Tark, Fresno won’t play game at Mandalay Bay

Steve Addy

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 10:28 a.m.

It seemed like a cool idea at the time, but Jerry Tarkanian won't be bringing his Fresno State team to Las Vegas next season.

The former UNLV basketball coach has had to pull out of a proposed game against Gonzaga on Dec. 7 at Mandalay Bay Events Center, possibly scuttling a doubleheader that was to include USC and Pepperdine.

When Fresno State president John Welty learned the game would be played in a hotel-casino facility, he advised his athletic department to turn it down.

"It sounds like (the game) isn't going to happen," Tarkanian said this week. "Our president isn't too keen on us playing in a casino."

"Our president won't let us play in a casino, period. That's it," said Jack Fertig, the Bulldogs' director of basketball operations.

"We very much wanted to play there. Gonzaga is a good game for us, and we wanted Tark to be back in Vegas. But it's not going to happen."

The NCAA doesn't prohibit schools from playing at hotel-casinos, but has expressed growing discomfort with such events in light of its campaign to ban college sports betting.

Though plans have been set for three eight-team college tournaments at Paris Las Vegas in November and December, Fresno State's pullout has jeopardized the Mandalay Bay event.

Scott Willard of Chicago-based promoter Gracedale Sports would not discuss Fresno State's change of heart, but acknowledged that "issues have come up."

Because the Tarkanian-Las Vegas angle was Gracedale's promotional hook, the event might be scrapped unless Gracedale can find a replacement team with drawing power.

"We're keeping all of our options open," Willard said.

Even with Fresno State, the event was likely to be a tough sell, Fertig said.

"Tark probably isn't the draw he once was in Las Vegas," he said. "We played UNLV twice in Vegas (1997 and '98) and the place didn't sell out."

Meanwhile, the tournaments at Paris Las Vegas are scheduled for Nov. 19-21, Nov. 22-24 and Dec. 20-22. A court will be set up in the hotel's Grand Ballroom, with seating for about 2,500.

The Nov. 19-21 event, yet unnamed, will feature Oklahoma State, Texas-El Paso, Providence, South Carolina State, Austin Peay, Northeastern and two teams to be determined.

The Nov. 22-24 Las Vegas Invitational will feature Illinois, Iowa State, Georgia Tech, Hartford, Saint Louis, Penn, Southern Illinois and Eastern Illinois.

The Dec. 20-22 Las Vegas Classic includes Purdue, Cincinnati, Mississippi State, Texas A&M, Richmond, Southwest Missouri State, Illinois-Chicago and Louisiana-Monroe.

The dates and teams were confirmed by Cincinnati-based promoter Worldwide Basketball and Andy Maiden, manager of public relations for Paris and Bally's.

Each tournament field will be split into two four-team pools. Each team will play its first game at a campus site, then two more pool games at Paris. The pool winners will meet for the championship, and the corresponding placers from each pool will face off as well.

Two of the tournaments will conflict with UNLV home games, while the other has four games on Thanksgiving, Nov. 22.

The Rebels host Nicholls State on Nov. 20, Nevada-Reno on Dec. 20 and Texas on Dec. 22 in the Las Vegas Showdown doubleheader. The other Showdown game is Stanford vs. BYU.

But Chris Spencer of Worldwide Basketball isn't worried about clashing with UNLV or Thanksgiving.

"We really won't be drawing from UNLV," he said. "Most of the fans will come with their teams, and Thanksgiving is a good week to travel. We'll probably only release 1,000 tickets per tournament to (Las Vegas) locals, and we should be able to sell those."

Worldwide Basketball has put on early-season tournaments in Puerto Rico (the Shootout and Holiday Classic) for seven years, but moved them to Las Vegas because of NCAA rule changes regarding so-called exempt events.