Oregon head coach Ernie Kent was in St. Louis at the National Association of Basketball Coaches board of directors meetings on Wednesday, checking his cell phone in between sessions, hoping for a message from Renaissance High School’s Malik Hairston.
Would Hairston choose Oregon or Kansas, the two schools he had narrowed down from six suitors just days before?
At one point, Kent heard the rumors. But he had to know for sure.
Suffice to say, Kent got the answer he was looking for, even though it wasn’t official until Thursday. Hairston will be a Duck, starting in the 2004 season.
With that signing has come national recognition for the Ducks. But not all of that is positive.
Kent met with the media Monday for the first time since Hairston’s announcement. He spoke highly of the recruiting class — Hairston joins guards Chamberlain Oguchi, Bryce Taylor and Kenny Love; and forward Maarty Leunen — as his main subject, but he also defended his recruitment of the 6-foot-6 guard from Detroit.
Hairston made his official visit to Oregon on April 24 during a 24-hour time frame before visiting Oklahoma. Because he had missed a scheduled commercial flight — along with his parents — Kent and Oregon got him a private plane.
That, according to Kent, was just the second time in seven years that he has used a private plane for a recruit. And it only became necessary because of Hairston’s tightly packed travel schedule.
Hairston’s parents subsequently did not make the trip to Eugene, although his mother reportedly favored Oregon during the last month or so of the recruiting process.
The use of the plane has raised questions in the minds of some across the nation, including The Columbus Dispatch’s Rob Oller, who wrote on Thursday: “Oregon has a relatively unknown coach in Ernie Kent, is a three-day drive from Detroit and has about as much chance of winning a national championship as does MIT.
“But … Hairston is a teenager, and teens — and their parents — are easily influenced and impressed.”
Oller compared Kent to Ohio State head coach Jim O’Brien, who he said is “one of the game’s most honest coaches and best tacticians,” but lost in the Hairston sweepstakes.
Some have also found it ironic that Kent, who is generally against the use of private planes, used one in Hairston’s situation. ESPN.com’s Andy Katz wrote the use of the plane suggested Hairston is “royalty.” The plane, Katz said, took $21,000 to operate out to Eugene and back to Detroit, a figure not disputed by the Ducks.
Kent said the private plane was the only way to get Hairston out to Eugene. Yet, he — and some other coaches — are for possible NCAA legislation that would make it illegal to use private planes in recruiting, even though their use with Oregon’s football team is widely known around the nation. Head football coach Mike Bellotti, Kent said, is up against a different dynamic.
“The thing I am opposed about is anything that hinders educational opportunities,” he said. “They’re going to have to bring it all into perspective sooner or later.”
Hairston’s signing might open up some recruiting inroads to the Detroit area for Kent and the Ducks. The Michigan area is generally recognized as one of the better communities in the nation for high school basketball.
Oh, and he’s also learned a lot about recruiting a top 10 player. That, he hopes, might come into play again in the near future.
“There’s a lot more mudslinging,” he said. “You get attacked more. There’s a lot of stuff coming our way. But we don’t need to go there.”