Tuesday, July 8, 2003 | 9:51 a.m.
Dean Juipe's column appears Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. His boxing notebook appears Thursday. Reach him at [email protected] or (702) 259-4084.
The hearing was June 14.
The report is due by the end of this month.
Danny Tarkanian has a pretty good idea of what it is going to say.
"Oh, there's no doubt what's going to happen," he said Monday, when asked if he could foresee the public reaction when the NCAA Infractions Committee releases its findings on the alleged abuses within the Fresno State athletic department.
"It's frustrating, but there will be people who will blame my dad in spite of the evidence.
"But what really matters to my family is how those people who know us and care about us feel. We care what they think."
Toward that, Tarkanian has compiled an itemized 19-page report of his own that responds to each and every aspect of the NCAA's inquiry. It's his way of setting the record straight for those with the open-mindedness to appreciate that his father, Jerry, is going to take at least indirect fault for a number of items outside his control as head coach of the Bulldogs basketball team for seven sometimes stormy seasons.
Danny Tarkanian, a nonpracticing attorney, served on his father's staff at Fresno and runs youth basketball camps in Las Vegas. Jerry Tarkanian, of course, is a salty, lovable and legendary coach who went 509-105 in 19 seasons at UNLV and who is now retired.
"I want this to be over but I know it could turn out bad for us, or infer bad things about us," Danny Tarkanian said of the NCAA's upcoming report. "There's a feeling that all of the penalties are going to be called the basketball program's fault, when, in truth, that's an absolute joke."
Fresno State has already admitted to four major violations outside the basketball program, and the Infractions Committee enforcers allege an additional two violations against the basketball staff. But in each of the latter two cases, the evidence is open to interpretation and might well vindicate Tarkanian if his son's explanations hold true.
There's a potential novel here, complete with unscrupulous administrators, a jealous secretary, an untrustworthy street agent, self-serving team managers and a host of seamy extras. Add in Tark's permissive, reality-based outlook on life and it's a best seller just waiting to be written.
But the closing chapter, at least on the Fresno years, is apt to be sour. Because no matter how it's worded the Infractions Committee's report is going to be seen by some as still another indictment of Tarkanian and his lenient ways.
The truth is that all of this got started when a Fresno restaurateur confessed to giving free meals to the school's athletes. From that relatively harmless beginning, tedious and lengthy investigations by a local newspaper, the school and the NCAA have followed.
The school, hoping to minimize the damage in terms of the ultimate penalties that the NCAA will hand down, has been fairly cooperative. Yet that and the evidence that has been retrieved hasn't kept the investigation's not-so-subtle theme -- "Tark is always cheating" -- from continually resurfacing and besmirching the coach's name.
But of the four major violations acknowledged by the school, two were the result of errors in the certification process by which athletes are deemed eligible, one was the result of a compliance officer's mistake and the other is the broad "lack of institutional control" that is a catchall phrase that implies the inmates are running the asylum.
Look closer at the latter particulars as they pertain to the Fresno basketball program and there's little to embarrass Tarkanian. A street agent -- the notorious Nate Cebrum -- is apt to be found guilty of giving money to a Fresno player, Terrance Roberson, yet Cebrum had no real ties to Tarkanian or Fresno State basketball; and a twisting academic saga does little but show a former student manager with the basketball team claiming he wrote term papers for at least two players, Roberson and Joyal Alexander, who were at the tail end of their eligibility.
"If that's academic fraud, it will be the first time in history that a coach has been held responsible for improving his players' grades after they've used up their eligibility," Danny Tarkanian said of the allegations pertaining to Roberson and Alexander.
There would be some amusing qualities to this if it weren't for the harm it directs toward the Tarkanian family. And as Danny Tarkanian knows, even sticking up for his father in print comes with its own risks.
"They'll say, 'Oh, here he goes again' if you write something defending us," he said, knowing I'm one of a handful of columnists who have routinely supported Tarkanian throughout the years.
I can't speak for the others, but I can't see any reason to change.
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