[Quack Attack]

Weathering pressure comes with highs, lows | After last year’s dismal 8-23 record, coach Ernie Kent says his sophomore-laden team ‘has a great run in it’





By Ron Bellamy
The Register-Guard

Appeared in print: Thursday, Oct 15, 2009

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After a losing season that ended with his job hanging in the balance for two weeks, Oregon men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent embraced a new season Wednesday and noted that the pressures of the job, and questions about job security, are nothing new. “Someone asked me the other day ‘how do you feel about that?’ and I said they were asking me those questions at the Elite Eight (when the Ducks got there in 2007), so that tells me we’ve raised the bar enormously around here, and that’s OK,” Kent said.

“Coaches feel pressure going into every year, because we want to win, we want to be successful. I’ve always felt added pressure here because it’s your alma mater, and you want to have success. … And you want to win. You don’t want to let people down personally, let alone let your own self down.”

When the Ducks officially begin practice for the 2009-10 season Friday night — with an autograph session and scrimmage after the Oregon-Cal volleyball game in McArthur Court — the UO graduate will begin his 13th season at the helm of the Oregon men’s basketball program, in which he’s forged a career record of 219-157, most wins ever by an Oregon coach, with two Elite Eight appearances, two Pac-10 tourney titles and a regular-season Pac-10 championship.

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