Five postseason appearances. A Pac-10 title and a Pac-10 tournament title. The NCAA Elite Eight. Two NIT Final Fours. Three NBA First Round Draft choices.

In just eight years, 2002 Pac-10 Coach of the Year Ernie Kent has taken the University of Oregon to heights not seen since Basketball Hall of Famer Howard Hobson was the Tall Firs' head coach.

He is the only man to have led Oregon to three NCAA Tournament appearances, as well as Pac-10 regular season and tournament titles.

He is the only coach in the Northwest to take his team to the NCAA Elite 8 this decade.

He is a combined 49-13 versus all teams in the Pacific Northwest, including a 35-11 mark against Pac-10 rivals Oregon State, Washington and Washington State.

His eight wins over UCLA are twice as many as any other Oregon coach and represent a third of Oregon's all-time wins (24) against the most storied program in the nation.

His 149 wins rank fourth all-time at Oregon.

He has granted Oregon a place on the national and international basketball landscape through his involvement with USA Basketball, winning a pair of gold medals in 2001 and 2003.

In addition to his 2002 league coach of the year honors, the NABC, USBWA and Basketball Times all recognized him as their district coach of the year, and he was one of 20 Naismith Coach of the Year finalists.

Overall, Oregon averages nearly 20 wins per season under Kent and has sent four players into the NBA Draft.

Among Kent's pupils are Pac-10 Player of the Year and Tournament MVP Luke Ridnour (2003), first team All-Pac-10 players Alex Scales (2000), Bryan Bracey (2001), Frederick Jones (2002), Ridnour (2002-03) and Luke Jackson (2003-04), the Pac-10 Freshman of the Year (Ridnour, 2001), All-Pac-10 freshmen Ridnour (2001), Jackson (2001), Aaron Brooks (2004), Malik Hairston (2005) and Bryce Taylor (2005) and NBA Draft choices Bracey (2001), Jones (2002) , Ridnour (2003) and Jackson (2004).

The success Kent has enjoyed at Oregon has resulted in his ascension to third among the conference's active leaders in wins and is by far the head of the class in that category among the Northwest schools. Yet the simple plan that has produced those accomplishments is this:

First as a player at Oregon and now as the school's 18th head coach, the one thing that has remained unchanged is the passion Ernie Kent professes for a program that has molded his life far beyond anything you can pick up on a basketball court. The Ducks' success under Kent originates from the belief that he and his players can accomplish any goal working together as a team at the University of Oregon.

Upon his return to the university as coach, it took little time for that renewed passion to take hold on Eugene and the surrounding community, which longed for a return to the days when the Kamikaze Kids whipped fans into a frenzy. The Rockford, Ill., native became the first African-American head coach in the history of University of Oregon athletics when he was named to the post April 10, 1997.

In his first year, he worked wonders as the Ducks finished in a tie for fifth-place in the Pac-10 and just missed a winning record (13-14) and a postseason berth in 1997-98. He followed that with a trip to the NIT final four in 1998-99 before the next season laid the foundation for the current era that has witnessed Oregon's ascension to the upper echelon of the Pac-10.
The Ducks reached 22 victories in 1999-00 for the first time since 1944-45 and with their NCAA Tournament bid, made back-to-back postseason appearances for the first time in 23 years. That season allowed Oregon to collect the best recruiting class in the league, led by Luke Jackson and Luke Ridnour, and that recruiting class, in turn, set the table for a magical run in 2001-02.

That season, Kent directed Oregon to its first outright league title since 1938-39, going 14-4 and leading a record six Pac-10 teams into the NCAA Tournament. The Ducks advanced to the Elite Eight for the first time since 1960, defeating Montana, Wake Forest and Texas along the way. His team went 16-0 at McArthur Court and 26-9 overall.

In addition to his league coach of the year honors, the NABC, USBWA and Basketball Times all recognized him as their district coach of the year, and he was one of 20 Naismith Coach of the Year finalists. The 14 Pac-10 victories were the most in school history and tied the school's all-time league mark. And he watched Oregon set 11 school and two Pac-10 single-season records, while Fred Jones was a NBA First Round selection by the Indiana Pacers.

