R.I.P. Tark

S

SJU61982

Well-known member
http://www.cbssports.com/collegebas...ollege-hoops-coach-jerry-tarkanian-dies-at-84

Loved the guy. Didn't even pretend to have a program of "Student-Athletes", to which I say: good. Why participate in the sham that is college athletics?

He knew there was no way the institutions he worked for could win without taking on these kinds of players, and they never hurt anybody.

So, let's all chew on a towel today, huh? P.S. Should be a moment of silence for him, and Dean Smith tonight.
 
Won't get the same accolades as Dean Smith and that's fine.

I have still never seen a team as good as his '91 squad despite Duke's improbable upset.
 
Won't get the same accolades as Dean Smith and that's fine.

I have still never seen a team as good as his '91 squad despite Duke's improbable upset.
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In a way, I have more respect for someone like Tark, then I do Dean Smith (even though Dean was a great coach, and probably a good guy, too).

Dean always played the "holier then thou" card, saying "we did things the RIGHT way", and recent events have shown that not to be true, making him a total hypocrite.

Tark the Shark never pretended to play by the rules. He was what he was, a lying, conniving college coach, just like everybody else in the industry.
 
RIP.

Two coaches from the 1991 Final Four pass away in a span of four days.

I know many look at him as a cheater, etc...but i give him a lot of credit especially for sticking w/ Chris Herren the same way Lavin stuck w/ Harrison. Different situation but he went to bat for his player and didnt kick him to the curb, although it wouldve been the easy thing to do.
 
I enjoyed meeting Chris Herren when he came to our school last year. He is doing great work with teenagers when it comes to substance abuse. Tark gave Chris a second chance at Fresno state after Herren was kicked off Boston college.

Who knows what would've happened to Herren if it weren't for Tark. RIP
 
RIP.

Two coaches from the 1991 Final Four pass away in a span of four days.

I know many look at him as a cheater, etc...but i give him a lot of credit especially for sticking w/ Chris Herren the same way Lavin stuck w/ Harrison. Different situation but he went to bat for his player and didnt kick him to the curb, although it wouldve been the easy thing to do.
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we destroyed Ohio St the 1 seed that year only to lose to Duke with a chance to get to the Final 4
 
Won't get the same accolades as Dean Smith and that's fine.

I have still never seen a team as good as his '91 squad despite Duke's improbable upset.
Click to expand...

In a way, I have more respect for someone like Tark, then I do Dean Smith (even though Dean was a great coach, and probably a good guy, too).

Dean always played the "holier then thou" card, saying "we did things the RIGHT way", and recent events have shown that not to be true, making him a total hypocrite.

Tark the Shark never pretended to play by the rules. He was what he was, a lying, conniving college coach, just like everybody else in the industry.
Click to expand...

I haven't commented on Smith primarily because I didn't want to talk bad about him despite the urge when a couple of our more loquacious members started talking about canonizing him in full fan-boy mode. I have to say that I tend to agree with you here and these two guys were essentially two sides of the same coin.

While I wasn't a fan of Tark either and he had some sort of hard on for St John's making several negative comments over the years, he was definitely a great personality for college hoops and I enjoyed watching his UNLV teams. Surely he committed many "sins" against the NCAA but I'm certain that it was minor in comparison to what went on at UNC. Probably his greatest sin was being a pioneer in exposing the NCAA hypocrisy instead of playing the game where big money/government collude with it and reap the benefits.
 
Tark's downfall was he never got to coach at a school where the NCAA would look the other way. My favorite quote of his, and I'm paraphrasing rather than looking it up, was NCAA was so upset at the rules violations at North Carolina that they put Akron on probation, or something to that affect, don't recall the actual schools he mentioned but you get the point.
 
Tark's downfall was he never got to coach at a school where the NCAA would look the other way. My favorite quote of his, and I'm paraphrasing rather than looking it up, was NCAA was so upset at the rules violations at North Carolina that they put Akron on probation, or something to that affect, don't recall the actual schools he mentioned but you get the point.
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In fairnes, there is breaking the rules and then there is having an assistant coach adopt a kid who can't read and is addicted to crack so that the can come play for him. Rest in Peace Tark, but portaying him as a victim is silly
 
Tark's downfall was he never got to coach at a school where the NCAA would look the other way. My favorite quote of his, and I'm paraphrasing rather than looking it up, was NCAA was so upset at the rules violations at North Carolina that they put Akron on probation, or something to that affect, don't recall the actual schools he mentioned but you get the point.
Click to expand...

In fairnes, there is breaking the rules and then there is having an assistant coach adopt a kid who can't read and is addicted to crack so that the can come play for him. Rest in Peace Tark, but portaying him as a victim is silly
Click to expand...

