For Kent, opportunity knocks here.

Byline: Ron Bellamy / The Register-Guard

The question had to be asked, once his name appeared on those instant lists of possible replacements, but I never thought, for a second, that Ernie Kent would allow his name to be connected with the vacancy at Stanford.

There are times when there's some upside for a coach to allow his name to be dangled, even for a little while, but this wasn't one of them, and Kent did the right thing with his constituency by closing that door immediately on Friday - even if the door had only been opened by media types needing to fill out those obligatory lists of "candidates" - by stating that he's staying at Oregon shortly after Mike Montgomery officially became head coach of the Golden State Warriors.

Kent has a son, Jordan, on his Oregon men's basketball team - in fact, Jordan Kent just redshirted in track and field, expressly to improve his basketball skills for a larger role next season, a decision not without major ramifications for the track team, which finished second to UCLA in the Pac-10 meet. He has signed a great recruiting class.

And Kent has not given up hope that Oregon will build a new basketball arena, expressing hope that Oregon's recruiting class will send a message to Nike co-founder Phil Knight and his wife, Penny, who would be the prime donors to the project, about "how hard we've worked," and adding that "getting that arena back on the table is my vision and my focus."

Beyond that, there was no evidence of a straight line from Stanford to Kent anyway. Of the former Stanford assistants who are now head coaches, Kent has compiled a resume that would hold up very well, and he could have made a great run at the job.

But Barry Collier, for example, had great success at Butler before moving to Nebraska, and Trent Johnson of Nevada has major momentum, having been at Stanford during the heart of Montgomery's success there, and having just taken the Wolf Pack to an impressive showing in the NCAA Tournament.

And those are just a couple of possibilities within the immediate Stanford family, so to speak, which you'd favor because you have to figure that Montgomery's recommendation will carry some weight - and that, if it does, he might be inclined to recommend coaches who worked with him longer than Kent's two years.

Then there's the speculation about whether Mark Few of Gonzaga will enter the fray; sure, it's a top Pac-10 job, but the Creswell native would be hard-pressed to find any fly-fishing streams in the Bay Area, and his eyes would pop at the housing prices.

And, for better or worse, instead of playing the Portland Pilots, or Saint Mary's, on any given weekend, there would be UCLA in Pauley Pavilion, or the Huskies in Seattle.

Does Few have a better chance to reach the Final Four at Stanford, and win a national championship, than at Gonzaga?

A good topic for debate; what's certain is that in any year Few would be at greater risk to finish, say, fourth in the Pac-10 with Stanford than in the WCC with Gonzaga.

Because Montgomery has had Stanford at such a high level, we forget that before he got there, the Cardinal weren't very good. Coach Tom Davis, who bolted the Cardinal for Iowa, explained later that not winning was tearing him up.

A degree from Stanford is one of the most marketable in the country, and thus Stanford can recruit nationally and wins a lot of battles.

At the same time, those rigorous academic standards also narrow the pool of potential recruits at the front end, while some of the most talented Stanford players are leaving early for the NBA at the back end.

"It's an incredible setting, and it is Stanford, but Mike took that program to the level that made it one of the best jobs in the country," Kent said. "They're going to attract an excellent basketball coach."

But not Oregon's coach, who probably doesn't have one of the best jobs in the country as you would rank them on any list of tradition, salary, resources and facilities.

Just the the job he's always wanted, then and now.