Washington State Basketball: Ernie Kent fired after 5 years as head coach

Let’s look at the coaching career of Ernie Kent while also figuring out where Washington State Basketball will go for their next hire.

Following five years as head coach, Ernie Kent has been fired by Washington State Basketball after another losing season. This move doesn’t surprise many people, as these Cougars have been pretty punchless in a meek Pac-12 in recent years. He entered the year at 96th on our early season head coach rankings but all of his success took place prior to arriving at Washington State.

After playing at Oregon, Kent’s coaching career began with seven years with Al-Khaleej in Saudi Arabia. He would return to America as an assistant at Colorado State and Stanford before getting his first chance to run a program at Saint Mary’s. He made the NCAA Tournament in his sixth season and was soon hired to lead his alma mater. He spent 13 years as the Ducks’ head coach, taking them to a pair of Elite Eights. His 235-173 record in Eugene was solid, but he was fired after a few subpar seasons at the end of his tenure.

Four years removed from coaching, Kent was hired by Washington State in 2014. The program was now long removed from NCAA Tournament berths under Tony Bennett, and the five years under coach Ken Bone had been a struggle. Unfortunately, Kent wasn’t about to make things better. His Cougars went just 58-98 in his five seasons, never winning more than 13 games in any season. Washington State tied for 8th in his debut, but was in the bottom three of the conference the last four seasons. This program is in shambles and Kent clearly wasn’t helping to resurrect it.

This past season ended at 11-21 and was capped off by a drilling in the Pac-12 Tournament at the hands of Oregon, Kent’s former club and alma mater. Senior Robert Franks (21.6 ppg, 7.2 rpg) did a lot of the scoring and the next head coach will have some recruiting on his hands. One bright spot was freshman forward CJ Elleby (14.7 ppg, 7.1 rpg), but this team struggled mightily on defense, especially in the cylinder. There are a slew of role players and starters who aren’t graduated, but new blood is desperately needed to add life to this program.

Sitting in Gonzaga’s shadow, it’s been difficult for the Cougars to find success in recent years. This team is 11 years removed from their last NCAA Tournament appearance and the next head coach has a big job on his hands. They’ll need someone who can recruit the area well, but another mid-major coach like Bone could struggle in this situation. The ideal candidate for the Cougars might be a young head coach trying to jump-start their career, though there will be plenty of retreads like Kent who will get a look for this job. That being said, they aren’t about to get Rick Pitino or Thad Matta to come to Pullman.

Ernie Kent’s coaching career has seen some successes, but they came long before his stint in Washington State. This program was stumbling when he arrived and he’s done nothing but prolong the suffering. That being said, this isn’t the easy job in the world, but it was certainly time for some new blood for the Cougars. If they can nail this hire and get someone who can both recruit the area and coach these guys up, then maybe this team could crawl out of the Pac-12 basement. Tony Bennett isn’t coming back to Pullman, but there are still brighter days ahead for these Cougars.