Columnist Dean Juipe: Floyd solicits Tark's advice

Jerry Tarkanian was the voice of experience as far as Tim Floyd was concerned. So with the Chicago Bulls considering hiring Floyd as head coach, Floyd took it upon himself to contact Tarkanian to ask him about the dangers of jumping from NCAA basketball to the NBA.

Tarkanian made the unusual -- for a coach -- college-to-pro transition in 1992 when the San Antonio Spurs hired him just a season after he had finished his 19-year stay at UNLV. Adding to Floyd's curiosity: Tark survived only 20 games with the Spurs before he was let go by general manager Bob Bass.

"He called and we talked for a couple of hours," Tarkanian said of Floyd. "I knew he wanted to take the job if it was offered, and he asked me a lot of questions.

"I told him if he can get Michael Jordan to come back, he'd be very successful. And if Jordan and maybe Scottie Pippen didn't come back, he wouldn't be so successful."

The Bulls hired Floyd July 22 to replace the retiring Phil Jackson. Jordan has said he wouldn't play for any other coach and Pippen is a free agent caught in limbo during the NBA lockout.

"It's risky for Floyd, but they're paying him pretty good," Tarkanian said from his office at Fresno State University. "The difference between me and him is that his general manager loves him, while the guy I had to work with tried to sabotage me from the day I got there.

"The NBA was fine as far as I was concerned, except for having a problem with Bass that couldn't be overcome."

Twice suspended by the UNLV football team, Jon Denton last month transferred to Eastern Kentucky and the junior quarterback from Green Valley High didn't have much to say about it as he left Las Vegas. However, in an interview last week with the Louisville Courier-Journal, Denton said he fell out of favor with the Rebels because "I just didn't go to class and I didn't work out on a regular basis like I should have. I wasn't in gambling; I wasn't in drugs." Despite those denials and Denton alluding to academic troubles, UNLV head coach Jeff Horton points out that Denton's problems weren't academic "or else he wouldn't have been able to transfer and be immediately eligible." Make what you will of that. ... Lineman Dave Viger of Las Vegas went to the New York Jets' training camp this month expecting to make the team as a long snapper. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy, Viger had been promised a post-graduate position that would allow him to try out for the Jets. The Navy, however, rescinded that promise last week and the Jets were forced to put Viger on the military reserve list. "The Navy struck without warning," Viger's father, Dave Sr., said Monday. "Despite all the good publicity they were getting and would have gotten if he made the team, they went back on what they said they'd do for him. It stinks as far as I'm concerned." ... Greg Maddux does have a weakness. The great Atlanta Braves pitcher from Las Vegas is 15-6 this season yet 20 of the 27 runners who have attempted to steal a base off him have been successful.

Los Prados golf pro Keith Flatt still has aspirations to make the PGA Tour. "I'll keep trying Q-School until they bury me," he said, lining up his schedule for the fall. He has played on the Hooters Tour this year and is competing in the TearDrop Tour event that runs through Thursday at Rhodes Ranch. "It's tough finding time because we have a lot of things going on here at the golf course, but I've done pretty well and I'll keep scratching," Flatt said of an agenda that includes a spot in the Utah Open this weekend. ... Ex-UNLV standout Chad Campbell won Sunday's event on the Hooters Tour at Conway, S.C. ... Daren Libonati, a kicker on the UNLV football team during the 1986-87 seasons, has been hired by the university and is working as a booking agent for the Thomas & Mack Center. He formerly worked at the MGM Grand Garden and at Buffalo Bill's in Primm. ... Voters who put Ohio State in the No. 1 position in two major preseason football polls like the fact the Buckeyes have Michigan, Michigan State and Penn State at home this year. But they may not win any of those games if star linebacker Andy Katzenmoyer doesn't get himself academically eligible by next week. ... Even with Curtis Enis coming to terms with the Chicago Bears, there are still two No. 1 draft choices holding out as NFL training camps wind down. Neither Andre Wadsworth with Arizona nor Jason Peter with Carolina are doing themselves any favors by sitting out. ... Six NFL "franchise players" remain holdouts, too.

The Houston Astros are hot and drawing considerable attention, plus they have a National League-high 20 wins in their last at-bats. Yet the Astros could run into trouble come playoff time as they don't have a single left-handed hitter in the regular lineup. ... Largest side-by-side linemen in the NFL: right guard David Dixon and right tackle Korey Stringer of the Minnesota Vikings. Dixon is 352 pounds and Stringer is 353. ... The International Hockey League is down a team as the Quebec Rafales have suspended operations for at least one season. ... The San Diego Padres are 156-0 when leading after eight innings. It's a streak that runs from July 24, 1996. ... A little more than a year ago the Padres had outfielder Greg Vaughn traded to the New York Yankees until the deal was voided when Vaughn failed his physical due to a shoulder injury. It worked out well for the Padres, as Vaughn has 39 home runs and 94 RBIs. ... Outfielder Ray Lankford of the St. Louis Cardinals has struck out five times in a single game three times this season. The previous all-time record, for a career, was two. ... With the NCAA adding two new bowls this season, raising the total to a watered-down 22, some 40 percent of the Division I football teams will compete in a bowl game. ... With a 54 percent rise in home run production since 1994, the NCAA had to do something about aluminum bats in baseball games. It did last week, cutting back on the dimensions of the bat, although the restrictions don't take effect until the year 2000 season.

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