Love him or hate him, he was impossible to ignore. http://sports.yahoo.com/news/basketball-coaching-legend-jerry-tarkanian-dies-at-84-171240684.html

And yes, there is a Cal angle. The only time I saw him live was his last year at Fresno when Joe Shipp set the still standing Cal record of 9 three pointers.

I didn't know UNLV had a strong chance at getting Jason Kidd. Glad that didn't work out. http://articles.latimes.com/1991-07-03/sports/sp-1604_1_jason-kidd

Kidd remains close to Tim Grgrich, who recruited him as Tark's assistant at UNLV. Tim succeeded Tark as head coach there briefly before stepping down. Tim is now on JK's staff at Milwaukee.

NYCGOBEARS;842453912 said:

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Kidd remains close to Tim Grgrich, who recruited him as Tark's assistant at UNLV. Tim succeeded Tark as head coach there briefly before stepping down. Tim is now on JK's staff at Milwaukee.

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Tim G was a great bball mind. I went to a camp and he coached at it. Made me realize how hard UNLV played and how well they coached. Those guys got worked hard.

Looperbear;842453944 said:

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Tim G was a great bball mind. I went to a camp and he coached at it. Made me realize how hard UNLV played and how well they coached. Those guys got worked hard.

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Sounds like a cool experience. Tim is the premier player development coach in the NBA and a great guy who's loved and respected by virtually everyone.

I attended West Regionals semis and final in Oakland in 1990. UNLV v Ball State and LMU v Alabama. Arena was a sea of different shades off red with tiny spots of Blue and Gold (Cal was the host institution and season tix holders got option to buy tix for the weekend).

This was during the Hank Gathers tragedy at Loyola. It was an amazing three games, with a ridiculously entertaining 131-101 track meet in the final.

Tark chewed on some towels, David Letterman talked about it, Bo Kimble shot some lefty free throws- it was pretty cool!

Our 9 seed Bears lost in second round to 1 seed UConn in Hartford - after beating Indiana in first round!

AunBear89;842453962 said:

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I attended West Regionals semis and final in Oakland in 1990. UNLV v Ball State and LMU v Alabama. Arena was a sea of different shades off red with tiny spots of Blue and Gold (Cal was the host institution and season tix holders got option to buy tix for the weekend).

This was during the Hank Gathers tragedy at Loyola. It was an amazing three games, with a ridiculously entertaining 131-101 track meet in the final.

Tark chewed on some towels, David Letterman talked about it, Bo Kimble shot some lefty free throws- it was pretty cool!

Our 9 seed Bears lost in second round to 1 seed UConn in Hartford - after beating Indiana in first round!

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Crap, I remember that UNLV - LMU game. You were there? Way cool!
That is one of the enduring March Madness runs!
I'd watch that game again if they showed it on TV!!!

Tark may have cheated a bit (ok, maybe a bunch) but he was a really good basketball coach not just a guy who recruited good players. All the way back to his Long Beach St. days. It's no surprise he had good, hardworking assistants. On the cheating side...I'll never forget a documentary that was done on Tark and Fresno St. He had all the "right" reasons for recruiting "questionable" kids but one scene just hit my like a hammer: a player was sitting in the office of an English associate prof. He was half asleep with his hoody pulled down over his head. She was at the keyboard prompting him with questions to help him write his paper. Not only was she typing it for him, she was rephrasing every one of his responses and then typing in her words not his. I couldn't believe FSU, Tark and anyone else involved with the basketball program let that be aired. Soon after FSU was put on probation (I think, for a myriad of things) and Tark was gone (I think).

Looperbear;842453944 said:

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Tim G was a great bball mind. I went to a camp and he coached at it. Made me realize how hard UNLV played and how well they coached. Those guys got worked hard.

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I really appreciated how Tark was a royal pain in the azz with the NCAA. He originated some of the greatest quotes - that still resonate today:

•"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation."

• “The University of Kentucky basketball program breaks more rules in a day than Western Kentucky does in a year. The NCAA doesn’t want to take on the big boys.” — in the newspaper column he wrote during his days at Long Beach State.

