Ducks having trouble recruiting on the block

While Ernie Kent has built a perennial Pac-10 power during his 10 years at the helm of Oregon's basketball program, he has failed to recruit some of the best players in the nation that are in his own backyard.

Under Kent, the Ducks have won a Pac-10 regular season title, two Pac-10 tournament championships and made two Elite Eight appearances. He is also the second-winningest coach in the program's history, only 20 wins away from the lead coming into the season.

But while he has accumulated success on the court, he has mysteriously looked elsewhere for talent, allowing other top-notch programs to steal blue chip recruits right from under Kent's nose.

Case and point, the 2007 recruiting class.

Five big name recruits came out of the state of Oregon last year. How many did the Ducks sign?

None.

Two of them are potential first team All-Freshmen this year in Kevin Love (right) and Kyle Singler (left). The two matched-up in the Oregon 6A state finals last season and both were top 10 recruits according to scout.com. However, Kent was unable to sign either despite Oregon's national reputation and cash flow. After all, Phil Knight, the founder of Nike, is an Oregon alumn and donates money like it's his job to the athletic department.

But Love, a Lake Oswego native, signed with Ben Howland's UCLA Bruins team, who behind Love are currently 6-0 and No. 1 in the nation. The 6'10" freshman leads the talented Bruins team in points and rebounds averaging 19.3 and 10.5 respectively.

Meanwhile on the other side of the country in Durham, N.C., Singler has led the Duke Blue Devils to a 6-0 record and No. 10 ranking to start the season, in addition to a EA Sports Maui Invitational title. The freshman from Medford currently leads the Blue Devils in points (15.8) and is second in rebounds (6.6) per game.

Even Kent's 2008 recruiting class includes only one Oregon native, a four-star recruit in Drew Wiley (Vida, Ore.). Meanwhile Pepperdine snatched two four-star Oregon recruits and Washington State, one of Oregon's chief basketball rivals, signed another four-star recruit from Oregon.

Imagine if you were Oregon's opponents and you had to stare down this lineup:

G- Tajuan Porter (16.0 ppg, 3.2 apg)
G- Malik Hairston (19.7 ppg, 4.3 rpg)
F- Maarty Leunen (16 ppg, 10.5 rgp)
F- Kyle Singler (15.8 ppg, 6.6 rpg)
C- Kevin Love (19.3 ppg, 10.5 rpg)

That doesn't include Bryce Taylor (14.3 ppg, 5.3 rpg) and Joevan Catron (10.3 ppg, 9.5 rpg) coming off the bench.

That sound like a national championship to me. Unfortunately, two of those players--Singler and Love--are now playing elsewhere.

While it's good for Oregon that Kent has an obvious recruiting pipeline through Illinois (three recruits in the 2008 class), Kent needs to remember that some of the best players are in his very own backyard and not overlook homegrown talent.