Another street, free throws and Duke

Jerry Tarkanian

Friday, Jan. 9, 2009 | 3:12 a.m.

I heard I recently had another street named after me. A couple of friends told me. At Tropicana and 215, somewhere in that area.

I didn’t know anything about it and I don’t know what it’s called. I had that little street, Tarkanian Way, in front of the Thomas & Mack Center named after me in 1987.

We had just gone to the Final Four. That’s the street they ran me out on. But they left me there, so that was nice.

They also named a middle school after me and Lois, my wife. People in town have always been great to me and my family, and I appreciate that.

As far as free throws, which someone inquired about, I have seen where some of Lon Kruger’s players have been struggling a bit lately.

I think you can talk too much about it, make too much of an issue. It gets in their heads.

We generally were not a good free-throw-shooting team. Primarily, we had great athletes. I always think the good shooters will shoot free throws well.

They have to shoot them the same way every time. Get into a routine. You have to do it over and over. But we didn’t like talking too much about it.

We shot great from the line in 1977, but we had Robert Smith. I think he led the nation at something like 90 percent. It was very high. I would say we were always in the middle.

When Doug Moe coached the Denver Nuggets, his team was shooting free throws very well and one of our writers called him to find out why they shot so well.

He said, “Heck, we hardly ever practice free throws. We never say anything about them.” That convinced me that a lot of times, the less you say the better.

You are getting in their heads when you say something.

Last season, Memphis coach John Calipari said he wasn’t worried about his team’s free-throw shooting. He was definitely worried, but he didn’t want his players to think that. It’s hard to say what will work and what won’t.

I just had Mike Krzyzewski on my Fresno radio show and he was fantastic. I’m going to talk with Bobby Knight and Jim Calhoun, and Bill Self was on recently.

But it was a lot of fun talking with Mike. We have a great relationship. We talked about the season and we got into the old times.

He said his offense and defense is just like ours. He said his style of play is very much the same. He’s very complimentary.

He said he went to our offense about 12 years ago, when he had Jason Williams. He’d penetrate, drive and kick it out to open shooters, spot-up shooters.

He doesn’t run set plays anymore. That’s basically what we did. Our defense mirrored each other through the years. I’ve said for years that his defense is more similar to the ones we had than anybody else in the country.

They front the post, like we did, and they pressure the ball. Practice time is about guarding the ball and not getting beat off the dribble. We did that better than anyone in the country.

He talks all the time about how great our kids were. He says that all the time.

I love Duke. Always have. Mike’s been very, very good to me.

Roy Williams is another great friend. He took a day off when we were going good in 1991 just to fly out here and watch us practice. He wanted to see our defense.

Roy called me this summer. He was in Vegas but I was in San Diego. He called to tell me that when he comes to Vegas, he thinks of me and he calls. That’s so nice. I love Roy, too.

He’s a great coach. I was shocked when he got beat earlier this week. I had said on my radio show that I don’t think anyone will beat them, unless it’s a major upset.

Then Boston College goes and does it the next day.

Shows what I know.

Wow, there’s a lot more to get to. Thanks for all your interest and keep the questions coming.

I’ll get to Jimmy Valvano, Jimmy Caan, Raquel Welch and that 1977 game against North Carolina in the next column or two.