Video: Ernie Kent after California

ERNIE KENT

(Opening Statement)

National Autism Awareness Weekend, because you guys asked that’s why we’re wearing these blue puzzle pieces. I have a son, my son Jordan, who was born autistic and really came through his obviously quite well. And obviously came through his really quite well, with the career he’s had in the NFL and college, outstanding athlete, so it was just important for me to recognize this weekend with having experienced it personally. Hopefully giving some hope to so many of those moms out there because here was a son they said would never hold a job, would never marry and just would never be functional. And all he did was become a four-time state champion in basketball, play in the NFL and start in football, basketball and a track All-American, all in the same year he graduated from the University of Oregon school of business. So I want to encourage any parent out there that there is hope, and that’s why we’re supporting this week.

Following these comments, Jordan Kent contacted me and issued the following statement to clarify Ernie Kent’s remarks:

“In light of my father’s comments this evening I’d like to clarify that at a very early age, I was diagnosed with having Autism-like symptoms, though the diagnosis was never clear. By age 5, it was determined by medical professionals that I no longer displayed these symptoms.

As the term “Autism-like” can be vague and misleading, I have chosen to remain private about this personal matter for the time being. I remain sensitive and supportive of the thousands of people and their families who are affected by Autism.  I’m passionate about my continued commitment to helping children live their healthiest lives possible through my camps and programs, and continue to fully support all of the progress that has been made in Autism research.”

(What’s Jordan doing now?)

He works for Comcast, so he does Oregon football, he does some Trailblazer basketball games. Owns a greeting card business and had 1500 kids come through his character nutrition camp this summer. So I think he’s doing pretty good. Bounced back from it pretty well.

(More opening statement)

Cal is certainly a talented team. Really good athleticism, size, all of those things people talked about in the preseason about them. That said and done, starting our seniors I thought we started the game a bit jittery. But we had an opportunity in my opinion to just play smarter, and a little bit tougher defensively to stay in the game. When the score was 29-21 we drove the ball out of bounds and we had another bad defensive stand, and then we had a bad two-for-one look, and then we gave up a 3 to end the half. There was that three-to-six minute stretch I always talk about, that it seems like this team has, and that’s where the game kind of got away form us in that point in time. It just felt like in the second half we just kind of couldn’t get it under 10 until they went on their run, due again I thought to some lapses on our part, particularly on the defensive end of the floor.

With a team that talented, you’ve got to continue to stay focused on locked in. Otherwise the game can get away from you and that’s exactly what happened in this game.

(Do you see playing more young players with Senior Night over?)

I certainly do. Before I get there, you know this, we look at it and we talk about it being a losing stretch. I’ve said this before, to me it’s learning not losing, because you learn what to do, you learn what you need, you learn where to tweak things, you learn about your opponent, you learn about the conference, and you get ready for the next round of building your program. Part of that right now is developing Viont’e and Rob Franks, those guys need to play more and they’ll get an opportunity to do that. You’re going into three ball games where the environments are going to be incredible in Eugene and Corvallis, and obviously over in Seattle. Then you’re into the Pac-12 tournament in Vegas. So, they’re going to get an opportunity now to see some things that they’re going to take into the offseason, that really will allow them to understand just how hard you have to work, how strong you have to be with your body with the competition that they have seen this year and played against.

Certainly, we want to give those guys an opportunity. But at the same time, the veteran guys have to continue to play, particularly the guys who are coming back. They’ve got to stay locked in and grind through this thing because the more we can grow them, the more we can learn, the better they’re going to be when they come back next year. That’s very, very important and that’s what we’re going to talk about tomorrow because here we are with another short window, having to travel Tuesday and play Wednesday. We’ve got to bounce back quick.

(On team’s mood during the losing streak)

If you were to have seen practice the last couple days, you certainly wouldn’t know. And not from the fact that they’re laughing and joking, it’s how hard they continue to come back and work, and the effort they give you and the comradry they have and you can see some of that in the huddles and everything else. But yet at the same time, they are going through something that sveral of them have never faced before so you have to guide them through it. So we had people at practice today and that was my exact question I put to them. You would now know that team’s the last-place team in the conference by how hard they work and the energy they have in practice. So the good thing about all of that is, there’s no quit in them, you can continue to grow them because they haven’t shut it down. The bad thing about it is, we haven’t gotten the program over the hump yet and we need to come back and go at it again.

