Russ Smith

Strong rumors coming out of Oregon have both Malik Hairston and Bryce Taylor threatening to transfer out if Ernie Kent remains the coach. APparently Kent's a bully and a real screamer and the guys on the team feel he's working a double standard with his son Jordan(and playing him ahead of better players).

But the bigger reason is apparently Kent was caught having an illicit affair in Mexico and it now turns out it's not close to the first time. Kent is a guy who recruits in large part on the idea of a family atmosphere, give me your son I'll take care of him and give you back a man, so parents of players are furious about the allegations. The official Oregon website is censoring and deleting any posts that mention the affairs or rumors of kids transferring but I hear from pretty reliable sources that Kent was caught redhanded and that Hairston is looking at Kansas and Taylor has mentioned UCLA, Arizona and possibly USC (pac 10 no longer requires 2 years sitting out if you transfer within the conference) as destinations if he doesn't stay at Oregon.

From what I'm reading there's a full scale coverup in place as they try to keep the kids from transferring while they buy time to figure out how to deal with it by either severely reprimanding Kent, or just outright firing him.

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“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

MaoTosiFanClub

It wouldn't have surprised me if Kent got canned after this season anyways with the way the Ducks have performed since their fluke Elite 8 season a few years ago. I doubt anyone transfers to another Pac-10 school because it rarely happens within a conference, but again I'm no insider so who knows.

Russ Smith

He's not a good coach I'll agree there.

Basically the deal is Kent is getting divorced and the rumor is it's because his wife caught him having an affair with the daughter of a UO alum who owns a TV station in Eugene that televises Duck games. They were shacked up in Puerto Vallarta and the wife found out. The guy is connected to Phil Knight of Nike and now rumor is Nike is really ticked off at Oregon too. Knight loaned the NIKE jet to Oregon last year to recruit both Malik Hairston and Chamberlain Oguchi, flew both kids in on the jet to impress them, both signed with Oregon, and now Knight is basically disassociating himself from UO until this situation is resolved is the rumor.

Kent is a really big morals guy, religious, stresses it, last year he kicked Ian Crosswhite off the team for violating a code of conduct policy that reportedly was really unpopular with the players. So now they hear that their coach has been cheating on his wife repeatedly for years, and allegedly even with Oregon coeds, and their parents are demanding Kent's head.

They convinced an assistant to go to Kent with their gripes, and Kent responded by firing the assistant and then announcing the guy had retired. He's since taken another job proving that wrong. Kent is a really aggressive coach ala bob KNight, verbally abusive, and apparently the kids there now are really unhappy with his coaching style and when the rumors came out, they were the final straw. Hairston and Taylor are unlikely to transfer because they won't want to sit out a year when both will likely be NBA bound after 2 years anyways, but both have reportedly told friends they're looking at transferring, presumably to pressure the school to do something about Kent.

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

Southpaw

Ernie Kent must be one helluva recruiter, but one lousy bench coach. Fred Jones, Luke Ridenour, Luke Jackson and no NatChamp sniff....... but he does dress rather nicely.

P.S. Sounds like he is emulating the good Rev. Jesse Jackson with the morality extramarital mixology. Bet Dickie V. is 100% behind Ern.

__________________
"I read the news today, oh boy"

Russ Smith

That team went fairly far without a lot of depth, but Kent is not a great coach. The rumors continue to swirl, the latest one is he'll resign this week, maybe even today.

That would actually help Oregon with Kevin Love, Love's dad Stan(ex NBA player and Oregon grad) didn't like Kent because he felt Kent was too abrasive with players. ONe thing about Stan Love, after his son's freshman year in Highschool, Stan was campaigning to get his highschool coach fired fore being too abrasive with players(his son). In fact after the coach didn't start Kevin in a game as punishment for missing school(he was recovering from mono and stayed home to rest for the game), his dad was caught putting up stickers saying Fire Coach Schoff in the teams gym! The word is Stan is starting to chill out a bit as he realizes he's scaring off a lot of schools and with the new NBA rules, Kevin can't turn pro right out of HS so he either plays in college, or at a prep school. Supposedly Duke, Arizona and UCLA are his leaders now, he's dropped Oregon off his top 7 list while he waits to see what happens with Kent.

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

MaoTosiFanClub

I read somewhere that Mark Few's a UO alum. I wonder if Phil Knight could lure him to Eugene ($$$).

Russ Smith

That's the rumor flying around right now. SOmeone on a UCLA board posted a link to a Gonzaga board and they're discussing that right now. Few has a nice gig at Gonzaga but I guess if Phil Knight paid him enough, he could still flyfish in Oregon.

The rumblings are pretty loud that Kent won't last out the month at Oregon.

Love's dad reportedly is the source for the story ESPN had Friday saying Love was down to 7 teams and Oregon isn't one of them. I still think he'll end up at Oregon or Duke, but I guess Stan Love wants to make sure Ernie Kent is not at Oregon so he leaked that story that Kevin no longer had Oregon on his list. Dad appears to be a real "little league parent".

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

Southpaw

This sounds a bit like Stan Love is trying to land an ass't. position wherever his son ends up. Very common. Had one down here with Perry Clark at U of Miami and was the reason clark was fired. C J Giles is the kid's name from the Seattle area. Seems the father was at the forefront of the decision where his son would end up as long as it came with a job for him. Don't know if Stan is looking for a job or not, but made me wonder.

__________________
"I read the news today, oh boy"

MaoTosiFanClub

Did Giles' Dad end up getting a job at KU? I only ask because McD's AA and Kansas commit Mario Chalmers' father ended up being named Director of Basketball Operations at KU shortly after his son arrived on campus.

The coach under Clark at Miami was a guy named Kurtis Townsend, who got his first break under Todd Bozeman at Cal who I'm sure Russ could go into more detail about. In case you were wondering, Townsend's coaching under Self at Kansas.

Southpaw

Coo be. I've been looking for a coaching roster at Rock shock U, but so far nada.

__________________
"I read the news today, oh boy"

Russ Smith

Kurtis is from San Jose and his brother Ray played at UCLA. I know he was at Cal during the let's buy Jelani Gardner and Tremaine Fowlkes years but I have no idea what his involvement was. I know he was coaching in highschool in San Jose and organizing summer tournies and AAU stuff when Cal hired him.

The CHalmers story I had heard, I hadn't heard about Giles, sounds like Kansas has decided it worked with Ed and Danny Manning so why not try it again?

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo

Russ Smith

I don't know if he is or not but he has a colorful past. Apparently his brother is Mike Love of the Beach Boys and he was once sued by the Beach Boys for mismanaging their money. Yes his own brother apparently sued him. I'm not a Beach Boy fan but I guess at one point there was a significant breakup between Mike Love and another key member and that was supposedly largely caused by Stan Love. he was mismanaging their funds, but Mike didn't want to believe it, and it became a huge problem until Mike finally realized yes my brother really is doing this.

So I guess Stan Love was the Beach Boys version of Yoko Ono?

I'm old enough to remember the name Stan Love but not really watching him play. Kevin is supposed to be pretty special, a shorter, stronger Bill Walton type player. NOt a great athlete but does everything well, ambidextrous, great passer, gets position, he and OJ Mayo were the top players at the recent ABCD camp.

__________________
“Your expectations always exceed outside expectations. I feel like you just can’t stop working, can’t stop getting better, because I’ll be a failure in my eyes before I’m a failure in someone else’s eyes.” -- Arron Afflalo