• “I am extremely upset and concerned about what I consider to be unfair coverage of the Fresno State men’s basketball program by The Fresno Bee. The incident reported in the paper was, in my estimation, sensationalized and inaccurate. The situation was unfortunate, but it did not go beyond a shouting match between college kids.” — Oct. 11, 1995 in response to a disturbance five days earlier at the Black Angus restaurant that involved assistant coach Danny Tarkanian and three Fresno State players. Police detained the four at gunpoint.

• “Coaches I know go out after a clinic, drinking and partying and raising hell. But if one of their kids did anything, then they feel like they’ve got to get rid of them. They’ll say, ‘He’s a bum, get rid of him.’ What the hell, they did that themselves. There is no ideal world. It has to be a real world.” — Nov. 20, 1996 in the wake of several off-court incidents involving his players.

• “They don’t eat there for free. I eat there for free. Players aren’t allowed to eat for free.” — March 22, 2000 in response to allegations that Fresno State players were eating for free at Tomodachi Japanese Restaurant. This was the “rice bowl” incident.

• “When you don’t have any hobbies, what else is there to do?” March 18, 2001 on why he was still coaching at age 70.

Those are classics. Thanks for posting.

BeachedBear;842454094 said:

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I really appreciated how Tark was a royal pain in the azz with the NCAA. He originated some of the greatest quotes - that still resonate today:

•"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation."

• “The University of Kentucky basketball program breaks more rules in a day than Western Kentucky does in a year. The NCAA doesn’t want to take on the big boys.” — in the newspaper column he wrote during his days at Long Beach State.

• “I am extremely upset and concerned about what I consider to be unfair coverage of the Fresno State men’s basketball program by The Fresno Bee. The incident reported in the paper was, in my estimation, sensationalized and inaccurate. The situation was unfortunate, but it did not go beyond a shouting match between college kids.” — Oct. 11, 1995 in response to a disturbance five days earlier at the Black Angus restaurant that involved assistant coach Danny Tarkanian and three Fresno State players. Police detained the four at gunpoint.

• “Coaches I know go out after a clinic, drinking and partying and raising hell. But if one of their kids did anything, then they feel like they’ve got to get rid of them. They’ll say, ‘He’s a bum, get rid of him.’ What the hell, they did that themselves. There is no ideal world. It has to be a real world.” — Nov. 20, 1996 in the wake of several off-court incidents involving his players.

• “They don’t eat there for free. I eat there for free. Players aren’t allowed to eat for free.” — March 22, 2000 in response to allegations that Fresno State players were eating for free at Tomodachi Japanese Restaurant. This was the “rice bowl” incident.

• “When you don’t have any hobbies, what else is there to do?” March 18, 2001 on why he was still coaching at age 70.

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Tark was known to be so monomaniacal about hoops that he was totally unaware of anything else. My favorite: in 1973, he was at a coaches convention and a couple of his peers were discussing the Roe versus Wade decision that had just come down. Tark overheard the conversation and piped up: "Roe, he's the power forward at Maryland, and Wade, he's that kid at Marquette, right?"

BeachedBear;842454094 said:

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I really appreciated how Tark was a royal pain in the azz with the NCAA. He originated some of the greatest quotes - that still resonate today:

•"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky they're going to give Cleveland State another year of probation."

• “The University of Kentucky basketball program breaks more rules in a day than Western Kentucky does in a year. The NCAA doesn’t want to take on the big boys.” — in the newspaper column he wrote during his days at Long Beach State.

• “I am extremely upset and concerned about what I consider to be unfair coverage of the Fresno State men’s basketball program by The Fresno Bee. The incident reported in the paper was, in my estimation, sensationalized and inaccurate. The situation was unfortunate, but it did not go beyond a shouting match between college kids.” — Oct. 11, 1995 in response to a disturbance five days earlier at the Black Angus restaurant that involved assistant coach Danny Tarkanian and three Fresno State players. Police detained the four at gunpoint.

• “Coaches I know go out after a clinic, drinking and partying and raising hell. But if one of their kids did anything, then they feel like they’ve got to get rid of them. They’ll say, ‘He’s a bum, get rid of him.’ What the hell, they did that themselves. There is no ideal world. It has to be a real world.” — Nov. 20, 1996 in the wake of several off-court incidents involving his players.

• “They don’t eat there for free. I eat there for free. Players aren’t allowed to eat for free.” — March 22, 2000 in response to allegations that Fresno State players were eating for free at Tomodachi Japanese Restaurant. This was the “rice bowl” incident.

