Tark Still Walks on the Edge

Thought for the day:

“I told the FBI there’s no way they would dump a championship game.”

--Lem Banker, well-known Las Vegas gambling figure, on the possibility of point-shaving at UNLV.

And some others:

Just The Same, Lem, Can We Take A Second Look At That Duke Game?

The Internal Revenue Service, the Federal Organized Crime Strike Force and the Federal Bureau of Investigation want to know more about Nevada Las Vegas’ 79-77 loss to Duke in last year’s NCAA semifinals.

So does the rest of the country, which is hardly surprising, considering:

1. UNLV 103, Duke 73. A year earlier, it was a 30-point blowout in the NCAA final, scored by a Runnin’ Rebel team that was inferior, in virtually every aspect, to its 1990-91 counterpart. The ‘89-90 Rebels lost five games during the regular season; the ‘90-91 Rebels lost zero. The ‘89-90 Rebels started David Butler at center; the ‘90-91 Rebels started George Ackles, the 29th player selected in last summer’s NBA draft. The ‘89-90 Rebels started three juniors and one sophomore; by the time of the 1991 rematch with Duke, Larry Johnson, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony and Anderson Hunt were all older, stronger, more experienced . . . better .

2. Augmon. During the regular season, he shot 58.7% from the field and averaged 16.5 points, numbers that made him an eventual NBA lottery pick. Against Duke, he was three for 10 for six points, his second-lowest point total of the season.

3. Johnson. During the regular season, he shot 66.2% from the field and averaged 22.7 points. In the four tournament games that brought UNLV back to the Final Four, he scored 23, 20, 23 and 30 points. But against Duke, he was five for 10 for 13 points--and when he had a chance to tie the score, when he had his hands on the ball and an open shot at the basket in the final seconds, he passed. He passed, back and up to the top of the free-throw circle to Hunt, trading a decent percentage shot for a forced, off-balance castaway from farther out. Why, Larry, why?

Then Again, Three Reasons Why Lem Banker Might Have A Point:

1. Augmon. Losing to Duke and thereby depriving himself a shot at a second national championship cost Augmon hundreds of thousands of dollars. Pre-Duke, he figured to join Johnson as one of the top three picks in the draft. Post-Duke, he slipped all the way to No. 9, watching his rookie contract shrink with every step.

2. Jerry Tarkanian. Two in a row simply meant too much to him, embarrassing the NCAA again was just too great an obsession. Granted, the leash Tarkanian puts on his players off the court is longer than most plane flights, but the coach is far less oblivious than he looks. If rumors of an imminent tanking reached even the volume of a murmur in Indianapolis, Tark, rest assured, would have heard.

3. Duke. Both teams improved between 1990 and 1991--Duke even more so. In short, Bobby Hurley was no longer floored with a stone-cold case of the flu; Christian Laettner was no longer an awe-struck sophomore; the Blue Devil offense no longer revolved around the Crass of 1990, selfish seniors Alaa Abdelnaby and Phil Henderson; and Mike Krzyzewski was no longer a Tarkanian foil without a clue. Twelve months gave Krzyzewski a lot of time to think. He figured something out.

So, How Would You Like To Be President Day On Presidents’ Day?

That’s San Diego State University President Tom Day, who finds himself today confronted with the ultimate Faustian dilemma: Do you sell your soul to save your men’s basketball program?

To put it another way: Do you hire Jerry Tarkanian?

So far, Day is holding steady, despite the facts that a) Tark is friendly with San Diego State Athletic Director Fred Miller; b) Tark has a condo in San Diego; c) San Diego State has a basketball coaching vacancy; and d) San Diego State has a basketball team with a 2-21 record.

Not so resolute were the wills of the listeners of San Diego-based radio station XTRA, which conducted a week-long poll asking the questions:

Do you sell out your principles and the integrity of your academic institution for a shot at the top 20?

Do you bankrupt your morals and risk the never-ending wrath of the NCAA for a potential trip to the Final Four?

Do you make a deal with the devil?

Yes! Yes! Of course you do!, cried the first wave of callers.

We’ve been stuck with the Chargers and the Padres and Jim Brandenburg for too long!

Throw us to The Shark!

Gradually, the implications of such an act were mulled, and by week’s end, more than 260 callers had reached a virtual split-decision, pro-Tark edging anti-Tark by a mere handful of votes.

That’s how it goes with Tarkanian. It’s impossible not to have an opinion about him--and the opinion is either black or white. There is no gray, except, maybe, for Evric, who’s currently starting at forward for Tarkanian.

Just Because You’re Paranoid Doesn’t Mean They’re Not Out To Get You.

Within 24 hours of a published report naming Tarkanian as the front-runner in San Diego State’s search for a basketball coach, news of the point-shaving investigation is leaked to the media.

If you’re an NCAA investigator or a UNLV administrator or anyone opposed to the general idea of Jerry Tarkanian coaching college basketball again, two words and only two words come to mind.

How convenient.

Why A Smaller Big West Tournament Was A Better Idea.

Big West Conference athletic directors played to their worst fears last year when they voted to exclude UNLV from the 1992 postseason tournament.

Their worst fear: UNLV would win the conference tournament and waste the Big West’s one automatic NCAA invitation on an ineligible team, thus risking a complete Big West shutout from the 64-team NCAA field.

It was the correct fear.

At 22-2 and 14-0 in conference, UNLV is again the dominant team in the Big West. Runnin’ Rebel guard J.R. Rider and center Elmore Spencer are the top two players in the Big West, and Evric Gray probably makes the top dozen. UNLV is ranked 15th in the nation and no one else in the conference is even close. Only New Mexico State (17-4) and UC Santa Barbara (15-6) can conceivably finish the regular season with 20 victories--and even that is no guarantee of an NCAA bid. (See Long Beach State, 1990.)

Cal State Fullerton Coach John Sneed is right; this year, they could play four Big West tournaments and four different teams would emerge as winners. But let UNLV play and that changes.

Let UNLV play and there’s only one winner.

Worse than that, everybody loses.