(The importance of Brett and Junior for team’s spirits)

The thing about Brett and Junior, they did not have a lot of success in terms of winning and leading this program. As I told them in the locker room, the piece that they brought to the table that I’m so proud of is the character piece, because they allowed us to stabilize the program behind the scenes academically. It’s outstanding, those guys were great leaders, never had to worry about them in the classroom, socially. Never had to worry about the. They brought their energy every day to practice, they handled themselves extremely well. Junior’s part of the SAAC counsel and everything else. Both of them are going to be successful in life, so that piece epitomizes what you want your character of your program to be and look like along with the winning that has to eventually take place. So I’m very, very appreciative of those two for fighting through, it’s not easy for young people to go through what they’ve gone through. And to go through tit so long. But yet their energy, their passion, their ability to talk to this team, they’ve been outstanding coming down the stretch.

(How was Que Johnson’s defense?)

I thought at times Jaylen kind of manhandled him because he’s got a bigger, stronger body and I had a Que Johnson timeout there in the second half to have a little chat about that and I thought he responded well. But here it is again where Que plays well, Ike doesn’t play well. Josh plays well, Ike doesn’t play well. Que and Josh, Ike and Josh. It’s just that consistency of having all of them on the same page at the same time. They’ve not hit that stride in a long time. We had a few of those games in the preseason hoping to get them there with understanding how to win and consistently do it, but they’re not there yet and that’s been very frustrating for them, it’s been very frustrating for us. So you kind of reload again, come back at it again and hopefully through the process we’ve been through, we’ll learn some things and with our opportunity to go play this summer, they’ll learn how to win, how to close and be on the same page at the same time.

(Has this not been the most challenging year of your career?)

The reason that I came back into coaching was for the challenge. I felt like my brain was deteriorating. As much as I enjoyed doing TV, I felt like I needed a bigger challenge. And this was it. So when I sat and talked with Bill. His biggest concern was, do you have the energy. Well yes I have the energy because I was running three jobs and literally traveling and spending maybe two or three days a month in my bed over a six-month period of college basketball between the three jobs at work. So my energy is good. The challenge is the thing that stimulates me. The challenge of people saying, ‘They haven’t won here, you can’t get it done, you can’t recruit, you can’t build a fanbase, you can’t get the students.’ Well I don’t’ blame by all that because I think again, you’ve had success here before in the past. It’s a matter of building your program. And we know what we’re doing, we know where we’re going. Unfortunately, we didn’t get there yet. Well, we’ve only been on the job for 24 months. So if you look around at the conference, there’s a lot of continuity in this conference with coaching, with recruiting, with fanbases that we’re starting to catch. We have to catch.

And to do that, it’s going to take some recruiting, it’s going to take some offseason work and at the same time, it’s going to take you to keep your spirit in the right place. Tony Bennett told me at one point in time, he talked to the staff, ‘Get a group of guys that can handle losing for two years, and then they become juniors and they can turn it.’ And that’s exactly what he did, so I don’t look at it again as losing, I look at it as learning and bringing guys through it. Learning what we need to do, where we need to go. And is it going to bother me? You bet it’s going to bother me. It bothers me a lot. But at the same time, I have to keep big picture in mind for everybody. And with a couple more pieces, a little tweaking here and there, stronger, the conference is going to take a hit, graduation, who’s coming in, you’re a little bit older next year, maybe things flow a little bit better for us.

(What do a successful last three games look like?)

Well the ultimate the success is if you can win them all, and steal a game in the tournament. Because all along, our postseason play is the tournament. And for us to be able to go into Oregon and play with them will be huge.

Because if you remember last year we played Colorado, lost by 30 I think. Never thought we were in the game. We came back and beat a Colorado in overtime at the end of the season. And went there this year, missed 16 to 20 free throws, should’ve had them beat. And you go there and Que Johnson has an opportunity to beat them again. That’s growth. To do that in a year, to come that far. We need to feel like we’re gaining ground on the teams like Oregon, Oregon State on the road, we missed so many wide-open shots over there. A Washington on the road we had a chance to beat last year, but they’re a different team and a different environment over there. So to me the success will be how hard we compete and do you feel like you’re getting better and growing as a team. And ultimately, if you can get a W somewhere down the stretch.

(On the return to Oregon)

The thing about Eugene is those fans have already come and gone. People came out last year, it was a great environment, great game. But they’re playing for a NCAA tournament seed. And they would love to be a 2 or a 3. So coach Altman and those Oregon fans are not going to be nice to coach Kent, I’ll tell you that right now. We better have our butts ready to play, otherwise we can go in there and just get dominated.