Following the WSU Cougars’ dreadful 84-51 loss to the Oregon Ducks in the Pac-12 Tournament, Athletic Director Pat Chun had no choice but to fire head men’s basketball coach Ernie Kent on March 14th. The firing is both shocking and not shocking to anyone who follows the program.

First of all, virtually everyone wanted him gone and is happy to see him gone. The only reason why the move is shocking is because Kent had three years left on his deal with $1.4 million guaranteed to him annually. Yet, the university has decided to swallow the remaining $4.2 million and move on from Kent.

From 2014 to 2019, the Cougars went 58-98 overall and 22-68 in Pac-12 regular season play with Kent at the helm. They never finished better than 8th in the Pac-12 regular season and never won a conference tournament game.

In recent years, the team’s play had been so dreadful it completely turned off all the students and the alumni. WSU continued its trend of having the lowest average home attendance in the Pac-12.

Pac-12 Basketball – 2018-19 Average Home Attendance (2/20) 1. Arizona, 13,697

2. Utah, 10,929

3. ASU, 10,476

4. Oregon, 8,400

5. UCLA, 7,925

6. Washington, 7,284

7. Colorado, 6,850

8. Cal, 5,442

9. OSU, 5,022

10. Stanford, 3,801

11. USC, 3,133

12. WSU, 2,283 — SportsPac12 (@SportsPac12) February 20, 2019

The sad part is that attendance number might be inflated. The attendance appeared far worse in person and on television. See this picture of the crowd at home game against UCLA on January 30th… Yikes…

Smallest crowd I’ve ever seen at Beasley Coliseum, but feels like I’ve been saying that everywhere I’ve gone in Pac-12 this season. pic.twitter.com/rD20JRhYtA — Ben Bolch (@latbbolch) January 31, 2019

Back in 2014, then Athletic Director Bill Moos decided to hire Kent to replace former Cougars head coach Ken Bone. At the time, people liked the move because of Kent’s successful history with the Oregon Ducks program from 1997-2010. However, it quickly became clear that he was not the right guy and in fact, he was worse than the guy he replaced.

Five years later, Chun now has to clean up the mess created by Moos and Kent program, and this turnaround is not going to be easy. Quick fixes are hard to come by when it comes to rebuilding a program that is in shambles like WSU.

Obviously, the Cougars want and need someone who is good with gameplans and recruiting. However, that next head coach also needs to rebuild the excite the Cougars’ fanbase because right now, the men’s basketball team is lacking support.

Chun doesn’t even have to get a big name or a guy with any major head coaching experience. He just needs to find someone that make people care about WSU men’s basketball again. It does not matter if the interest is through results, style of play or recruiting. The program will take any sort of positive attention it can get right now.

Kent’s firing closed the book on an absolutely dreadful five years of Cougars basketball, and now, Chun and the program can look towards a brighter future. However, finding that brighter future will be difficult. To be honest, head coach of the WSU Cougars’ basketball team is not a desirable position at the moment. So, don’t expect well-known names to pop up during this coaching search.

Just wish Pat Chun and the next head coach the best of luck in turning this program around.