Tarkanian Still in Need of an Image Adjustment

Retired college basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian has had it with his outlaw image, as he told the Las Vegas Sun’s Dean Juipe.

“I’m always made to look like the bad guy,” Tarkanian said. “All the [stuff] I’ve taken over the years and not once has anyone found anything resembling a serious violation.”

Wrote Juipe: “He was repeatedly targeted by the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. and all but despised by occasional critics. There were and probably still are some people in power who just don’t like the man. But I do and always have, so when he ... went on something of a rant, he was preaching to the choir.

“Always very conscious of the media, he’s riled these days because of a few hits he has taken of late pertaining to a just-completed investigation at Fresno. He wants to make it clear to his friends in Las Vegas that he was no more guilty of improprieties at Fresno than he was at UNLV, where a jealous president harpooned the Rebels and all but railroaded him out of town.”

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Trivia time: What was the first school to open the college football season as the No. 1-ranked team and remain there until winning the national championship -- since the Associated Press poll began in 1950?

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Captain comeback: John Elway’s renowned reputation for getting himself out of jams on the gridiron has apparently transferred to the links, as Elway demonstrated in becoming the first non-PGA Tour professional to compete in the ADT Skills Challenge.

Elway, who has a handicap of 2, actually fared better than he thought he would against the pros in the 11-year-old event, which was taped last month at Boca Raton, Fla., for airing on NBC Saturday and today.

“I thought where I might do the best was long drive, or trouble shots,” he told The Times’ Larry Stewart. “I have more experience with trouble shots than those guys.”

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Nice guys finish last: Atlanta Journal-Constitution columnist Curtis Bunn insists that the nice-guy routine doesn’t work for coaches anymore, especially in the NBA.

“Jettisoning Lon Kruger was hard only because he is a decent guy who knows basketball,” Bunn wrote. “The decision, however, was easy. The Hawks under Kruger were as uninspired as a dried-up lemon, the most uninteresting team in the NBA.

“Even the Memphis Grizzlies have Hubie Brown as coach. Not that it makes sense; Brown, 69, was a loser in his last job in New York nearly 20 years ago and one of the most nasty and vile personalities in the game. But at least he has a spirit.”

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Looking back: On this day in 1961, Wilt Chamberlain scored 60 points for the Philadelphia Warriors against the Los Angeles Lakers at Hershey, Pa., where he later played his 100-point game.

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Trivia answer: Top-ranked Florida State went 12-0 in 2000, finishing the season with a 46-29 victory over Virginia in the Sugar Bowl.

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And finally: San Jose Mercury News columnist Skip Bayless believes Deion Sanders’ ego and self-absorbed need to break his own story of playing for the Oakland Raiders alerted other teams to the plan and, thus, torpedoed it.

“If he just could have kept his mouth shut,” Bayless wrote, “he might be checking himself out in silver and black.”

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-- Paul Gutierrez