Just when the NCAA thought is was safe … the shark is back

Sporting News, The, Dec 2, 1996 by Douglas S. Looney

Fresno State, which showed considerable bite in its first season under Jerry Tarkanian, prefers to think the coach has a big heart, not a cheatin' heart

Actor James Caan, best known for his film performance in The Godfather, was holding forth not long ago in Fresno at a high-spirited roast of Fresno State University's second-year basketball coach, Jerry Tarkanian. He was pointing out that there are many coaches who have "ability, honesty, intelligence and respect. You remove those things and you've got Tark."

And George Raveling, the former Southern California coach (1987-94), took center stage to relate that Tark's wife, Lois, once told him that her husband "'is a self-made man,' and I remember thinking, 'Man, that sure relieves God of a lot of responsibility."'

Ultimately, even Tarkanian joined in the good times, telling how son Danny had done well on a school project, which prompted Tark to say to Lois, "He must have gotten his intelligence from me." Responded Lois, "Must have. I still have mine."

On and on, into the night it went as the barbs ricocheted off the man who is arguably the nation's best hoops coach--the man who coached five years at Long Beach State and had a 116 17 record, including 65-0 at home; the man who coached 19 years at UNLV, four times getting the Runnin' Rebels into the Final Four and once winning the national championship; the man whose winning percentage of .829 makes him the best in the history of men's NCAA college basketball, ahead of Clair Bee, Adolph Rupp, John Wooden, Dean Smith; the man who in 32 years of coaching major college and junior college has never had a losing season.

Yet, is Tark the Shark really the best coach, or is he only the best rogue coach? Clearly, there are many who would not list Tarkanian among the greats such as Smith, Wooden and Bob Knight,, but on the other hand, is there anybody better as a recruiter and a motivator? Should he receive a free pass to sainthood or be placed in solitary confinement? After all, Tark skipped out of Long Beach State just before the NCAA slapped the school with probation for, among other things, Tark's misbehavior. The NCAA Council said the rules violations "were among the most serious" it ever considered; among the charges was one that Tark gave a prospective player cash. Four years after Tarkanian arrived in Las Vegas, the NCAA was back on the scent, ordering a two-year probation for UNLV and calling it a "serious case." The battle raged. In 1992, the beleaguered Tarkanian finally took his leave, but not until his team had won all but eight games in his last three years and looked for all the world like a dynasty. The following year, UNLV was nailed with yet another probation for what the NCAA called "major violations"--covering the time Tark was coach.

Given this career path, Danny, now an assistant to his dad at Fresno, says that his father's "reputation created through all these battles with the NCAA meant he wasn't going to get a lot of coaching options."

True. He stayed in Las Vegas, doing some radio sports task, judging Miss Hawaiian Tropics contests, hanging out in a town where he was, says a friend, "a bigger star than the stars." His coaching days, he concluded, were all in his rear-view mirror.

Then Fresno State came calling for Tark, the Mr. Magoo look-alike, class of 1955. This may be the ultimate case of the prodigal son returning home. Last year, his first, Tark took an underachieving group of misfits and malcontents and somehow willed them to a stunning 22-11 record--after five losing seasons out of the previous six. The Bulldogs are substantially better this year. "I'm cautiously optimistic," says Tarkanian, whose team is ranked nationally by The Sporting News), and a close friend, stockbroker Harry Gaykian, says Tark believes that in 1997-98 he'll "have a shot at the Final Four."

All of which raises a central question: Will it be business as usual--which is to say just like at Long Beach State and UNLV--for Tarkanian at Fresno State? If Fresno, indeed, is only a year away from the Final Four, does that by extrapolation make the Bulldogs only a couple years away from NCAA penalties?

What people think will happen depends on whether they believe the past is prologue or that a leopard can change its spots.

When asked by The Sporting News how he convinces people that any rules violations are in his past, Tark grumbles, "I don't try to convince anybody of anything." Tarkanian continues to deny any wrongdoing, ever, in any case, anywhere, at any time. Son Danny isn't any happier about addressing the topic but says, "There can't be any rules violations here. It's unacceptable. It would destroy everything he's here to create."

Translation: Tark, understandably, didn't like the way he was forced to leave UNLV and the game he loves more than life itself, and he feels he can earn redemption at Fresno State. Then in a few years---three to five, perhaps--he can leave with dignity rather than with a gun at his head. Tark's wife of 40 years, Lois, says she thinks her husband, now 66, took the Fresno job because he wanted to "leave the sport with a good feeling in his heart, with solid and wonderful memories."