Named the 18th head coach in Washington State University men’s basketball history, March 31, 2014, veteran coach Ernie Kent enters his fifth season at the helm for the Cougars in 2018-19.
Kent landed on the Palouse looking to make an immediate impact at Washington State, which he did in his first four seasons. He helped mold both a reserve freshman and a reserve sophomore into the Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Years, as well as all-conference performers. He also improved WSU’s conference and overall records, as well as giving the Cougars their first Pac-12 road win in two years and their first regular season tournament championship in eight years.
In his first season (2014-15), he led WSU to its most overall wins since 2012-13 and most conference wins since 2011-12. On top of that, the team’s 70.6 points per game average marked the highest average since 2010-11 and its 14.6 assists per game marked its most since 1996-97.
Also in his first season, he led senior DaVonté Lacy to All-Pac-12 First Team honors and helped sophomore Josh Hawkinson earn Pac-12 Most Improved Player of the Year after he put together a 13.5 points and 9.2 rebounds per game improvement. Hawkinson was also named All-Pac-12 Honorable Mention as he statistically was the second-most improved scorer in the nation and the most improved rebounder in the nation. Hawkinson led the Pac-12 in rebounding with 10.8 boards per game, ranking 10th in the NCAA, while his 334 total rebounds marked a single-season WSU record, as did his 20 double-doubles, which also ranked fourth in the nation.
The following season (2015-16), Hawkinson earned All-Pac-12 Honorable mention honors for a second-straight year as a junior, as he led the Pac-12 and ranked 11th in the nation with 11.1 rebounds per game. He tied his own WSU record with 20 double-doubles, enough to lead the league and rank 12th in the nation for double-doubles. He also set a WSU record with 11-straight games with a double-double spanning from Dec. 6 until Jan. 14.
In the 2016-17 season, the Cougars matched their 2014-15 mark at 13-18 while tying for ninth in the league at 6-12. Led by Hawkinson in his senior year, the Cougars got their first sweep of Washington since 2010-11 and their first Pac-12 opponent sweep since 2011-12, with two victories over the Huskies and two over Arizona State. At the conclusion of the season, Hawkinson was named All-Pac-12 Second Team, as well as NABC Second Team All-District 20. He was also selected to participate in the Reese’s All-Star Game, was a Kareem Abdul-Jabaar Center of the Year Finalist and was a Senior CLASS Award First Team All-American. Hawkinson became WSU’s career rebounding and double-double leader with 1,015 rebounds and 56 double-doubles. Hawkinson’s 1,015 career rebounds rank him 12th all-time in the Pac-12, while his 583 in conference games only ranks eighth.
The 2017-18 season began with a 6-0 start as the Cougars captured the Wooden Legacy tournament title, knocking off Saint Joseph’s, No. 21 Saint Mary’s and San Diego State. The tournament victory marked the first since 2009-10 and gave the Cougars their best start since the same season, 2009-10. WSU also received votes in the AP Poll Nov. 27 and Dec. 4, marking the first time since Jan. 31, 2011 that WSU had received votes in the AP Poll and the first time since Dec. 27, 2010 that it received multiple votes. WSU shattered the school 3-point record with 341, bettering the previous record of 240 set in 37 games in 2010-11. Four Cougars had 66 or more 3-pointers made, including Malachi Flynn’s 77 which were tied for seventh in WSU’s single-season record books. Robert Franks also broke the record for 3-pointers in a game when he went 10-for-13 from beyond the arc against California, Jan. 13, bettering the previous mark by 1.
Off the court, Kent also led the Cougars to improvement as the team earned the Washington State Seehafer Academic Award in 2014-15, given to the team that shows the strongest positive academic progress in a given term at WSU. The Cougars won the award for just the second time, the first being in 2005. WSU’s 2.71 fall semester GPA was the highest since the fall of 2007. In Kent’s first two seasons, Junior Longrus and Josh Hawkinson each picked up Pac-12 All-Academic honors twice, as they both were named to the second team in 2014-15 (Longrus a junior and Hawkinson a sophomore) and both to the first team in 2015-16. The first team honors marked the first time a Cougar had been named to the conference all-academic first team since 2010-11 and the first time since 2008-09 that multiple Cougars were named to the first team. Hawkinson was also named to the CoSIDA Academic All-District Team, the first WSU men’s basketball student-athlete since Taylor Rochestie in 2008-09. Hawkinson was also named to the first team as a senior in 2016-17, as was the Pac-12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year. In 2017-18, WSU had three Pac-12 All-Academic honorees, with Jeff Pollard earning first team accolades, Flynn second team and Milan Acquaah honorable mention.
