‘He made you feel special’: Rice and Augmon share memories of Jerry Tarkanian

By Taylor Bern

Published Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015 | 3:11 p.m.

Updated Wednesday, Feb. 11, 2015 | 11:30 p.m.

One of the main things UNLV coach Dave Rice remembers about the man who first suggested he get into coaching was a lesson from the court applicable to life. Jerry Tarkanian, the Rebels legend who died this morning at 84 years old, had a way of making those connections a lot.

During Rice’s lone season as a UNLV graduate assistant, the Rebels were coming off a Final Four loss to Duke and started the 1991-92 year at 3-2. While UNLV had built its brand and won a lot of games as a pressing, running team, the scheme wasn’t working, and Tarkanian scrapped it in favor of a 1-2-2 defense that helped the Rebels win 21 straight.

“It speaks volumes about the man,” Rice said today at the Mendenhall Center, “because a lot of people wouldn’t check their ego at the door, and he had no ego to check.”

The Rebels will wear patches honoring Tarkanian for the rest of the season, and a public memorial service at the Thomas & Mack Center is scheduled for Sunday, March 1.

To fans and foes alike, Tarkanian was bigger than life. To his players, like Rice and current UNLV assistant coach Stacey Augmon, he was a great basketball mind. But more than that, he was a father figure and a leader.

“I recall in high school, I had a reputation as a troubled kid, but Coach Tark was the type of coach that believed in everyone's potential and gave everyone a second chance,” Augmon said in a statement. “I was one of those guys. I came to UNLV as a young, misled, misunderstood kid, and just didn't know anything about life. Coach Tark took me under his wing and after my five years at UNLV, I left as a young man with great values, a better person and with a great love and understanding of the game of basketball.”

Rice was a reserve player at UNLV, and when his eligibility ran out, he figured he’d go to law or medical school. It was Tarkanian who pulled him aside and said Rice might have a future in coaching.

Had anyone else said it, including Rice’s father, who was a high school basketball coach, it might not have changed his plans. But Tarkanian’s words carried a lot of weight with his players. Twenty years later, Tarkanian was at Rice’s introductory press conference, and since the time Rice first got into coaching, he’s often tried to learn from and emulate his former coach.

“He always told me to do what was right,” Rice said. “That was the thing as much as anything that he instilled in me and those around him — a commitment and a confidence to do what you felt was right for the people around you, not necessarily what was popular.”

Tarkanian went to four Final Fours and won one national title at UNLV, but his legacy goes far beyond wins and losses. He battled the NCAA before that became commonplace, and he gave opportunities to kids who might not have been able to find them anywhere else.

That didn’t always work out, but whatever outsiders or even his own university president thought of Tarkanian, his players loved him. Under his watch, UNLV became a behemoth projecting all the glitz and glamor of Las Vegas while winning with defense.

Rice said one of his favorite memories was going out to Springfield, Mass., a year and a half ago to see Tarkanian inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame. Tarkanian’s health hasn’t been great over the past few years as his public appearances became more and more infrequent, but getting into the Hall of Fame was one of his last big milestones. It took longer than many thought it should have, but Tarkanian got his moment on stage.

It was a chance for the people who loved him to try to give Tarkanian the same feeling he gave them over the years.

“He made you feel special,” Rice said. “When you were in the room with him, you felt like you the only person in that room. He just had that ability to do that. If there was a wall, you wanted to run through the wall for him.”

Taylor Bern can be reached at 948-7844 or [email protected]. Follow Taylor on Twitter at twitter.com/taylorbern.