Yes, I do but before we feel too sorry remember two names.... Mark Hudson and Fred Litzenberger. They were two assistant of Ernie's that he fired.
He fired Mark Hudson last year to bring in new assistant coach Mike Dunlap to save his job for at least one more season. Hudson had been an assistant and "friend" of Ernie's for 12 years at Oregon and had been with Ernie at Saint Mary's before that. That didn't save him when he became expendable when it was necessary to save Ernie's job. As Hudson said "it's the business."
Fred Litzenberger "retired" as an assistant to Ernie at Oregon in 2005 after he brought some player's complaints to Ernie. As soon as he "retired" he "unretired" and is now the head coach at Vanguard University in southern California. Now Ernie may have had "business" reasons for letting Litzenberger go but loyalty did not save him!
So Ernie, thanks for the memories and you will always be a Duck but to quote Mark Hudson we have a new arena to fill and "it's the business"... we have to put people in the new seats and mediocre basketball at Oregon will not cut it anymore regardless of how long you have been a Duck. You gave it all you had and we thank you for that. As Ernie said when Litzenberger "retired":
"Fred has done a tremendous job for us in terms of the experience and tactical expertise he brought to the table," said Oregon head coach Ernie Kent. "We’re going to miss that. On a personal level, I’ve known Fred since 1987 when we were both assistants under Boyd Grant at Colorado State. That’s an 18-year relationship and I am certainly going to miss having him in the gym with us."
You Too Ernie... we will miss you and I mean that.
UPDATE: Ernie fights back...... Ernie is quoted today as saying:
"It's unfortunate we're in a day and age now where people attack you from all angles,'' Kent said. "And I'm talking about blogs and (the Internet) and all those kind of things, too. This is a team that's developing. So if you're fans, this is your basketball team. So support your basketball team or don't.
"But you can't say you're fans and you're going to support them when they're in Elite Eights and they're on championship runs, and now all of a sudden they're in a rebuilding year we're not going to support them - you can't do that.
"Somebody sent their child to the University of Oregon and they sent them to Eugene. And they sent him here so they could grow, not send him here so he could get beat up and not supported.''
Sorry Ernie, there have been too many "building years."
UPDATE 2 (MONDAY NIGHT)
The Eugene Register Guard is reporting tonight that Ernie Kent has informed his team that he will not be back nest year. I hope the team honors what Kent has done for Oregon by going "deep" into the Pac-10 tournament in Los Angles which starts on Wednesday when Oregon plays Washington State in the first game of the tournament. Go Ducks give Ernie a going away present.
UPDATE 3
Oregonians Canzano: P.J. Carlesimo to replase Kent ???????
