Carolina and Van Galder

Jerry Tarkanian

Friday, Jan. 16, 2009 | 3:48 p.m.

I was asked about that 1977 game against North Carolina, and I remember that one very well. It was UNLV’s first Final Four, and we were at The Omni in Atlanta.

God, we jumped out on them. We had a 10- or 11-point lead in the second half when ‘Gondo’ (Glen Gondrezick) broke Larry Moffett’s nose going up for a rebound.

Moffett came out of the game. I remember that incident. Lewis Brown was supposed to go in to take Moffett’s place, but Lewis was checking on Larry’s nose.

The trainer was trying to get to Larry, and Lewis was standing over Larry checking on him. I said, “Lewis, leave him alone!” I got mad. I put in … I can’t remember who I put in.

We played without a center for three or four minutes, and our lead evaporated. I put Moffett back into the game, but that’s what cost us more than anything else.

That, and the fact that they shot 28 free throws and we only shot five. They made 18 and we made only one!

I couldn’t talk about it all the years I was coaching. I couldn’t. I learned from the football coach at Fresno State, a man I admired so much and learned so much from.

When I first got into coaching, he gave me some advice. First, you can never win if you make excuses after you lose. You’ll be the loser every time. Can’t make excuses. It comes off bad.

Can’t say anything about it or it’ll come back to burn you.

The other thing is, don’t complain about the problems you’re having. Half the people don’t want to hear about it, the other half is happy you’re having those problems.

Isn’t that pretty accurate?

In his coaching theory class, he talked about how a coach has to be distant from his players. Get too close, they’ll lose respect for you.

He said you show me a coach with a Ph.D and I’ll show you a coach with too much time on his hands.

That was Clark Van Galder, my guru.

That bothered the hell outta me. Twenty-eight to five!

There is a whole lot of truth to all that he said. He said be yourself when you deal with your players. There’s no standard rule what a coach should do, being distant or being close.

If you like being around them, he said, be close. He liked being distant. He said, do it either way, just be yourself. Don’t be a phony. They’ll spot that easily. Do it according to your personality.

He passed away playing handball. It was so sad. He had gone back to Wisconsin to be an assistant football coach for the Badgers.

He basically got me my first coaching job, at a Catholic high school (San Joaquin Memorial) in Fresno.

At Fresno State, I worked in his office. I lived with the quarterback, and Van Galder went through me to get to the quarterback. We were very, very close.

He spoke at our banquet after my first season. That was one of my biggest thrills. He said I did the best job in the valley. I was so excited to hear Van say that. I loved the guy.

When I went back to Fresno State in 1995, every time I made a speech I gave credit to Van Galder. There were football coaches after him, and some did better than others. They had more resources.

But every time I spoke, I said, Hey, Van built this program.

The person who asked me about that North Carolina game thought that there was a Rebel who wouldn’t go into the game after another got hurt, but that wasn’t the case.

Lewis Brown was playing doctor, for some reason. He was checking out Larry’s nose. I said, Hell, let the trainer get in there. I don’t know what happened. I got upset and didn’t put him in the game.