Sorry forgot the smiley face as the post was meant to be funny with a dash of truth. That said, he's vilified far more than would be equitable if all the dirty laundry in NCAA basketball were thrown out there.
 
Tark's downfall was he never got to coach at a school where the NCAA would look the other way. My favorite quote of his, and I'm paraphrasing rather than looking it up, was NCAA was so upset at the rules violations at North Carolina that they put Akron on probation, or something to that affect, don't recall the actual schools he mentioned but you get the point.
Click to expand...

In fairnes, there is breaking the rules and then there is having an assistant coach adopt a kid who can't read and is addicted to crack so that the can come play for him. Rest in Peace Tark, but portaying him as a victim is silly
Click to expand...

Sorry forgot the smiley face as the post was meant to be funny with a dash of truth. That said, he's vilified far more than would be equitable if all the dirty laundry in NCAA basketball were thrown out there.
Click to expand...

I get what you are saying, and agree to a point. I just think that even if you are going to bend some rules, many of which are outdated, you can't actually make a mockery of the rules. If it were up to me I would let coaches and schools do whatever the heck they want. As you said most do anyway. But if you want to have the appearance of rules, if you do some of the things Tark had done you really can't blame NCAA for coming after him.
 
In fairnes, there is breaking the rules and then there is having an assistant coach adopt a kid who can't read and is addicted to crack so that the can come play for him. Rest in Peace Tark, but portaying him as a victim is silly
Click to expand...

To be sure, he ate from the same trough as any other big time basketball coach. He just never called it a banquet table.
 
Tark's downfall was he never got to coach at a school where the NCAA would look the other way. My favorite quote of his, and I'm paraphrasing rather than looking it up, was NCAA was so upset at the rules violations at North Carolina that they put Akron on probation, or something to that affect, don't recall the actual schools he mentioned but you get the point.
Click to expand...

In fairnes, there is breaking the rules and then there is having an assistant coach adopt a kid who can't read and is addicted to crack so that the can come play for him. Rest in Peace Tark, but portaying him as a victim is silly
Click to expand...

Sorry forgot the smiley face as the post was meant to be funny with a dash of truth. That said, he's vilified far more than would be equitable if all the dirty laundry in NCAA basketball were thrown out there.
Click to expand...

I get what you are saying, and agree to a point. I just think that even if you are going to bend some rules, many of which are outdated, you can't actually make a mockery of the rules. If it were up to me I would let coaches and schools do whatever the heck they want. As you said most do anyway. But if you want to have the appearance of rules, if you do some of the things Tark had done you really can't blame NCAA for coming after him.
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Noted but I would say that Tarkanian disagreed. It was apparent that he was always about making a mockery of the system which he held in very low regard. Rules you say? Tarkaninian didn't need no stinking rules. ;)
 
UNLV was always my guilty pleasure as a college basketball fan. I loved Tark. I remember "Walk Like A Tarkanian" set to the Bangles song. He had fun teams to watch.
 
The NCAA favors some schools and allows them to do anything...while throwing less favored schools under the bus. It paid Tark two and a half million dollars to settle Tark's harassment case against it The out of court settlement allows the NCAA to conduct business as usual..
 
Won't get the same accolades as Dean Smith and that's fine.

I have still never seen a team as good as his '91 squad despite Duke's improbable upset.
Click to expand...

In a way, I have more respect for someone like Tark, then I do Dean Smith (even though Dean was a great coach, and probably a good guy, too).

Dean always played the "holier then thou" card, saying "we did things the RIGHT way", and recent events have shown that not to be true, making him a total hypocrite.

Tark the Shark never pretended to play by the rules. He was what he was, a lying, conniving college coach, just like everybody else in the industry.
Click to expand...

I haven't commented on Smith primarily because I didn't want to talk bad about him despite the urge when a couple of our more loquacious members started talking about canonizing him in full fan-boy mode. I have to say that I tend to agree with you here and these two guys were essentially two sides of the same coin.

While I wasn't a fan of Tark either and he had some sort of hard on for St John's making several negative comments over the years, he was definitely a great personality for college hoops and I enjoyed watching his UNLV teams. Surely he committed many "sins" against the NCAA but I'm certain that it was minor in comparison to what went on at UNC. Probably his greatest sin was being a pioneer in exposing the NCAA hypocrisy instead of playing the game where big money/government collude with it and reap the benefits.
Click to expand...

I'm to young to remember, what did he do or say about SJU? Was it a specific instance, or just a few small slights?

I've always loved Tark, I have many Armenian friends and he is beloved by them. I loved how he sued and got money from the NCAA after David Berst called him a rug merchant. Somehow David Berst was allowed to keep his job with the NCAA after that and is currently Vice Pres at the NCAA. What a joke.
 
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