If you enjoyed the University of Oregon basketball team’s recently concluded run at the national title, rest assured there’s more such excitement being brewed in Eugene.  Brewmaster Ernie Kent has already groomed the bodies that will supplant a major weakness that ultimately denied a Duck advance beyond the elite eight in the 2002 NCAA 64-team national championship tournament.

The Webfoots went under to a Kansas team whose front line players were markedly superior to any performers Oregon could send beneath the basket.  If you scanned the Oregon bench crew this past season, you might have noticed a couple of tall fellas that never entered a game.  You’ll see them in action next November.  Ian Crosswhite, 6-11, and Matt Short (!), 7-0, will be freshmen in playing eligibility, yet they practiced with this year’s squad and got a front row taste of the Ducks’ victories.  These guys have credentials.

Crosswhite, an Australian, was his nation’s junior player of the year in 2000.  He performed in a semi-pro league populated by much older players than he.  In an international junior tournament in Germany, Crosswhite was rated the best big man in the field and cited for his ball-handling and shooting skills.  He has the genes for athletic success.  His father played on three Australian Olympic teams.  His mother is a former Australian national hurdles champion and won a foul shooting gold medal in the 40+ age group in the International Masters Games.  His sister starts on the University of Virginia’s cage squad.

No shortage here

Short was rated the fifth best prep center on the West Coast by a national scouting service.   He attracted favorable attention playing for little Yreka high school in the mountains of northern Califonria.  Duck followers will note that two major stars on Oregon’s NCAA tourney team, Luke Ridnour and Luke Jackson, both learned hoops at small schools (Blaine, WA and Creswell, OR).  Short was chosen to play in an annual international junior hoops tournament in Dallas, an event that included both Ridnour and Jackson in 2000.

The brilliant Freddie Jones has gone to the NBA, but Ridnour and Jackson will be back, as will proven reserve guard James Davis.  Backup center/forward Brian Helquist faces a challenge for playing time next season, with Short, Crosswhite and proven veteran Robert Johnson in the up front mix.

Guarded optimism

Kent has convinced one of the nation’s finest junior college guards to join his squad.  Andre Joseph was the all-time leading scorer for his Texas JC.  He’ll be joined in the backcourt by a pair of all-state Oregon prepsters, Brandon Lincoln of Jefferson (Portland) and Jordan Kent of Churchill (Eugene).  The latter also excels in genedom as coach Ernie’s kid.  We were very impressed with his potential after seeing him in the state prep tournament.  He is a growing 6-4, swift, smooth and knows his way to the basket.  There’s another Kent coming to play next year…Ernie’s son Marcus, a redshirt guard who rode the bench during this season’s title run.

Now consider the fact that Ernie has two scholarships still in his pocket.  These will be awarded late this spring to prep graduates under the spell of Oregon success…talent that might not have considered the Ducks until the Lemon and Green ran off with the 2002 Pac10 title and got a national spotlight during March Madness.

Ernie’s just begun

Oregon athletic director Bill Moos couldn’t have done better when he hired Ernie Kent to kick Duck basketball up a notch.  Kent played for the last Oregon team to have notable success…the Kamikaze Kids of the ‘70’s.  Kent was caught up in the magic created in venerable old MacArthur Court, a playing venue he exploited for an undefeated home season this year….a venue whose value Jerry Green,  Kent’s coaching predecessor, derided.  Kent loves this school for whom he coaches, and kids respond to that.

Kent goes for good character in his recruiting, and it glows in this era of selfish, flashy performers infected by the NBA virus of one-on-one and the heck with team play.  Kent’s coaching style stresses teamwork while turning his players loose to play an up-tempo, free wheeling offense (this year’s Ducks set school records for total points and scoring average per game).  Kent’s wide open offensive game has now been augmented by an attention to defense under the supervision of veteran assistant coach Fred Litzenberger who taught the skills of stop to six NCAA tourney editions of the Duck women’s program.

The pieces are in place for Oregon basketball to continue its crowd-pleasing ascent to national notoriety with a coach who carries the attributes of dedication, intelligence, player selection and player inspiration into battle as few (and maybe none) have since John Wooden retired.

Roses & Raspberries…Roses, a big bouquet, to the Duck athletic department that has presided over conference championships in football and men’s basketball, plus a women’s national cage tourney championship in the past few months…Raspberries to the continuing basketball travails at Oregon State, as the Beavers once again search for a coach to lead them from the wilderness…Roses to Trailblazer coach Maurice Cheeks, who we mistakenly pegged for failure in restoring a winning aura to the squad that had forgotten the meaning of teamwork…Raspberries to the marked decline in state 4A prep basketball tournament attendance.  The show deserves more attention…Roses to the retirement of Fresno State coach Jerry Tarkanian, an exact and dissolute opposite of Ernie Kent regarding ethics…Raspberries to anyone who disregards the career achievments of little John Stockton, the Spokane saloon-keeper’s son who recently scored 20 points for the Utah Jazz on his 40th birthday.

(C) 2001 Oregon Magazine