No UNLV coach can overcome the ghost of Tark

UNLV has found yet another person to coach the men’s basketball team.

The university dumped loyal and dedicated Dave Rice at midseason, and on Sunday night the Review-Journal reported Arkansas-Little Rock coach Chris Beard had agreed in principle to take the helm of the Runnin’ Rebels.

He’s not a household name, but Beard shows great promise after years as an assistant coach at Texas Tech under Bob Knight and a series of head coaching stops that resemble a minor-league milk run. He can also say he coached Arkansas-Little Rock to a win in this year’s NCAA Tournament.

But no matter. He’s destined to disappoint — 100 percent guaranteed to perform below expectations.

Welcome to Las Vegas, coach. You’re about to be haunted by the ghost of Jerry Tarkanian.

Beard may not believe in apparitions, but he will soon enough. I’d bet just about every character to coach UNLV’s men’s team since 1992 believes in them. Many must still experience nightmares and spine chills. Others, I’d guess, are in therapy to this day.

Tarkanian’s ghost may be a difficult concept to grasp scientifically, but it’s essential to understanding the dilemma that faces all those who enter the basketball office off Maryland Parkway and sit behind the big desk.

It’s not just that there’s a statue honoring Tarkanian on campus, or that the Runnin’ Rebels play their home games on Tarkanian Court. His specter transcends the statistics, honors and accolades.

He died in February 2015 at age 84. It’s also true he hadn’t coached the Runnin’ Rebels since the 1991-92 season. These are facts. You can look them up.

But if you’re looking for the ultimate answer to the challenges that vex UNLV’s program, ones that have contributed greatly to the ouster of pretty good and very good coaches, problems that could potentially lead to the termination of an athletic director and even generate trouble for a promising university president, you simply must point the finger at the ghost of a fellow known affectionately as “Tark the Shark.”

The sad-eyed, towel-chewing Armenian-American roundball professor did more than produce teams that won at a high percentage. It would be too much to expect anyone to match Tarkanian’s 509-105 (.829 winning percentage) record at UNLV. In an era when the best players rarely remain at a university more than a season or two and recruitment is more challenging than ever, approaching that level of prolific proficiency is pretty much out of the question.

But it’s not just that Tarkanian’s teams won a lot of games during his 19 seasons. It’s the dazzling way they did it that has been burned into the psyches of UNLV enthusiasts and continues to haunt the program’s subsequent coaches to this day. With teams that commonly scored more than 100 points per game, