F Chris Jent (Former Assistant BBall Coach)

[NateG]

"If you don't play hard, he will rip your heard off," Matta said. "He'll do it in a real nice way. He's a great guy. But he has a standard for how the game is supposed to be played."

Let's play the Family Feud.

Top 3 answers are on the board.

What word should really be in place of "heard"?

1. Head
2. Beard
3. Hair

 

[BuckTwenty]

Chris Jent was an inspiration to me back when I first started following basketball. Back in my ball playing days, we used to call diving to save a loose ball from going out of bounds a "Jent", because Chris was well-known for his hustle on those plays... floor burns, near face-plants, running into the scorer's table/cheerleaders and all. He gave up his body to get that ball. And he was as skilled a 3-point shooter as we had for a while there too.

Between Jent, Craft, and Sully, their hustle, effort, and enthusiasm ought to be contagious all the way up and down the bench. Looking forward to seeing what Coach Jent can teach these guys

 

[Buckskin86]

Ohio State notebook: Jent drawn back to Columbus
Former Buckeye gives up Cavs job to sit next to Matta
Thursday, June 30, 2011
By Bill Rabinowitz
THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

Chris Jent had a great job. He loved being an assistant coach with the Cavaliers, even as the LeBron James-less team spiraled toward the bottom of the NBA last season.

He wasn't looking to leave.

But when Thad Matta offered the former Ohio State player the assistant coaching job vacated by Brandon Miller, Jent found the pull of his alma mater too difficult to turn down.

"For me to leave, it could only have been this type of situation, where I'm basically going back home," Jent said after his hiring became official yesterday. "I'm from New Jersey, but I bleed scarlet and gray.

"Everyone I would talk to would say, 'Go with your gut.' I'd go to work during the day and be like, 'Man, this is fantastic. I'm an NBA coach.' Then I'd be on the drive home, and my stomach and my gut kept pulling me back to Columbus. I couldn't deny that."

The scrappy Jent played for the Buckeyes from 1988 to 1992 and played professionally for 10 seasons, including two in the NBA, where he was on the Houston Rockets' 1994 championship team.

He served as a volunteer assistant at Ohio State under Matta in 2006 while finishing his undergraduate degree in communications. Ever since, Matta has had his eye on hiring Jent.

"He's someone I've leaned on," Matta said. "When this job opened, he was the one guy I sought out to try to persuade to leave the NBA and come back to his alma mater. We couldn't be more excited today to have him here."

Cont...

http://www.dispatch.com/live/conten...6/30/jent-drawn-back-to-columbus.html?sid=101

A Jent of Gents: Former Buckeye, NBA coach joins Ohio State's coaching staff
Former NBA assistant coach Chris Jent joins Thad Matta's staff at Ohio State
By Ben Axelrod
[email protected]
Published: Thursday, June 30, 2011

After securing what Thad Matta called the biggest recruit he's ever gone after, the Ohio State basketball program introduced former Buckeye player and NBA coach Chris Jent as the latest addition to the OSU's coaching staff on Wednesday.

A native of Sparta, N.J., Jent scored 1,007 career points and was a part of two Big Ten championship teams at OSU from 1988-92. He will fill the opening on Matta's staff that was created when former assistant coach Brandon Miller resigned two weeks ago to spend more time with his family.

Jent said that there were multiple factors he considered before taking the job at OSU.

"It was definitely two-headed," Jent said. "The pull to the university and also to work with coach Matta and his staff allows me to expand my experience in coaching. The fact that it's my alma mater and a place I have a strong tie to, a strong gut feeling towards, and a great amount of passion to, made it easy."

Cont...

http://www.thelantern.com/sports/ba...h-joins-ohio-state-s-coaching-staff-1.2483116

 

[Buckskin86]

Sparta great Jent returns to Ohio State
By PETER STEIN
[email protected]

Chris Jent is going home. Sort of.

Jent graduated from Sparta High School in 1988, after setting a Sussex County high school basketball scoring record with 2,287 points. But he?s not returning to Sparta, he?s going back to his other alma mater, Ohio State, to work as an assistant men?s basketball coach under Thad Matta. And to do so, Jent is leaving behind the assistant-coaching job he has held with the Cleveland Cavaliers for the past two seasons.

Jent replaces Brandon Miller, who resigned from his Ohio State position to spend more time with his family. Jent played for the Buckeyes from 1988-92, helping them reach three straight NCAA tournaments and win two consecutive Big Ten championships. He also worked as a volunteer assistant coach for Ohio State during the 2005-06 season.

Still, leaving the Cavaliers and head coach Byron Scott ? even after the Cavs plummeted to a 19-63 record in the wake of LeBron James? free agent departure ? was far from a no-brainer for Jent.

?The (Cavaliers?) organization is phenomenal,? Jent said in a telephone interview over the Fourth of July weekend. ?Coach Scott has been unbelievable in giving me a great amount of responsibility in my coaching, and allowing me to grow. It was a really hard decision. It was kind of a gut-wrencher. I had a very hard time coming to that conclusion to leave.?

Cont..

http://www.njherald.com/story/news/070711-Jent-story

 

[Buckskin86]

Jent Hits Recruiting Trail

July 22, 2011
The dark period of July is over and that means it?s basketball evaluation time again for all NCAA Division I coaching staffs. Ohio State, of course, is among the major conference programs chasing the best and brightest in the country.

Among the destinations this week for coaches are huge tournaments in Las Vegas and the AAU Nationals in the Orlando, Fla., area.

Due to NCAA rules, OSU can send out no more than three full-time coaches at a time to observe these camps, and head coach Thad Matta figures to be omnipresent. That leaves assistants Jeff Boals, Dave Dickerson and the newly hired Chris Jent to rotate into the equation as the Buckeyes look to draw interest and even nail down commitments from some of the top talents in the country.

Matta was at the LeBron James Skills Academy, Nike?s most prestigious summer event, earlier this month in Akron and utilized his own personal chair to view the action because of back issues. By his side on the final day of that event was Jent, the popular former Buckeye best remembered as a hustling left-handed forward for the Scarlet and Gray.

Three of the OSU coaches played college ball in the late 1980s while Boals toiled at Ohio University in the mid-1990s and all stand at least 6-4 ? Matta actually is the runt of the group ? but Jent has some catching up to do. He had a fairly lengthy professional career that included winning the 1995 NBA championship with the Houston Rockets.

He also became an NBA coach, a stint that even led him to be the interim head coach of the Orlando Magic for the final 18 games of the 2004-05 season. Prior to his year in Orlando, he spent the 2003-04 season with the Philadelphia 76ers as assistant coach/player development.

A letterwinner at Ohio State from 1988-92, Jent finished up his degree at Ohio State during the 2005-06 academic year and also served as a volunteer assistant on Matta?s staff that season. He landed a role with the Cleveland Cavaliers in November 2006 and was best known for the next couple years as LeBron James? shooting coach.

James infamously took his talents to South Beach and joined forces with the Miami Heat last summer and the Cavs hired Byron Scott as their new head coach. Still, Jent survived the changeover and became a full-fledged assistant. He was doing well, happy and his family was enjoying life in Cleveland.

That?s when Matta called and tempted him to return to his alma mater.

?Outside of real life decisions, this was the hardest decision I?ve ever had to make in my life because of the fact the Cavaliers run such a quality organization,? Jent said upon being hired at OSU. ?I loved every day I went to work and I loved the people I worked with. For me to leave that, it could only have been this type of situation to basically go back to a home.

?I?m from New Jersey, but I bleed scarlet and gray. That was it right there. Everyone I talked to said, ?Go with your gut.? I would go to work and say, ?Man, this is fantastic, I?m an NBA coach.? Then, I?d be on that ride home and my stomach and my gut pulled me back to Columbus and I couldn?t deny that.?

Cont...

http://sportsrappup.com/sections/stories/11-07-22/Jent_Hits_Recruiting_Trail.aspx

 

[Buckskin86]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ubsdKr8E0"]Chris Jent Interview with Adam Neft on 97.1 The Fan - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Buckskin86]

A world of experience
Men's basketball: Jent brings knowledge of the NBA and overseas basketball to his teaching of OSU players
By Bob Baptist
The Columbus Dispatch
Sunday October 23, 2011

ERIC ALBRECHT | DISPATCH
Assistant coach Chris Jent will work with Jared Sullinger, left, and other OSU players to help develop their skills.

Thad Matta and his newest assistant coach, Chris Jent, were watching video of a game from last season when Jent piped up that he remembered his coach with the Panionios team in Greece having guarded a play a certain way.

?And it was effective for the whole game,? Jent said.

Matta looked at him in amazement.

?Greece??

That was 12 years ago, and one of 18 locales in which Jent worked in 15 years as a professional basketball player and coach.

?That?s the beauty of what he has,? Matta said last week. ?He?s seen everything.

?I think he?s one of those guys born to coach, and he was always taking it in.?

Jent, 41, joined the Ohio State men?s basketball staff this summer after working for the Cleveland Cavaliers for five years as an assistant coach responsible for player development. He said this is the only job he would have left the NBA for, a chance to coach at his alma mater and work for a successful and respected coach in Matta, who is three years older.

