The University of Oregon has not renewed the contract of long-time men’s head basketball coach Ernie Kent. The school will begin the nation-wide search for his replacement immediately.
“You may find a better basketball coach, but I don’t think you’ll find anybody that has the passion and love that I have for this university,” said Kent, who struggled to keep his emotions in check during the press conference.
The announcement came five days after Oregon’s second-round departure from the Pacific-10 Conference Tournament, though Kent and Oregon Director of Athletics Mike Bellotti had set the plan into motion several weeks prior.
Following the Ducks back-to-back home losses to Stanford and California, Bellotti met with Kent on Feb. 22 to discuss the remainder of his coaching career. Kent said he was given the option to resign at that point or to do so at the end of the regular season.
“This was not an easy decision for me,” Bellotti said. “But unfortunately, when I looked at the past five to six years, I did not see the improvement and consistency that I hoped for, and that we need to move forward as we open our new arena and seek to reenergize and expand our season ticket base.”
Bellotti said even if Oregon were not on the verge of opening a state-of-the-art arena next season, the program would still be searching for new coaching leadership. Kent’s current staff will stay on contract until June, but their fate will ultimately rest with the new head coach.
Bellotti also mentioned he would like to have the new coach on board by the beginning of the spring term and thinks that will be a reachable goal.
For Kent, however, the scene at McArthur Court on Tuesday afternoon was quite different. An emotional one, to say the least, as dozens of reporters and media outlets sat listening to Kent for what will almost certainly be the last time.
In his opening statement Kent addressed the Feb. 22 meeting, saying with Bellotti’s offer he then had an opportunity to show not only Bellotti, but his young team, the strength of his character in finishing the season to the best of his ability.
“As uncomfortable as it might be for myself, it was no longer about me,” Kent said. “It was about (the team) and helping them to get through the adversity in their lives, and showing them one last time how to handle themselves in a very tough moment.”
Oregon won four of their final six games, but it was too little too late for Kent.
During his 13 seasons at the Oregon helm, Kent accumulated a 235-173 record, reaching the NCAA tournament five times since the year 2000. He headed two Elite Eight squads in 2002 and 2007, and was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year during the ’02 campaign.
Kent’s association with the University began in 1973 when he played under Dick Harter as a member of the infamous Kamikaze Kids, before his collegiate career was cut short with persisting knee injuries.
“When I think about Oregon I think it’s very important for all of you to understand,” Kent said with a lump in his throat. “You may find a better basketball coach. But I don’t think you’ll find anybody that has the passion and love that I have for this university.
“For whatever reason, I will always be joined at the hip with the University of Oregon, and I can say nothing but good things about it. I love this institution, I have a lot of pride in the institution, and this institution was built on the backs of a lot of great people.”
With only two seniors on this year’s squad, the question now lingering is which players will stay with the program now that the man who recruited them is no longer in the equation.
“It’s really hard right now to see Coach go,” freshman forward E.J. Singler said. “He was a great man. He was a great coach.”
Singler commented that he and the rest of the team were unaware of what was going to happen at the end of the season, keeping solely focused on the next game at hand. Despite Kent’s departure, Singler said that he plans to stay with the program.
“He’s held himself really well. He’s coached us as hard as he could and he taught us a lot of good things,” Singler added.
In a day filled with the lowest of lows for some, senior-to-be LeKendric Longmire provided a different perspective on the basketball program as it begins yet another chapter.
“With the recent news you can’t help but to feel sorry Coach and the situation that he’s currently in,” Longmire said. “But I’d also like to say that there’s a sense of hope and sense of change. We hate to see him go, but we have to be excited for the new guy that’s coming in.”
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