Mike Drummond: Teaching an old Bulldog new tricks
The kids Mike Drummond teaches occasionally find out he played college basketball. Their world is LeBron and Steph and Giannis. “How come you didn’t play in the NBA?” they’ll ask. Well, for starters, he’s 5-foot-8. As it was, it was fairly remarkable that he carved out such...
Ernie Kent: Never a dull moment
Ernie Kent is in Scottsdale, Ariz., now, able to reflect on where he’s been, and where he still wants to go. “It’s almost identical,” he said, comparing the desert weather to his seven-year fling in the ‘80s as a coach in Saudi Arabia. “You’re able to have...
Bruce Coldren’s passing recalls one golden afternoon
If somebody posed the question of who was the most decorated, memorable Kamikaze Kid, the debate wouldn’t be a long one: It was Ronnie Lee, all day, every day. But the discussion over who turned in the greatest one-game performance during that seven-year stretch is a little...
From (near) perfect Pennmanship to Kamikaze chaos, Bilsky saw it all
For Steve Bilsky, the night of April 5 brought back memories. And not all of them good ones. That was the occasion when Gonzaga took its season-long undefeated streak into the national-championship basketball game against Baylor, and came out of it with its first defeat of the...
Golden anniversary: Harter’s hiring signaled a gilded era
Tuesday marks a momentous anniversary in the history of University of Oregon athletics. It was on April 20, 1971 – fifty years ago — that the Eugene Register-Guard and the Portland newspapers revealed that a new men’s basketball coach was coming to the Ducks: A fellow named Dick...
50 years ago, the next Oregon coach would be Harter (eventually, anyway)
Saturday marked an anniversary of sorts: It was 50 years ago, also on a Saturday, that Oregon ended its 1970-71 basketball season with a 71-65 victory over Oregon State behind 30 points from Stan Love in his final game. And thus began a trudge toward a monumental hire...
Little was anything but to the Kamikaze Kids
Back in 2002, the Pac-12 Conference established its Hall of Honor – a pantheon of its top basketball players, one per school annually. Then, curiously, in 2018, it decided to begin including athletes from all sports, which makes the Hall a totally different beast, suddenly opening its eligibility...
On making the extra pass
Make the extra pass, they always tell basketball players. You’ll get a better shot. The offense will be enhanced. There’s a journalistic parallel, and I can attest. On more than one occasion writing daily-newspaper sports over 45 years, I’ve had plenty to do an adequate story. And...
From breakfast, a book emerges
It began over eggs and hash browns at a nondescript eatery in Corvallis. “So,” I prodded Rick Coutin, “you’ve got to tell us about the night Dick Harter tripped you.” Thus launched the seed for “Mad Hoops,” my just-released chronicle of the most controversial basketball program in the history...