Tarkanian Is Stuck Between Rock, UNLV : Basketball: Rebels’ coach remains very interested in the job at San Diego State.

Everyone hereabouts has an opinion about Jerry Tarkanian. Just ask.

“What should he do next?” asked a man playing video poker. “I’d like to see him as either mayor or governor.”

“He could probably do both,” the change girl laughed.

Later, in the evening, a man from Boston was carefully folding his suit coat around an autographed picture of Tarkanian. He asked if the woman in a nearby booth would mind watching that it didn’t get bent.

“I’m not sure about how he does things,” he said, “but what he’s accomplished has been incredible.”

Only two things are certain in the tumult and pouting surrounding Jerry Tarkanian and, by extension, the Nevada Las Vegas basketball program:

1. He will not coach UNLV after the season finale March 3 against Utah State.

2. He very much wants to be the next basketball coach at San Diego State.

“Badly,” he said.

That he was interested in SDSU had long been rumored. That he was interested in SDSU became fact shortly after Jim Brandenburg was fired. That he would get the job would be a foregone conclusion except for . . .

Baggage.

Baggage filled with dirty linen.

He has forever battled the NCAA, seemingly on the court, off the court and in courts. UNLV is banned from post-season play this year because of a settlement of an age-old conflict with the NCAA.

However, his current nemesis is closer to home. It is his feeling that people within the UNLV administration, namely President Robert Maxson and legal counsel Brad Booke, are trying to discredit him and the program. The most recent controversies, involving allegations of point shaving and the illegal use of a car by 1990-91 star Larry Johnson, have come up since he expressed interest in the SDSU job.

Tarkanian, 61, contends that is not mere coincidence.

“Everything was going along great,” he said, “until it looked like I might get involved with San Diego State. We were winning, everyone was happy and nobody was saying anything. Then, boom, boom, boom.”

Controversy exploded.

At one point Tuesday, he was sitting behind his desk with a cellular phone in each ear, a stack of messages on his desk, two writers seated nearby and a television camera in his face.

The man is even creating a stir in an SDSU program previously moribund.

“I’ve created interest down there?” he mused. “I guess I’m big news wherever I go. I don’t try to be. Seriously, I don’t try to be.”

Indeed, Tarkanian wishes the only news was that SDSU was hiring him. The likelihood of that happening has obviously been diminished by the current controversies.

“All that (garbage) came out to make us look bad,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s to make it hard for us to move to San Diego State or maybe to stop us from moving anywhere. But they keep throwing that cloud out there.”

Why, he was asked, would anyone in the administration have it in for him?

“The only thing anyone in town seems to come up with is ego,” he said. “The program’s gotten so big they can’t stand it. Even at political conventions, people get up and say, ‘Nevada, the home of the Running Rebels, votes so and so way.’ ”

As usual, Tarkanian is battling. His latest move was to rescind the resignation he tendered last June.

“I really don’t have any intention of coaching here next year,” he said, “but my people tell me (rescinding the resignation) was the best way to get the truth out about what’s going on here. My interest is in San Diego State, but I need to get out of here. I want to coach somewhere.”

What’s going on involves both the allegations that the 1990-91 Rebels shaved points and the report in The Times that Johnson had use of a sports car in violation of NCAA rules.

“The worst thing was the point shaving deal,” he said, “and there’s no truth to that, period. It’s an absolute fairy tale. So far off the wall. That team, I’ve never, ever seen a college team play with that degree of intensity. Nothing has hurt me more than someone coming up with that team shaving points.”

Johnson’s use of the car, he maintains, was legitimate and no violation of NCAA rules. The car, he said, was in the process of being financed by Alex Gillum, a longtime associate of Johnson’s from Dallas. Financing was procured Feb.15, 1991. However, Johnson was cited for driving with an expired temporary registration Feb. 3, 1991.

“Alex, who considers himself Larry’s uncle, even though he isn’t, had been letting Larry have a car to drive since he was a senior in high school,” Tarkanian said. “Alex was getting it financed, and it was perfectly normal to drive the car while financing is being completed. Everyone does it.”

To fortify his point, Tarkanian has had a couple of Las Vegas car dealers write notes asserting that cars can be delivered before financing is procured. He readily provides copies to anyone who will look and listen.

All of this is an attempt to put out yet another fire. His longtime skirmish with the NCAA was enough to be of concern to SDSU. He did not need anything new.

“I really don’t believe I’d have any problems with the NCAA,” he said, “but that would be a legitimate concern.”

Indeed, Tarkanian, in a way, views San Diego State as an opportunity to clear his name and prove a point.

“If we went down there, with their strong academic standards and their program for compliance (with NCAA regulations),” he said, “and do what we’ve done here, nobody could question us. It would be a wonderful challenge.”

Tarkanian was not talking in the generic sense of “we.” His intention would be to bring assistant Tim Grgurich with him. He envisions Grgurich as his successor wherever he might ultimately retire.

“Tim,” he said, “is the best basketball coach in the country. I couldn’t do the job without him.”

Why, Tarkanian was asked, has he become so focused in terms of his interest in SDSU?

“I really like living down there,” he said, alluding to a Pacific Beach condominium he uses as a vacation home, “and I really like (Athletic Director) Fred Miller. I’ve felt for a long time that Fred is the best athletic director in the country. He’s smarter and tougher than anybody else.”

Miller got Tarkanian started as a coach at a four-year college when he hired him at Cal State Long Beach. Tarkanian built the 49ers into a power before he was hired away by UNLV 19 years ago and did the same thing with the Rebels.

The romance is over between Tarkanian and the university, although Tarkanian says supporters in the community have gathered 30,000 signatures backing him against the administration.

Regardless, he is adamant about moving on.

“And money is not a factor with me now,” he said. “When I was younger, it might have been. The only time in my career when money was a factor was when I came up here. After what I’ve been through here, I want to do something that makes me happy.”