Aztec Coach’s Firing Feeding Rumors That a Shark is Near

Jerry Tarkanian picked up the telephone in his UNLV office. As he listened, you could almost see those sad eyes widening from 300 miles away.

Jim Brandenburg was being fired as head basketball coach at San Diego State.

“Really?” he said. “You’re kidding. Why? Why now?”

A dispirited coach had lost a dispirited team that had lost a dispirited community. It was going to get worse before it got better.

It was too late to retrieve the interest of the community, at least for this year, but it was not too late to get the attention of the players and freeze them in place. There otherwise would have been mass defections.

It was time for a change.

Now.

It was a mercy firing for all involved, including Brandenburg.

All of this was explained to Tarkanian, because he has been rumored to be in line to replace Brandenburg for the 1992-93 season. Jim Harrick Jr., after all, is a mere caretaker as interim coach, albeit an enthusiastic and motivated caretaker.

These rumors involving Tarkanian seemed like so much smoke for so long, but now there might be some fire to all the talk. Tarkanian is done after this season at UNLV, and Brandenburg is done, period, at SDSU, at least as basketball coach.

And you thought “Shark Encounter” was supposed to be a new attraction at Sea World this year?

SDSU could well land the most famous shark of all.

As might be expected, Tarkanian was evasive about the subject. He has a team to coach for a few more weeks, even though he can take it nowhere in the postseason because of an agreement resolving his long-running battle with the NCAA. In truth, this was no time to go public with interest in another position.

“I know there are a lot of rumors,” he said, “but I’m going to wait until the season’s over. I want to sit back and reflect on what the future holds for me.”

You sense Tarkanian is not finished with collegiate basketball, in spite of his career-long scrimmage with that nasty NCAA.

The question, of course, is whether college basketball should be finished with Tarkanian. All those battles with the NCAA have left him with a few scars and tarnishes. They might well be cause for a university president, such as SDSU’s Tom Day, to be gun-shy about hiring him.

The bottom line is that the man has always been a winner, but a bottom line comes with that asterisk . . .

* Possible trouble.

Given an opportunity to hire a Tarkanian, SDSU could protect itself contractually from recurrences of difficulties with the NCAA. Salary forfeiture, termination and such conditions could be included. Call it a prenuptial agreement of sorts.

Would the NCAA pursue Tarkanian from UNLV to SDSU as it pursued him from Cal State Long Beach to UNLV?

Who knows, but very few basketball coaches and their programs could stand up to the intensity of the NCAA’s seemingly forever investigation of Tarkanian.

Maybe a clean slate would be what he needs.

Certainly, a clean slate and a fresh start is what SDSU needs.

Hiring Jerry Tarkanian would be a bold and daring way to start. It might well be too bold and too daring.

However, the suspicion here is that Tarkanian is very interested in San Diego State. His family has a place in San Diego. Two of his youngsters went to USD. Like so many others who visit, he has to wonder what it might be like to live and work here.

By the same token, as a basketball coach, Tarkanian would have to be excused for wondering if the community would ever support collegiate basketball and, for heaven’s sake, if it is possible to win at SDSU.

If it is possible to win, winning would cure apathy.

But Jim Brandenburg could not win here.

Brandenburg never had a losing season before he arrived at SDSU, enjoying success in outposts such as Montana and Wyoming. He arrived with much ballyhoo and departed with much bitterness in the midst of his fifth consecutive losing season.

Tarkanian, rightfully, might be as cautious about coming to SDSU as SDSU might be about hiring him.

Don’t forget that Tarkanian is somewhat daring himself. He went to Cal State Long Beach and then to UNLV. At both places, he won where winning had not previously been experienced and created frenzy where only apathy previously existed.

Even given that background, SDSU probably would be Jerry Tarkanian’s greatest challenge.

In the meantime, you can bet SDSU will play out the season with much more enthusiasm under Harrick than it has displayed the last few weeks. He guarantees only that his team will play hard and have fun. That will be a nice change.

However, Fred Miller, the athletic director, has to think about the big picture.

There might well be a fin in it.