Las Vegas Sun

March 29, 2024

Columnist Dean Juipe: Tark wants it known he’s clean

Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.

It's a given that many basketball fans across the country, and maybe even a few here in Las Vegas, have an erroneous impression of Jerry Tarkanian. They grasp the Father Flanigan image but mistakenly believe he constantly bent the rules.

It's a reputation that exasperates Tarkanian to some extent. After all, the actual facts of the matter point not only to a remarkable coaching career but one that was exemplary in every fashion.

Nonetheless, he was repeatedly targeted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association and all but despised by occasional critics. There were and probably still are some people in power who just don't like the man.

But I do and always have, so when he made himself available for breakfast Thursday morning and went on something of a rant, he was preaching to the choir.

"I'm always made to look like the bad guy," he said over bacon and eggs, referring not only to his 19-year tenure at UNLV but his seven-year stay at Fresno State. "All the s--- I've taken over the years and not once has anyone found anything resembling a serious violation."

Always very conscious of the media, he's riled these days because of a few hits he has taken of late pertaining to a just-completed investigation at Fresno. He wants to make it clear to his friends in Las Vegas that he was no more guilty of improprieties at Fresno than he was at UNLV, where a jealous president harpooned the Rebels and all but railroaded him out of town.

To simplify the situation as it pertains to Fresno State, two weeks ago the school self-imposed a couple of penalties on its men's basketball program in light of a lengthy investigation that uncovered little evidence of subterfuge or corruption. To the contrary, what was revealed were clerical errors by the school's compliance director that allowed three members of the team to play at a time when they should have been deemed ineligible.

As a result, Fresno State is penalizing itself by placing itself on probation and trimming three scholarships from the basketball program. The NCAA will either approve the penalties or add to them when it hands down its own decision in February.

"If I hadn't been the coach, there wouldn't even have been an investigation," Tarkanian said. "I was constantly hounded by the NCAA because of who I was, not because of anything I did that was wrong."

Tarkanian is 72 and retired, albeit busy. He hosts a weekly radio show in Fresno, is a paid consultant for the university's new arena and has been a guest speaker and instructor for a number of high-profile college teams.

Addicted to basketball, he looked in on Charlie Spoonhour and the Rebels during their afternoon workout.

"I've got plenty to do," he said. "I'm happy with how things are going."

But he'd be happier if everyone understood how little he and his staff had to do with Fresno State going on probation.

Toward that, he and his eldest son, Danny, arrived for breakfast with supporting documentation in hand. Danny had a voluminous binder of reference material and data, and Tark presented a letter written by the Fresno State president that not only exonerates him but sings his praises as well.

"(Tarkanian) has been fully cooperative," the letter from John D. Welty says in part. The infractions that were uncovered "did not personally involve the coach or the coaching staff."

Danny, a nonpracticing attorney who was part of his father's staff at Fresno, is obviously tired of seeing his dad vilified by some in the press.

"It's a national perception," he said. "We've had reporters tell us they can further their careers by having a big story on my dad, so it's like they're trying to be the one who killed Billy the Kid.

"Now they've started blaming us for things we don't deserve and that were completely out of our control at Fresno State."

The Tarkanians do take responsibility for four minor violations, the type of which could probably be uncovered at any program that was under a magnifying glass. "They searched everywhere but couldn't find anything substantial against us," Danny said, "so it's really upsetting to see my dad portrayed the way he is by some in the media. It's a lot of crap."

Jerry Tarkanian says he was the one who insisted Fresno State hire a compliance officer, which it hadn't previously done, and that the notion that he was involved in recruiting violations or paying players is totally false -- even though that personification has dogged him for years.

"I've never done any illegal recruiting, or messed with academics or saw to it that a player was paid," he said. "But people see a story about Fresno State going on probation and they think, 'There's Tark again.' I become the story."

Two former Fresno players have said they were given money while playing for the Bulldogs, each adding that the cash came through an agent and that the coaches were unaware of the transgressions. One of the players, Tito Maddox, was released from the program, while the other, Terrance Roberson, had already moved on.

"We tripled the program's previous graduation rate and had all our guys get involved in community service, yet these are the things that will be remembered," Tarkanian said with some remorse, referring to the Maddox and Roberson confessions and the ongoing examination of agent Nate Cebrun and his relationship with the Fresno program.

The NCAA is also continuing to look at the importance of Fresno State team manager Will Hooker and the role he may have played in either organizing offseason workouts and/or occasionally shouting out instructions as if he were a coach. Currently categorized as a minor violation, this item could escalate to a major one in the NCAA's eyes if it chooses to pursue the matter as a Tarkanian-related vendetta.

"No coach in the country can know every single thing about his players," Tarkanian said. "We had no way of knowing any of the things that we were cited for in the school's final report, and the sad part is they wouldn't even have been looking if I hadn't been the coach."

He thinks Fresno State did the appropriate thing in placing itself on probation and limiting its upcoming scholarships, and he doesn't believe the NCAA will add to the school's grief when its own report is released early next year.

"It was a good move on the school's part; it showed good faith," he said. "Of course we don't know if that will be sufficient or not, but I don't think the NCAA will do much. The thing with Cebrun and Maddox, that's not the university's responsibility."

Always a great storyteller and blessed with a wealth of gossipy information, Tarkanian is inevitably humorous and straightforward. He can pique a reporter's or a fan's interest with tales concerning his successors, Rollie Massimino and Bill Bayno, and he can laugh at himself as he admits onetime UNLV recruit Lloyd Daniels "probably cost me my job" with the Rebels.

But he isn't laughing about being mislabeled as a scoundrel or a cheat by those inclined to do it. So he's on a campaign, taking his case to the public.

He wants you to think of him fondly and to see him as he is, not as some single-minded dolt whose approach to young men and basketball isn't nearly as devious as some would have you believe.

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