Heart, Dean and Digger

Jerry Tarkanian

Friday, March 20, 2009 | 10:36 a.m.

I was watching the UNLV game against Kentucky on Tuesday night, and when the Rebels were getting blown out people I was watching it with were bad-mouthing UNLV.

I said, I guarantee they won’t quit. They’ll make a run, and they did. They cut that 20-point deficit to 3 and then just couldn’t quite get all the way back to take a lead.

They have a lot of heart. I don’t know why they struggled this year, but it could be because the conference was a lot tougher.

Kentucky played a tremendous first half. Obviously, Kentucky would be a heck of a team if they had a point guard. But the point guard they had, Derrick Jasper, transferred to UNLV and is sitting out.

Kentucky has some good players and Billy (Gillispie) is a good coach, he just doesn’t have a point guard.

But you have to give the Rebels credit because they have big hearts.

They also say the right things, before and after games. It seems like they’re together. I know it’s disappointing when you lose. In reality, I think they lost to some pretty good teams.

New Mexico played Notre Dame really tough at Notre Dame in the NIT. New Mexico has some players, and so does San Diego State. I don’t know what the problem is, but sometimes the ball doesn’t bounce right. You lose because a lot of strange things happen.

I also think what hurt them this year is that Wink (Adams) didn’t have the shooting season he’s had in the past. You can’t knock him. He gives everything he has every moment. I applaud Wink. I think he’s a great, great competitor.

I’m over at the Palazzo sports book this weekend for the first and second rounds of the tournament, and people should come by and say hello. Thursday was a lotta fun.

In a late game, Darren Collison of UCLA did such a good job on VCU guard Eric Maynor, who had a chance for some last-second heroics. But he missed about a 17-foot jump shot. Maynor just didn’t get a good look at that shot.

Larry Sanders, that shot blocker for VCU, was incredible. I really liked him but he got into foul trouble. I think they would have won had he been able to play his normal game.

But their coach did the same thing so many coaches do. With two fouls in the first half, the coach sits him down. I don’t understand that. I think it’s the most ridiculous thing.

That started with Dean Smith at North Carolina and continued with John Thompson at Georgetown. I think 90 percent of the coaches in America sit their important players in the first half as soon as they get their second foul.

With Dean, every one of his guys was an All-American. He could go to his bench and put anyone in who could have started everywhere else. And John Thompson is a disciple of Dean.

It spreads. I see it all the time.

I never did that. Hell no. If you bench a guy with two fouls in the first half, after his first he’ll play very cautiously. He won’t want to come out. That hurts you.

He could play the whole game and not foul out. I’ve had guys do that. Why would you want one of your best players on the bench that early?

It’s because coaches don’t want them to have three fouls for the second half. After the first foul, they’ll back away because they don’t want that second foul.

I don’t like that theory at all. It’s just my opinion. I’m not right all time. It’s the coach’s decision.

I’ve just never been a fan of that.

I am debating whether to go to the Final Four or not. They don’t have one hotel, the headquarters are spread out all over Detroit. And it’ll be cold there, too. It’s been below freezing at night lately.

I might not go this year. My buddy Lefty Driesell is scheduled to go and I’d room with him, but a lot of coaches are staying in Ontario, across from Detroit in Windsor.

The thing I like about the Final Four is sitting around with most of the coaches. That’s a lotta fun, hanging around the lobby and meeting with people, but this one will be so spread out. I don’t like that.

I remember sitting around a lobby once when Digger Phelps came out with a statement that there was a lot of cheating going on in college basketball.

He said something like, it took $12,000 to get a blue-chip player. All the coaches were mad at Digger for saying something like that. Digger didn’t have a good year, so they said Digger was making excuses.

Well, there was this one coach from the SEC – I won’t name him – who said, I see where Digger said you got to pay $12,000 for blue-chip players. If that’s all it is, put me down for two.

We had a lot of fun. We’ll see if I go to Detroit.

But in the meantime, it’s a lotta fun over at the Palazzo so I invite everybody to come down, watch some great basketball and say hello.