recruiting.”
Notre Dame, on the other hand, is also on the rise after its NIT appearance this season. The Fighting Irish’s overall record of 22-15 marked their most wins since the 1986-87 season. They were boosted greatly when consensus All-American forward Troy Murphy decided to return to the school for his junior season.
But it still wasn’t enough to woo Kent, who interviewed for the job with Notre Dame athletic director Kevin White on Thursday in Washington, D.C.
Kent said that right away it was clear to both him and White that his love and loyalty belonged to Oregon and that it would be hard for him to leave.
“After sitting down with Notre Dame, I felt that there were a lot of unfinished goals at Oregon,” said the 45-year-old Kent, who was a member of the Ducks during the 1970s. “We both agreed that I still had a tremendous amount of passion and a very strong drive towards reaching those goals I have set for my program.”
That still didn’t stop White from reportedly presenting Kent with a contract offer that would have been worth $4.9 million — a seven-year deal for approximately $700,000 a season. Kent currently has three more years left on his contract at Oregon, which pays him approximately $420,000, so he proved that his decision was not about the money.
In the end, it all came down to his family, his school and the community of Eugene. Kent did grow up in Rockford, Ill., which is only a two-hour drive away from South Bend, Ind., but his family now calls Eugene home. His two eldest sons Marcus, 17, and Jordan, 15, are both prep stars at local Churchill High School and his daughter McKenzie, 14, was named after Oregon’s McKenzie River. Kent’s wife, Dianna, was raised in the nearby town of Mapleton.
So it shouldn’t have come to much surprise that Kent decided to stay. But with all of the rumors floating around that Kent was all but gone, the news that he’s staying still carried some shock value.
On the University campus at about 10:30 a.m. on Friday, junior Matt Cook was sitting on a bench near the library. When asked his thoughts about Kent, he stressed how nervous he was, as he had not quite heard the news.
“It really hasn’t hit me yet that our Coach K could leave,” Cook said. “I mean, this place loves him and he loves us. Why would he abandon us?”
When interrupted and told of Kent’s decision, a smile broke out on Cook’s face and he immediately high-fived his buddy sitting next to him.
“Oh wow!” Cook said. “I knew all along he wouldn’t leave us!”
Cook’s reaction was the consensus of Eugene. Perhaps the most interesting place to be these past few days has been on the University’s and Notre Dame’s on-line message boards, where fans have been discussing the situation in depth.
At 7:36 a.m. on Friday morning, news was starting to break that Kent was staying, and “Cold_Duck” seemed to sum up the mood of Oregon fans the best.
“I’m very impressed that Ernie Kent is turning his back on all that money,” the message read. “How often do you see that in big time sports these days? This can only strengthen his position with his players as well. I know I’m a much bigger fan of Ernie’s now. The Ducks are fortunate to have him.”
The message boards were even visited by fans from Notre Dame and in-state rival Oregon State.
“I’m a Notre Dame fan who learned about a coach (and a program) who I knew nothing about before this whole thing,” the Irish fan named “Scooper” wrote. “Kent seems like a classy guy. I will keep an eye out West to see how you do this year.”
“I have been a die-hard Beav fan since I was 5 so please understand posting on this board is not easy for me,” wrote “Beav4Life.” “But I’m compelled to because of Ernie Kent. What class. Your university is fortunate to have a loyal, sincere and respectable coach. I’ll still never root for you.”
And that was that. Kent makes his way across the nation to interview for a job that would have made him the first African-American coach in Notre Dame athletic history, given him national exposure and the possibility to move even higher up in the coaching ranks. It was also a job that would have put him smack dab in the middle of the rich prep basketball recruiting areas of the Midwest.
But he’s not going. He stayed at Oregon. He proved he’s a Duck. And wouldn’t you know, one day after turning down the job, he picked up right where he left off and went back out there on the recruiting trail.
“I want to thank Kevin White and Notre Dame for all of their interest in the Oregon program,” Kent said. “Notre Dame and I felt that because of this commitment to Oregon that is still in my heart, it was best for both parties that they move in another direction.”
So on Friday, White named Delaware coach Mike Brey as the Fighting Irish’s new men’s basketball coach.
And Oregon got the chance to declare once again that Kent is its coach for today, tomorrow and the many days and years ahead.
All’s well that ends well.