Columnist Dean Juipe: Tarkanian hints Fresno stint at end

Dean Juipe

Tuesday, Jan. 25, 2000 | 9:29 a.m.

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at juipe@vegas.com or 259-4084.

No matter where he's residing, Jerry Tarkanian's shadow will always extend to Las Vegas.

It's simply a fact: Isolated critics aside, the former UNLV basketball coach remains revered here. He coached the Rebels for 19 seasons, won 509 games and lost only 105, took four teams to the Final Four and won the NCAA national championship in 1990.

Add in his quirky mannerisms and offbeat habits and Tark established himself as a beloved figure who could be excused any perceived shortcomings. He may have been run off as coach of the Rebels by a misguided -- and later despised -- university president in 1992, yet he was an extremely influential man who retains a very tangible hold on many sports fans in this community.

He had a positive impact on the city, the school and the sport. Long after the rest of us are gone, he won't be forgotten.

They won't forget him in Fresno, either. But after five seasons coaching the Fresno State Bulldogs, Tarkanian may be winding down.

During a phone conversation Monday, he did more than imply that the end could be near and that a return to Las Vegas -- to work with the city's proposed new American Basketball Association team next fall -- is within the realm of possibilities.

"I wouldn't comment on that right now," he initially said, before deciding to expound a bit.

"I don't know what's going to happen but if I'm not happy I'll be ready to step down," he said. "And a big part of this season, I haven't been happy."

Tark's Bulldogs are 12-7 in what has been an injury-wracked season. Two returning starters and a key reserve have spent considerable time tending to injuries, although everyone is back as the team prepares for a Thursday game with Rice.

"We've played pretty good, considering," Tarkanian said. "But we're not real deep and the damnedest things keep happening to us. I think we have a chance of still being good, but maybe it's too late (to make the NCAA Tournament)."

Slightly disconsolate, he's wondering about the origin of the injury bug that has incapacitated his team this season. "All those years at UNLV and the only guys I ever had who got hurt were Jackie Robinson and Eldridge Hudson, and those weren't that serious," he said.

He really wants his Bulldogs to come around and complete the mission he accepted in Fresno in 1995. While the school will break ground this fall on a new 16,500-seat arena to replace 34-year-old Selland Arena and thereby realize one of Tarkanian's stated goals, his teams have been a mixture of tantalizing talent and misguided lifestyles.

Since the 1995-96 season Fresno has both played and partied energetically, going 22-11, 20-12, 21-13 and 21-12 with recruits who know the game but sometimes vacantly sidestep the law. Say this for Tark: In many respects his teams never change.

But at 69 years old he may be tiring of the grind, and now he has the new ABA -- with colleague Brad Rothermel running the Las Vegas show -- to fall back on in the event he wants to come home.

"I'll eventually get involved with Brad's team in some capacity," Tarkanian said, then hinted that maybe that day isn't too far away.

"I'm very discouraged right now," he said. "Something always seems to be going wrong."