Men's basketball

Boeheim remembers relationship with late, longtime college coach Tarkanian

Margaret Lin | Web Developer

Jim Boeheim, pictured here during Syracuse's 70-56 win over Boston College on Wednesday night, discussed his relationship with Jerry Tarkanian, the longtime UNLV coach who passed away Wednesday.

By Jacob Klinger

CHESTNUT HILL, Mass. — Jim Boeheim jokingly said he forgot the first time he faced Jerry Tarkanian.

“I think they beat the crap out of us, as I remember,” he said. “… If we lose, I don’t remember.”

Boeheim was working his last year as an assistant coach for Syracuse when the Orangemen lost to Tarkanian’s UNLV team, 105-83 on Dec. 5, 1975. After SU’s (16-8, 7-4 Atlantic Coast) 70-56 win over Boston College (9-14, 1-10) on Wednesday night, Boeheim remembered his Hall of Fame coach and longtime friend, who died on Wednesday at the age of 84.

Boeheim said he didn’t think he ever faced Tarkanian as a head coach — and he was right — but he still had plenty of tributes to pay to the late 30-year college coach.

“One of the very best,” Boeheim said of Tarkanian. “Probably the best pressure defensive coach that I’ve ever seen. His teams came after you, they went after you. Hard as any team in the country. His numbers are spectacular.”



Tarkanian coached UNLV from 1973-92 after leading Long Beach State for five seasons and later coached Fresno State from 1995-02. He won 729 Division I games as a head coach — 14th all-time — and is famous for the Running Rebels’ full-game, full-court press, known as “40 Minutes of Hell.”

But Boeheim remembered the man known as “Tark the Shark” as a humble man.

“Every time I saw Jerry Tarkanian at the end of the season (he’d say), ‘You guys are unbelievable, I can’t believe—’” Boeheim said. “His team was 32-2. We would be 24-10. ‘I can’t believe you do that.’ He would do that. He did that almost every time I’d see him. People are different than their personas that the media cultivates.”

Both Boeheim and Tarkanian played themselves in the 1994 movie “Blue Chips.” Boeheim joked that he had a longer line because Tarkanian couldn’t remember his own.

But when Boeheim was done joking, he placed the former UNLV head coach among the game’s all-time best.

“He was a great guy, he really was a great guy and he really was a great basketball coach,” Boeheim said. “In my estimation, he’s up there with a lot of guys that everybody puts up there.

“Jerry Tarkanian. He’s a great basketball coach. Not a good basketball coach, a great basketball coach.”





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