• “When you don’t have any hobbies, what else is there to do?” March 18, 2001 on why he was still coaching at age 70.

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I like that too. NCAA has a double standard. I was in Fresno when the "rice bowl" incident. They come down hard on Tark but did nothing when John Wooden's players are driving around in very expensive cars and they came from poor families.

AunBear89;842453962 said:

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I attended West Regionals semis and final in Oakland in 1990. UNLV v Ball State and LMU v Alabama. Arena was a sea of different shades off red with tiny spots of Blue and Gold (Cal was the host institution and season tix holders got option to buy tix for the weekend).

This was during the Hank Gathers tragedy at Loyola. It was an amazing three games, with a ridiculously entertaining 131-101 track meet in the final.

Tark chewed on some towels, David Letterman talked about it, Bo Kimble shot some lefty free throws- it was pretty cool!

Our 9 seed Bears lost in second round to 1 seed UConn in Hartford - after beating Indiana in first round!

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That weekend was the first time I attended any NCAA tournament games. And while the 131-101 UNLV-LMU track meet was entertaining, that day paled in comparison to the Sweet 16 evening, when both games were decided by 2 points.

Ball St. had trailed UNLV by 11 points in the second half, but clawed back and hit a 3 with a couple of minutes left to cut the lead to 3, and it stayed close from there. Didn't help that UNLV struggled at the line, including Greg Anthony missing the front end of 1-and-1's twice in the last 34 seconds. UNLV was the much bigger team and mostly scored inside in a slow down game, but Ball St. outrebounded the Rebels 51-36. It was a thriller, but a pass was intercepted in the lane by UNLV at the end and Ball St. didn't get a chance to get a tying or winning shot off. Big excitement.

And then there was Alabama-LMU. Wimp's slow down strategy was working, and Alabama had a lead. For most of the game, even if Alabama had a 3 on 1 break, they would pull it back out, but late in the game with a lead, Alabama players stopped following Wimp's game plan, they would get fast breaks and didn't pull it back out, missed shots they probably should have made, and let LMU back into the game. LMU got the lead, Robert Horry had an off balance 13 footer to tie at the buzzer but missed, and LMU won 62-60. It was interesting to see a team that averaged 8 million points a game being held to such a low score, and if not for some impatience by Alabama down the stretch, they probably pull off a win. The Hank Gathers death, however, made most people root for LMU.

The track meet in the regional final was entertaining as a track meet, but the outcome never seemed in doubt, I didn't think it was nearly as fun to be at after the excitement of the 2 Sweet 16 games.

Tark was a heck of a coach, especially on the defensive end.

UrsaMajor;842454159 said:

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Tark was known to be so monomaniacal about hoops that he was totally unaware of anything else. My favorite: in 1973, he was at a coaches convention and a couple of his peers were discussing the Roe versus Wade decision that had just come down. Tark overheard the conversation and piped up: "Roe, he's the power forward at Maryland, and Wade, he's that kid at Marquette, right?"

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Geesh....how old is Dwayne Wade???

different wade (and not curtis rowe, either)

I was there as well. Ball State (led by the immortal Paris McCurdy) came incredibly close to knocking off UNLV. Watching Bo Kimble shoot his first free throw in each game left-handed were emotional moments; Gathers had passed way just a week or so earlier. Unfortunately, LMU was completely out of gas when they played UNLV in the regional final.

I was there too, but had crappy seats. I thought there was a terrible call against Ball St. at the end of the game that sealed their loss, but I can't remember what it was. Anyone else remember? (or maybe I just had a bad view from my nosebleeds)

This is actually a good read from Seth Greenberg on Tark:

http://espn.go.com/mens-college-basketball/story/_/id/12310428/jerry-tarkanian-was-great-coach-misunderstood-one

concordtom;842453966 said:

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Crap, I remember that UNLV - LMU game. You were there? Way cool!
That is one of the enduring March Madness runs!
I'd watch that game again if they showed it on TV!!!

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how hot were tickets for LMU/UNLV? dunno, but do know for a fact a guy tried to bribe the day manager (or whatever title is the event boss man, like Gordon at Haas) for admission and decent seats. opening bid was a fresh off the lot sports car. but no sale, for the simple reason an hour before tip there weren't any left in the ticket office.

# that's my story and i'm stick'n to it.