Jent played for the Buckeyes from 1988 through ?92, led them in floor burns and helped them reach the NCAA Tournament three times. Matta mentioned his ?passion? for the university in announcing his hiring. But there was more to it.

?He?s the best I?ve ever seen at making players better,? said Matta, who envisions the NCAA soon allowing coaches more time with their players in the offseason to work on skill development.

cont...

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2011/10/23/a-world-of-experience.html

 

[BuckTwenty]

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2011/10/23/a-world-of-experience.html

Fantastic article.

Jent said he was not concerned about technique as a player growing up in New Jersey. He had two older brothers and did what he had to do to survive playing against them and their friends.

"I'd dive on the concrete court, and they thought it was funny, so they'd keep me around. When we played 'running bases' in the street, they were like, 'Put Chris out there, he'll slide.' That was like my little niche, aggressive things that kept me out there. That became who I was", Jent said.

This makes SO much sense. I've been wondering about the how and why he has such a talent for floor burns for about 20 years.

When Matta is done coaching at Ohio State, I hope Jent becomes our new head coach. If he can recruit like he can develop talent, he's going to make a KILLER college basketball head coach.

 

[Buckeyefrankmp]

One of my favorite Basketball Buckeyes.

 

[Buckskin86]

Michael Arace commentary: Jent learns the ropes to one day call the shots
By Michael Arace
The Columbus Dispatch Wednesday November 23, 2011

Some of Ohio State?s sharpest and sanest sports fans focus on men?s basketball and, among them, there is a murmuring about Chris Jent being a potential heir to coach Thad Matta.

The thinking goes like this: Matta?s history of back problems might compel him to step away from the bench before he wants to and, if he is thinking about a successor, Jent fits.

All of this is speculative. Understand that. It is impossible to peer beyond the horizon, but there is no law against squinting.

A place opened up on Matta?s staff after last season. He reached out to Jent ? and Jent made a surprising leap from the NBA back to his alma mater. Matta half-joked, ?This could be the best recruit I?ve ever gone after.?

On the eve of the season, Matta told reporters he wanted Jent because of his allegiance to Ohio State, his professional experience as a player and his coaching resume ? which includes an interim stint as an NBA coach in Orlando and, more recently, a five-year run as a well-regarded assistant with the Cleveland Cavaliers.

When Dispatch beat writer Bob Baptist asked Matta whether his back had him thinking about contingencies when Jent was hired, Matta made another half-joke: ?I don?t think that far down the road. I operate in five-minute compartments.?

Matta continued, ?Who knows how long I?ll do this? But hopefully (Jent) will have an opportunity to be a head coach at a great university before I?m done coaching. But by the same token, as much as I want what?s best for those guys, I love keeping my staff (intact) when I can.?

During a conversation last week, Jent was asked whether he returned to Ohio State with any idea of succeeding Matta.

?There has been no discussion of that,? Jent said. ?I returned for a lot of reasons, and that?s not one of them. I know I want to be a head coach. I don?t know at what level; I just know I want to be a head coach. I?m trying to better understand the college game and make inroads into the recruiting aspect of it. There is no better place to do that than Ohio State. It?s a national program.?

cont...

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/...arns-the-ropes-to-one-day-call-the-shots.html

 

[Buckskin86]

[ame="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1CFzqs0tHms"]Chris Jent Interviewed by Ron Stokes - YouTube[/ame]

 

[Buckskin86]

Ohio State basketball: Twenty years later, memory of missed shot in loss to Michigan still haunts Chris Jent
Published: Friday, March 23, 2012
By Doug Lesmerises, The Plain Dealer

Ed Reinke, Associated Press
Chris Jent missed a shot at the end of regulation that would have sent Ohio State to the Final Four in 1992. Instead, the Buckeyes lost to Michigan in overtime. Jent, now an assistant on Thad Matta's staff, says the missed shot still haunts him.

BOSTON, Mass. — Twenty years after his missed 12-foot jumper left him in tears in the postgame locker room and the Ohio State Buckeyes one step short of the Final Four, Chris Jent is back. Now a coach, not a player, but just as much a Buckeye, just as thrilled every time he puts on the scarlet and gray, Jent has reached the moment that helped him decide to return to the college game.

A former interim NBA head coach in Orlando, LeBron James' shooting coach in Cleveland and a head coach in the making at one level or the other, Jent, 42, is in some ways still the kid who in 1992 couldn't believe his college career ended in the Southeast Region final in Kentucky with an overtime loss to Michigan and its Fab Five.

Overtime came only after Jent's missed jumper in the final seconds, a shot that caused him to say then, "I wish I had that shot back. You don't know how much I wish that."

