About an hour after I put up Wednesday’s post about Dean Smith I heard the news that Jerry Tarkanian had died, one of a small number of coaches one could mention in the same breath as Dean Smith. Well, now the two are linked forever.

It’s easy to say now, but yeah, Jerry Tarkanian was one of my favorite coaches growing up too. After all, the first season I paid attention to college basketball (1989-90), his team won the national championship. Won it in a rout, actually, a game I have rewatched no less than 200 times or so over the past 25 years. No joke. It’s a basketball clinic. The following year, “Tark” had an even better team, one that went undefeated in the regular season (no one else did that for another 23 years), but lost in the National Semifinal game in another college basketball classic. Today we’d say it was simply amazing that after winning the championship in 1990 he got three of his stars to come back as seniors and play another season. That’s respect as much as the era.

In short, Tark was “the man” among coaches as I was first introduced to the game. That sticks with you. The NCAA “violations” and various legal troubles he had through the years… none of that made any sense to me then. He was just a great coach who clearly made basketball fun. I mean, you coach in Las Vegas you’ve got to be fun. The Bugsy Seigel of basketball (or Moe Greene if you will), Tark brought basketball to the desert. And unlike some of his casino predecessors, there are plenty of statues and remembrances to his legacy.

So allow me to add one more.

Kudos, Jerry Tarkanian.

RIP.