It Has Been Long Six Months for Tark

It’s been a long--very long--six months since UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian experienced the euphoria of an April full of heady memories.

-- His Runnin’ Rebels were the national champions, beating Duke in a record 103-73 rout at the Final Four in Denver.

-- Tens of thousands of Las Vegans lined downtown’s Glitter Gulch and the glitzy Strip to welcome home Tarkanian, his family and his players.

-- Topping off an unforgettable week, Tarkanian gave away a daughter in a wedding ceremony attended by Nevada’s movers and shakers.

-- And he appeared headed for an amicable, if costly settlement in his 13-year battle with the NCAA.

The honeymoon ended July 20 when the NCAA, in a bombshell announcement, said Tarkanian’s Rebels could not defend their national title -- the final resolution of a bitter battle dating back to the early 1970s.

In succeeding weeks, Tarkanian has found himself caught in a power struggle at a university and in a community where his name has been magic for 17 years.

A change in Athletic Department administrations this summer has left some Tarkanian loyalists out in the cold.

And it’s left those who know the doleful coach wondering if he will take a serious look at pro coaching offers after this season -- despite shunning such lucrative offers in the past. He passed up two NBA jobs this summer, friends say.

He declines to comment on his future plans, saying he wants to focus on the coming season and get his team back in the playoffs.

Some solace came this week when his Rebels began practice for the 1990-91 season. Tarkanian was back courtside, where he’s been most comfortable the past 35 years.

“I’ve got to get my head into the season,” he said last week, squeezing in recruiting trips and dodging flack from the political fallout of the Athletic Department changes. “This is the first time I’ve gone into a season without having everything pretty well formulated in my mind.”

UNLV opens with an exhibition game against the Soviet National team on national TV Nov. 17. The Rebels are the only college team to beat the Soviets three years running.

For Tarkanian, the fact the Russians are coming is the first glimmer of good news he’s had in weeks.

Before the Soviets hit town, UNLV officials will travel to Chicago Oct. 28 for a return date with the NCAA Infractions Committee. The committee, which banned the Rebels from post season play, agreed to a second meeting to discuss new information obtained by UNLV counsel Brad Booke.

Tarkanian, hoping to convince the committee to change its mind, offered earlier this month to sit out the playoffs if the NCAA would allow his Rebels to compete.

“Jerry loves this team, probably like no team he’s ever had,” his wife, Lois, said Wednesday. “He believes the important thing is what the team achieves this year. He believes his job is not that important.”

The loyalty is two-way.

All-America forward Larry Johnson and teammate Stacey Augmon passed up possible seven-figure contracts with the NBA this summer to return for a shot at a repeat title.

When the NCAA announced the playoff ban, all Rebel players had the option of transferring to another school. None did.

“That just shows what these kids are all about,” Tarkanian said. “Any other school you’d have kids jumping ship like crazy.”

After he offered to sit out the playoffs, his players issued a statement saying they wanted Tarkanian with them, but stopped short of saying they wouldn’t play without him.

Meanwhile, Tarkanian is still waiting for the other NCAA shoe to drop.

NCAA investigators have been frequent visitors to the UNLV campus the past three years, with their major focus on the recruiting of New York prep star Lloyd Daniels. Daniels was arrested in a drug bust and booted from the team by Tarkanian before he played for the Rebels. Still, school officials fear his case could lead to another penalty.

Tarkanian’s problems with the NCAA date back to the early 1970s when he wrote editorials zinging the agency while he was coach at Long Beach State.

Tarkanian moved to UNLV in 1973 and the NCAA announced an investigation at the school six days after he arrived. In 1977 the agency placed the school on probation for two years and ordered Tarkanian suspended for two years -- something they have not done with any other coach, before or since.

Half the violations cited by the NCAA occurred before Tarkanian arrived at UNLV.

The school served the probation but Tarkanian went to court and obtained an injunction preventing his suspension, saying he was denied due process. He has continued to coach, compiling the best record, percentage wise, among active coaches.

The NCAA appealed the case to the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled the agency, as a private organization, did not have to provide due process. The same ruling said the university did have to provide that right.

The battle cost Tarkanian nearly $400,000 in legal fees and court costs.

And it’s taken some of the fight out of the feisty Armenian.

He’s often said if he had it to do over, he wouldn’t have attacked the NCAA because “you just can’t beat them.”