6 Comments
Facebook
Fark
Digg
Reddit
StumblePublished Monday, Nov. 3, 2008 | 11:10 a.m.
Updated Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 | 3:36 p.m.
The funny thing is that I never cared about an arena. I was happy at Riverside City College when we played inside Riverside Poly High’s gym. I was happy with that.
I’m not into how nice a facility is to play in. I’d rather have good players than a nice gym.
I loved the Convention Center. It was a great atmosphere. The crowd was right on top of you. Incredible. I never dreamed to get huge crowds like we did into a big arena like the Thomas & Mack.
I thought it would be half full. I was a little concerned. But Wildcat Morris, Wayne Pearson, Sig Rogich and the rest of them, they wanted a big one and they got it.
Shark Bytes: Players on a Team
Viewing video requires the latest version of Adobe's Flash Player
diggUNLV legend Jerry Tarkanian discusses how many Rebels it really takes to make a basketball team.
Thomas & Mack's Top 25
- No. 1: Hook for the books
- No. 2: A dream season
- No. 3: NFR is a cash cow
- No. 4: U2's tribute show
- No. 5: UNLV ships Navy home
- No. 6: Training Team USA
- No. 7: NBA playoffs shift to the Mack amidst L.A. riots
- No. 8: Tark bids farewell
- No. 9: Thunder shakes Mack
- No. 10: Boxers set record
- No. 11: T&M hosts All-Stars
- No. 12: Brooks packs Mack
- No. 13: NBA's summer home
- No. 14: Legendary fighters highlight first UFC show
- No. 15: Ol’ Blue Eyes
- No. 16: Big George wins
- No. 17: Who's the Boss
- No. 18: Tark back at Mack
- No. 19: Fans catch Phish
- No. 20: Family fun
- No. 21: Mack ‘Smackdown’
- No. 22: Talking politics
- No. 23: Fade pattern
- No. 24: Pavarotti performs
- No. 25: Let's play two
I went along with it, but I was not into it very much.
They moved into a nice, new arena in Fresno, but I liked Selland Arena more than the new one. I don’t know. Selland felt like home to me.
I remember when we had a chance to get the rodeo, the National Finals Rodeo, at the Thomas & Mack. Irwin Molasky and Brad Rothermel said we’d have a chance to get this show.
They said it would mean cutting into your practice and playing time. You’d have to play on the road for two or three weeks. I didn’t care. I told them to go right ahead. Didn’t bother me at all.
I got a kick out of Bill Bayno, who used to complain about how he never got practice time in the Thomas & Mack. I didn’t even care about that. I never cared if we practiced in there.
I preferred the campus gym, because it had more buckets. I never cared where we practiced, played or how nice it was. I wanted six buckets and I wanted regulation lanes so we could practice hard.
But the longer we played in the Thomas & Mack, the more I grew to love it.
And that rodeo has been great. I went a couple times. I’ve seen those bulls. It’s amazing how they can stay on those.
My last game in the Mack, against Utah State on March 3, 1992, it really hit me as I walked out that tunnel and looked up. I couldn’t believe the crowd.
Lynn Archibald, who was coaching at Arizona State at the time, was there with all his family. Lynn was with me at Long Beach State and came with me to Las Vegas. We were very, very close.
I looked at him and I choked up, tears came to my eyes. So many people made the trip just for that game. It really got to me. My brother, Myron, was here with his family.
We won, 65-53. It didn’t affect me during or after the game. But before it, walking down that tunnel, I started thinking that this is the last time I’ll ever be doing that.
When I took over at Fresno State, we were in the Western Athletic Conference and that’s the league UNLV joined in 1996. Wouldn’t you know it, we had to play at UNLV that season.
I never intended on doing that. It was a strange feeling to sit on the other side of the bench. The crowd was so great. They must have given me a standing ovation for 10 minutes.
Vegas fans have always been great to me, and I always appreciated that.
It was a strange feeling, but I had my friends Freddie Glusman and Mike Toney sitting behind my bench. That’s loyalty. You can print that. I want them to know how much I appreciate them.
Warren Rosegreen had played for my son, George, when he was coaching at Chaffey College in Southern California. Warren wanted to play for me at Fresno, but I already had a guy his size.
UNLV took him and he thoroughly dominated that game. He was the hero. He’s always great to me when I see him.
After that game, George said to me, “I told you dad, you should have taken him.”
But we had so many great wins in that building when I was at UNLV. We beat Temple when they were No. 1 in the country. My center wasn’t a good leaper, and they had the best shot blocker in the country.
My center hit a turn-around jump shot – he couldn’t jump three inches off the ground! – and their guy didn’t try to block it. The ball went in at the buzzer.
John Chaney, Temple’s coach, is a good friend. As soon as that game was over, he was all over his center.
We beat Louisville when they were really good. We beat them bad, real bad. We beat Memphis when they were a top-three team.
It was very nice that they named the court after me, with my signature and that shark fin and all. I give a lot of credit for that to Lon Kruger and Mike Hamrick, the athletic director.
They and several Board of Regents pushed that real hard. It is quite a legacy.
Next time, I’ll tell you about Glen Gondrezick, Reggie Theus, what I think would have happened if I had taken that Philadelphia 76ers job and how hard we practiced.
coach, good memory about that temple game. i was a little boy and i remember having standing room only seats. that game was incredible.... the shot heard around the world was the headline after the game.
thanks for not bringing up that game in 1987 when oklahoma beat us by 1 point because brent musburger encouraged the refs into calling our last shot of the 1st half a 2 instead of a 3. i still don't care for that guy.....
keep the stories coming coach, we all enjoy them -- they're our memories too.
Coach enjoys sharing, trf... keep watching.
Beating Louisville bad? That's the team I really want the Rebels to knock off this year.
Pitino used UNLV for leverage. Now we should return the favor by putting a rebel red boot on his throat to welcome in the new year.
Great read.... I'm interested to get coach's take on his Fresno state teams. Hed led them to 6 consecutive 20 win seasons from 1995-2002. They had some pretty good "second chance" guys on those teams, and some have carved a decent little career for themselves in the NBA. Particularly Rafer Alston who has finally come into his own as a starting PG for Houston. Also Melvin Ely Is'nt that bad either.... I remember back when I think it was Fox Sports did a little mini documentary on Tark and his '98 or '99 Fresno state team
Thanks Rob and Coach.
You're welcome SMB... I'll run that topic by coach. I think his next one is pretty comprehensive, so look for that next week, possibly the early-week Shark Byte. thanks
Cool, dis... must have been very cool to see that arena getting built. It's not exactly a spiffy NBA house, with tiers of executive suites, etc ... but for a college arena, it has held up very well over the years.