DJ Tark: Fresno radio show starts up again

Jerry Tarkanian

Friday, Nov. 7, 2008 | 4:06 p.m.

I ended my last column by saying I’d address a few topics, like Reggie Theus and Glen Gondrezick, in my next story.

But I’m in Fresno and I started my weekly radio show here Wednesday. So since that’s so fresh, I want to touch on that.

My first guest was Mark Warkentien, the general manager of the Denver Nuggets who was my assistant coach and recruiting coordinator at UNLV. He also was an assistant athletic director at the school.

We had to discuss the big trade that he made this week, dealing Allen Iverson to Detroit for Chauncey Billups and Antonio McDyess.

I agreed with Mark that it was a great trade for both teams.

Denver had a great shooting guard, J.R. Smith, behind Iverson. J.R. is going to be excellent. He didn’t get to play behind Iverson, but he’ll get to play a lot now.

They have a pure point guard, with Billups, and J.R. will step in at the ‘two’ and make Denver a lot better team.

Mark also said that Tim Grgurich is handling the defense this season, so they’ll be very much improved on that side of the ball. In the past they were so bad, defensively. I couldn’t believe it.

That was not a typical George Karl team. By the playoffs this season, they’ll be one of the best defensive teams in the league.

I think Iverson will fit in well in Detroit, too. He’s a great player, goes hard all the time. He’s near the end of his career.

He has maybe one or two more years to go, but I think it’s a shot for him to go out as a champion. He might be good enough to take Detroit to the championship round.

Then I talked with Kevin O’Neill, an assistant coach for the Memphis Grizzlies under Marc Iavaroni.

We talked a little bit about Lute Olson. Kevin coached the Arizona Wildcats last season while Lute was away.

Kevin didn’t want to talk about that too much. We both agreed that Lute meant so much to that university. We wish he could have gone out on a bigger note.

The way he left, I guess a lot of people were upset. They lost all their recruits. And for the second time, he quit right before the season started.

People forget that Lute’s the one who built that program. It was down in the dumps until he got there, then they were national contenders every year.

It was one hour and it went fast. I have a lot of fun with it.

Jack Fertig, who was my director of basketball operations here at Fresno State and was an assistant at Tennessee and USC, is my co-host. Between Jack and I, we can tell some great stories.

Jeff McCrady is the director of the radio station. He played football for Jim Sweeney and his son, a wide receiver, plays at the University of San Diego. Jeff has flown all over, to North Carolina and Jacksonville, to see Anthony play.

I’m going to talk with Steve Cleveland, Fresno State’s basketball coach, next week. We talk quite a bit. He’s young and feels good. Recruiting won’t be great, but he thinks the future is great.

He thinks they need another good recruiting year and they’ll be on their way back.

As for football at Fresno State, 12th-year coach Pat Hill does a great, great job. But it’s been strange. They play real tough teams early in the schedule and they usually do well.

But he hasn’t been able to win the Western Athletic Conference. He’s never won the league outright. One year they were co-champs, but they’ve never won it alone. And it’s not a very good league.

I think they play those tough teams early and get banged up. They’re not the same team by the time the league starts.

He hasn’t been on my show, but we just talk basketball. No football coaches.

So I had to mention my radio show.

I’ll get to Reggie and Glen, and Bobby Knight, my time coaching Fresno State, how hard our practices were at UNLV and what might have been had I taken the Philadelphia 76ers job over the next few columns.

Promise.