Although Ernie Kent was hired to take over as the new WSU men’s basketball head coach and lead to the Cougars to the postseason, there’s another side to Coach Kent. Even though his love and knowledge for the game is of basketball is incredibly deep, The Daily Evergreen had a chance to sit down with Kent and focus on topics that were not related to his game plan for this upcoming season or player updates.

The Daily Evergreen: Have you done the ice bucket challenge yet?

EK: That’s a good question. I did the challenge at camp – it wasn’t the ice bucket challenge, though, it was called a cold water challenge then. I got 100 hundred cups of water dumped everywhere on my body. I think the ice bucket challenge would’ve been a little easier than the 100 hundred cups of cold water by nine, ten, eleven and thirteen year-old kids.

DE: Besides coaching basketball, what activities have you participated in Pullman so far?

EK: I’ve had a chance to do to a lot of walking, I’m an avid walker, and biking, which I love to do. They have some wonderful trails here. The trail from Pullman to Moscow, I tackled that one Saturday morning and just riding around this city. This is a pretty unique and special place that I think is a hidden gym here and it’s given me an opportunity to really get to know it by bike and by foot which has been wonderful.

DE: How would you say Pullman compares to Eugene, Ore.?

EK: T they’re similar in a lot of ways. They’re both college communities – when the students are away, both cities tend to really quiet down and then when the students return all of that energy comes back into both cities. You can feel it right now.

DE: Is it likely or unlikely you and Coach Calapari can work out a deal to get a Kentucky vs WSU matchup in Pullman sometime soon?

EK: I have a lot of friends on the board and I’ve always said that I would play anyone. I will go anywhere and that could be Cal at Kentucky, Mike (Krzyzewski) at Duke, Roy (Williams) at North Carolina, (Jim) Boeheim at Syracuse. I’ll go back to their places, but they have to return the trip and come in here in Pullman and play.

And I’m going to say this and be very sincere. We’re going to build a basketball team that is a reflection of this community, and that’s a hard working team that gives you an honest day’s work for an honest dollar. For any type of success we’re going to have this year, the students are going to play a great role. We need them in that building and I’m hoping they’ll look at Beasley as their club, their night on the town, and make that place as crazy and as wild as they want to be.

DE: Who’s the best basketball player you’ve had to matchup against when you were a player?

EK: Boy, as a player I would have to say Marques Johnson, because he had a tremendous perimeter game and he could really shoot the basketball. But he had a power game also that if he got you with anything inside of five, six feet he could elevate and dunk over you. So you really had to pay attention to detail when you played against him.

DE: If you had a chance to play one-on-one with any player in any generation, who would it be?

EK: Oscar Robertson, because anybody that can average a triple-double for their career, you would want to know what their skill set is that allowed them to do that. To average a triple-double… that takes an enormous amount of skill and intelligence and fortitude, and that would be the player that I would want to see.

DE: What are looking forward to the most about your first season as the WSU men’s basketball head coach?

EK: When I had the opportunity to coach players, like Aaron Brooks, Bryce Taylor–I’ll never forget what that team instilled in me, and Bryce Taylor said it well at the senior banquet. He talked to the younger players, the underclassmen, and he taught me something too when he stood up and said, “make sure you embrace the process because it goes so quickly, and I don’t care if it’s adversity, success, it’s a down moment, it’s an up moment. You need to embrace that because that’s all part of your growth process to getting to be champions one day.”

And I think young people want to get there so quickly, fans want to get there so quickly, that they missed the essence of this game. What we do as coaches, we teach and take people from one level to the next level. That is a process, and I’m requesting the student body and this community to come out and embrace that process. Be a part of the journey along the way, they will appreciate the success that much more once we get there.