Today, with No. 2 seed Ohio State in the East Region final against No. 1 Syracuse, and with Jent on the bench as a first-year assistant under Thad Matta, is the closest he can come to getting that shot again.

"No matter how long you've been in basketball, you recognize the teams that have a chance," Jent said. "We had a chance, and we fell short. Now, does this team have a chance? This team has a chance. What we do with it is on our shoulders. But every year you play or you coach, you may not have that type of team. But when you do have it, you recognize it."

cont...

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2012/03/post_93.html

Bob Hunter commentary: Jent knows importance of Final Four
By Bob Hunter
The Columbus Dispatch Saturday March 24, 2012

BOSTON ? Twenty years and a few million dribbles ago, Chris Jent stood one 14-foot jumper from the Final Four. He missed.

You think he doesn?t understand the magnitude of the opportunity that the Ohio State players are facing tonight?

?I carried that with me for a long time,? he said, ?a long time.?

Maybe thankfully for the Ohio State team he helps coach, Jent brings it with him to the locker room now. The former Buckeye can tell the current players how much the chance to play Syracuse in the NCAA Tournament East Regional final means.

?I might have him say something about it,? Ohio State coach Thad Matta said. ? ?Hey, here I am, I?m 42 years old, I was this close and I still think about it.? ?

Jent does, and he isn?t reluctant to admit it. His nightmare in 1992 against Michigan?s Fab Five was the kind of experience that can make a good coach a terrific coach, one that can?t be learned in 100 coaching clinics or 1,000 film sessions:

Ohio State lost a four-point lead in the final 3? minutes, but the score was tied and the Buckeyes had the ball on the last possession of regulation with a shot to win. Jent got an open look and missed, and Michigan went on to win 75-71 in overtime. For the second season in a row, a strong Ohio State team led by All-American Jim Jackson fell short of every college player?s ultimate goal.

?I?ve still never watched the whole game,? Jent said. ?I?ve seen bits and pieces of it on the 30-30, that special on the Fab Five, but that?s it.

?Talking to coaches about that game, they recall different points of the game that were turning points. We were up and we had a turnover or we missed a layup and they score and we foul him. ? For me, you miss a jumper at the end of the game and we go into overtime and we lose. I don?t really recall much of the game outside that. I remember my first shot getting thrown into the fifth row by Chris Weber and I remember that jump shot; that?s about it.?

It is never one shot or one play, of course. But there?s no sense trying to tell that to a guy who missed a shot that could have given the Buckeyes Final Four immortality.

Jent recognized the opportunity then. He knows it intimately now.

?We had a really good team,? he said. ?And we had a very good team the year before, may have been even better that year, and just played a really bad game against St. John?s University. You don?t get those teams all the time. That?s what hurt the most.

?Being seniors and you?re never with that group again or competing for the university again, and you had that good of a team and you didn?t seize the opportunity. You don?t always play on teams that are good enough to do it.?

cont...

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2012/03/24/jent-knows-importance-of-final-four.html

 

[LitlBuck]

http://www.cleveland.com/osu/index.ssf/2012/03/post_93.html



http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/stories/2012/03/24/jent-knows-importance-of-final-four.html

I was sitting at the other end of Rupp Arena where Chris took his shot and in all fairness to him he was off balance and falling back for some reason when he left that little jumper go. I won't forget that shot either because I was unfortunately sitting next to a TSUN fan who didn't say a word the entire day but after the shot he would not shutup the entire OT.

 

[LitlBuck]

Postgame Kansas

The Superdome attendance of 73,361 for the double-header yesterday was the second-largest crowd to attend the Final Four in NCAA tournament history.

OSU assistant coaches Chris Jent and Jeff Boals scouted Kentucky's 69-61 win over Louisville from court-side seats. Jent had a unique perspective on yesterday's Final Four atmosphere because he played in the NBA Finals.

"This is phenomenal," Jent said. "It really is a life experience. You really have to soak it in. It's an amazing event."

Jent, a former OSU player, was a member of the Houston Rockets when they won the 1994 NBA championship by defeating the New York Knicks in Game 7 of the finals.

"That was obviously very intense and gratifying," Jent said. "But this is very different from the sense that I only spent the very end of the NBA season with the Rockets. I'm much more invested in this team having spent the year with them. I went to Ohio State and being a Buckeye and being here with them is great."

http://www.buckeyextra.com/content/blogs/hoops-and-scoops/2012/04/04-01-12-postgame-kansas.html

 

[Buckskin86]

Blog Post: Talking Shot With Ohio State?s Chris Jent- Ozone