Prior to landing in the Palouse, the Cougars’ coach spent 13 years as the head coach at his alma mater, Oregon, beginning with the 1997-98 season until the 2009-10 season. Kent spent the last two seasons as a college basketball analyst for Pac-12 Networks after two years as an analyst for Fox Sports Net. He served as both an in-game analyst and was on the studio show, Pac-12 Playbook: Basketball, on the Pac-12 Networks since the show’s inception in 2012-13, the first year of the networks.
Kent has also been involved with the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) as he was the president during the 2011-12 season and is currently the associate executive director of the NABC.
Kent has a 325-254 (.561) mark as a head coach, having spent six seasons at the helm for Saint Mary’s in Moraga, Calif., and 13 at Oregon.
In his 13 years at Oregon, Kent compiled a 235-174 (.575) record and a 109-125 (.466) conference mark. His 109 conference wins rank 17th most in Pac-12 history (including Pacific-8 and Pacific-10 Conferences). While at Oregon, Kent led the Ducks to seven postseason appearances, including five NCAA Tournament Appearances (2000, 2002, 2003, 2007, 2008) as well as a Pac-10 regular-season (2002) and two conference tournament (2003, 2007) titles.
Kent took two Oregon teams to the NCAA Elite Eight (2002 and 2007) and guided the Ducks to the NIT Final Four on two occasions (1999, 2004). Kent helped produce four NBA First Round Draft selections and became Oregon’s all-time wins leader. He was named the 2002 Pac-10 Coach of the Year, while the NABC, USBWA and Basketball Times all recognized him as their district coach of the year, and he was one of 20 Naismith Coach of the Year finalists that season.
Under Kent’s direction, the Duck men’s basketball team ranked No. 1 amongst Pac-10 schools in the NCAA’s Academic Progress Rate several times throughout his head coaching career.
As the head coach at Saint Mary’s College in Moraga, Calif., from 1991-92 to 1996-97, Kent put together a 90-80 ledger, including a 23-8 mark in 1996-97 and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The tournament bid, the first at the school since 1989, was the result of the Gaels’ fourth conference title in school history. Kent also guided the Gaels to an 18-10 mark in 1994-95 and still ranks second on the all-time win chart at Saint Mary’s.
Kent served as an assistant at Stanford under Mike Montgomery for two years (1990-91), helping the Cardinal advance to the NIT both years and winning the NIT title in 1991.
As an assistant to Boyd Grant at Colorado State (1988-1989), Kent helped aid the Rams in their postseason bids in the 1988 NIT (advancing to the semifinals) and 1989 NCAA Tournament second round after clinching the Western Athletic Conference championship.
From 1980 through 1987, Kent lived in Saudi Arabia where he coached the al-Khaleej Club in Sayhat for three years, helping the team advance to the playoffs each year. He also worked for the Arabian American Oil Company in Dhahran.
Kent began his coaching career at his alma mater in 1977 as the freshman coach under Dick Harter and again assisted in 1979 as an understudy to Jim Haney. In between, he coached Eugene’s O’Hara Catholic School for one season.
Kent has served as head coach, assistant coach and committee member for USA Basketball, winning a pair of gold medals in 2001 and 2003. He has coached some of the world’s greatest players, including NBA All-Stars and 2008 Olympic gold medalists Carmelo Anthony, Carlos Boozer, Chris Bosh, Andre Iguodala and Deron Williams.
A 1977 graduate of Oregon with a degree in community service and public affairs, Kent averaged 7.1 points and 1.8 rebounds during his four-year basketball career with the Ducks (1974-77). He helped lead his team to a No. 8 ranking during his sophomore season. In his time as a student-athlete at UO, Kent was recognized with the Outstanding Service Award for community service and picked up the March of Dimes Outstanding Achievement Award.
A Parade Magazine All-American in 1973 at Rockford, Ill., West High School, he was also named Scholastic All-America by Scholastic Magazine. A National Honor Society member, Kent received the American Legion Outstanding Achievement Award and was named all-state in Illinois and recently inducted into the Rockford Public Schools Athletics Hall of Fame.
The Ernie Kent File
Education: Oregon, 1977 (Community Service and Public Affairs)
Coaching Experience:
1977 Oregon – Freshman Coach
1978 O’Hara Catholic School – Head Coach
1979 Oregon – Freshman Coach
1980-83 Khaleej Club in Sayhat (Saudi Arabia) – Head Coach
1988-89 Colorado State – Assistant Coach
1989-91 Stanford – Assistant Coach
1991-97 Saint Mary’s (Calif.) – Head Coach
1997-10 Oregon – Head Coach
2014-present Washington State – Head Coach
Playing Experience:
1974-77 Oregon
Family:
Children – Marcus, Jordan and McKenzie