The following year, Kent lead the Ducks to their first Pac-10 Tournament title in 2002-03 with a 23-10 record. That season also saw him coach Pac-10 Player of the Year and Tournament MVP Luke Ridnour, as the Ducks won 20 games in back-to-back seasons for the first time in 64 years, and made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances for the first time in 42 years.

The 2003-04 season may have been Kent's finest coaching yet. Despite losing his point guard to injury for 10 games during the heart of the Pac-10 season, the Ducks regrouped the final month of the year to tie for fourth in the league with an 18-12 overall record, and advanced to the NIT final four with two heart-stopping wins over Colorado and Notre Dame along the way.

Kent's broad-reaching involvement on a national scale is hard to rival as he continues to push Oregon to the forefront of the nation's college basketball scene.

Recent years have seen him as the head coach of USA Basketball's Junior National team, a squad he guided to a 7-1 record and a fifth place finish at the 2003 FIBA World Championships in Greece. Kent also coached the juniors to a gold medal at the 2003 Global Games. He serves on the National Association of Basketball Coaches (NABC) Board of Directors and the Wooden Award's Board of Governors.

He was also an assistant coach for the 2001 USA Basketball 21-and-Under national team that won the gold medal at the summer games in Japan with a 8-0 record.

As the head coach at Saint Mary's College in Moraga, Calif., from 1991-92 to 1996-97, Kent put together a 90-80 ledger, including a 23-8 mark in 1996-97 and a berth in the NCAA Tournament. The tournament bid, the first at the school since 1989, was the result of the Gaels' fourth conference title in school history. Kent also guided the Gaels to an 18-10 ledger in 1994-95 and still ranks second on the all-time win chart at Saint Mary's.

Kent served as an assistant at Stanford under Mike Montgomery for two years (1990-91), helping the Cardinal advance to the NIT both years and winning the NIT title in 1991.

As an assistant to Boyd Grant at Colorado State (1988-1989), he aided the Rams in their postseason bids in the 1988 NIT (advancing to the semifinals) and 1989 NCAA Tournament second round after clinching the Western Athletic Conference championship.

From 1980 through 1987, Kent and his family lived in Saudi Arabia where he coached the al-Khaleej Club in Sayhat for three years, helping the team advance to the playoffs each year. He also worked for the Arabian American Oil Company in Dhahran.

Kent, 50, began his coaching career at his alma mater in 1977 as the freshman coach under Dick Harter and again assisted in 1979 as an understudy to Jim Haney. In between, he coached Eugene's O'Hara Catholic School for one season.

One of his ongoing areas of concern is the well-being of his student-athletes after graduation. His Self-Improvement Program, first implemented while working as an assistant at Colorado State and entering its seventh year in Eugene, helps with the transition once a student-athlete has graduated from Oregon. This program has received national attention in the NCAA News (Feb. 3, 1993), the National Association of Basketball Coaches Magazine (March, 1993), on College Sports Today on CBS Radio and in an issue of the National Association of Collegiate Directors of Athletics (NACDA) Magazine.

He was recognized for his commitment to community service by the Oregon Chapter of the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, who bestowed Kent with the 2004 Hope Award.

Kent is also the local honorary chairman of the Children's Miracle Network and is active with the American Cancer Society and the Coaches Versus Cancer campaign. Additionally, Kent is a regular participant in Eugene-area activities during each February's Black History month.

A 1977 graduate of Oregon with a degree in community service and public affairs, Kent helped lead the Ducks to a No. 8 ranking as a sophomore and earned the Outstanding Service Award for community service and picked up the March of Dimes Outstanding Achievement Award. He completed his collegiate career averaging 7.1 points and 1.8 rebounds while playing with the likes of Greg Ballard, Stu Jackson and Ron Lee.

A Parade Magazine All-American in 1973 at Rockford, Ill., West High School, he was also named Scholastic All-America by Scholastic Magazine. A National Honor Society member, he received the American Legion Outstanding Achievement Award and was named all-state in Illinois.

Born Jan. 22, 1955, Kent and his wife Dianna have three children: sons Marcus (1-29-83) and Jordan (7-24-84), who plays basketball, football and runs track for the Ducks, and daughter McKenzie (6-6-86). All three Kent children are UO students.