More jet-setting and how we got Anderson Hunt

Jerry Tarkanian

Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2008 | 7:16 p.m.

I had a great time in Florida, but both of my teams lost.

At the Florida State-Miami game, we had great seats. It rained, but the Hurricanes basketball coach, Frank Haith, got us on the 40-yard line with a roof over our heads.

The Hurricanes lost in a wild 41-39 game, but we had a lot of fun. Sunday, the Dolphins beat the Chargers. I felt so bad. I’m a big Chargers fan, and it really hurts when they lose.

We stayed on South Beach, at Loews Miami Beach Hotel. Incredible. A friend of mine who is a hotel developer in Las Vegas had a contact there.

Then I went to Mobile, Ala., to give speeches to South Alabama’s basketball and football boosters’ clubs. I’ve known their basketball coach, Ronnie Arrow, for years. He gave me a big buildup.

Ronnie was coaching junior college when I was at UNLV. We got David Butler, Moses Scurry and Spoon James from him.

I sat next to a South Alabama assistant football coach, who was an All-American fullback at Auburn, at their First-and-10 Club function. I told him how much I wanted to see an Auburn-Alabama football game, and he said he’d take care of it.

I don’t know if he will, but I’ve heard there’s nothing like an Auburn-Alabama football game.

Once I get started, I can talk forever. So those functions were fun.

I know some of you have had questions for me, and some are about recruiting.

Someone asked about offering more scholarships than we had. I don’t think that’s ever a good idea.

Tim Floyd did that a lot at Iowa State. You get a lot of kids and you’d wonder, what is he going to do. At the end, it always worked out.

They figure they’ll lose a few. The hard thing, when you do that, is if you don’t lose anyone you have to take a scholarship away from someone.

Coaches do that. They get more commitments than they have scholarships for, figuring it will weed itself out or they’ll weed them out before school.

I would never do that. I don’t have the heart to tell a kid, after I’ve recruited him and have him here, that we have another kid. We never did that.

I don’t think many coaches are doing that.

We were always very realistic in recruiting. We hardly ever recruited the south. The only time we did was when someone contacted us and showed a lot of interest.

Once, a kid in Alabama or Mississippi contacted us. He was highly rated and we recruited him. We lost him, I think, to Alabama.

We never recruited Larry Johnson, a Texas native, until he went to junior college. In high school, we never talked to him. We just didn’t think we could get a player out of the south, unless you bought him.

That was our feeling. The Southeastern Conference was the worst. Coaches down there said that about everyone except Vanderbilt. So we never recruited the south.

A coach at Memphis once told me that I ought to go there, that there were so many great players in Memphis. Per capita, it was probably one of the best spots in the country. I told him we couldn’t go down there and get players.

Nolan Richardson, when he was at Arkansas, was the only one to do that.

We never recruited the Bay Area, either. The only player we got from there was Eric Booker, a transfer. We recruited where we had contacts, like Pittsburgh, Baltimore, New York City and Southern California.

When I was at Long Beach State, we would recruit Detroit. But then Freddie Stone got an assistant’s job at Michigan, and he was the same contact I had. So we didn’t get anyone out of Michigan.

Anderson Hunt was the exception. I had a speaking engagement in Grand Rapids, Mich., and I was the last speaker. I followed Jim Valvano, the late, great North Carolina State coach.

After the speech, I talked to a half dozen Detroit-area high school coaches and they asked me to join them for chicken wings and beer. I said, yeah, I’m not doing anything.

I had a good time. They said it was the first time a major college coach had done that. Every time, they said they’d have to catch a flight or were doing something.

Perry Watson, at Southwestern High, told me when he got a great player he’d send him to me.

Two or three years later, I read one of those preseason scouting reports and learned that a 6-7 kid from Southwestern had signed with Iowa.

I called Perry and said, you told me when you get a great player you’d send him to me. He said, Tark, he’s really good, but there are a lot like him in L.A. He’s not a difference-maker. I haven’t forgotten you.

When I get a difference-maker I’ll call you.

Two or three years later, he calls and says, I got the difference-maker for you. Anderson Hunt. He signed with us without ever visiting. He visited after he signed. Perry Watson delivered.

Anderson was a difference-maker.

I’ll continue about recruiting in my next piece.