Ernie Kent’s job status is the single most intriguing story line going into the Pacific-10 Tournament this week in Los Angeles.
It’s the proverbial elephant in the room. He won’t address it directly, and Monday media day was cut short because there were too many questions about Kent’s job posed to him and senior guard Tajuan Porter.
“I’m not going to comment on that at all,” Kent said Monday. “I have a lot of love for this institution and I’m going to take this basketball team as far as I can and I’m going to focus on coaching my basketball team right now.”
Kent did address the topic indirectly, however, saying that the plan has always been to meet with athletic director Mike Bellotti after the Pac-10 Tournament. He also said there is no hard feelings to how fans and media have gone after him this winter.
“I have no resentment in me at all. I love this school. I really do,” Kent said. “I love this community and I love this school. There’s no resentment. You’re in a business of college basketball. In this day and age with the Internet, players are going to get beat up, coaches are going to get beat up. My job is to guide them through that and how they handle themselves.”
Both Porter and junior LeKendric Longmire were candid with the media after Saturday’s win against Washington State, saying they both supported Kent and hoped he would be back next season to coach at the new Matthew Knight Arena. One can sense they too are drawing near the end of their patience.
“The media bash him a lot; people around Eugene bash him because we’re not doing well,” Porter said Saturday. “He’s a strong man, and he’s never changed. He keeps coming back. He never gives up on us.”
“He’s been there for us all,” Longmire said after the WSU game. “He’s not one of those coaches you can’t necessarily go and talk to and relate to. He relates to all of his players. There’s numerous amount of issues that go on with the team that people don’t understand that he has helped us with. He’s like a father figure to many of us that are from single-parent homes. That means a lot to us.”
With Kent’s future as the backdrop for the team’s preparation for their Wednesday game against the Cougars, the Ducks say there is no distraction, and it’s just business as usual.
“I block it out,” Longmire said Saturday. “I act as if it really doesn’t exist because the thing about it is there’s not one thing that I can do to control it. My late grandma told me don’t worry about things that are not necessarily in your control. So I don’t.”
Kent is hoping his team has another run in them. The Ducks are coming in having won three of their last four games, and they have beaten the Cougars twice this season already.
“It’s championship week,” Kent said. “It’s March Madness and it’s going to be a good week for us. We are anxious to get out of town and get on that plane.”
The team is determined to make a run in the tournament, but Kent says Oregon will play in any postseason tournament, whether it be a magical run to the NCAA Tournament, or even the College Basketball Invitational.
“The thing for Oregon is that this team needs to grow as much as it can,” Kent said. “You embrace any opportunity you can to play in a postseason tournament because it’s great growth and development for next year.”
All-conference awards came out Monday. Freshman forward E.J. Singler was named an Pac-10 All-Freshman Team Honorable Mention — the only Duck to be named to any of the teams. Singler averaged six points per game and 4.2 rebounds a game. Porter was voted team MVP as well.
“We don’t really have an MVP on this team,” Porter said. “I don’t consider myself the MVP. … There were a lot of players who stepped up on this time. J.J., Malcolm did awesome this season. Everybody stepped up from game to game. It’s a tremendous honor for me.”
Oregon’s game against Washington State will be televised on Fox Sports Northwest at 8 p.m.
on Wednesday.
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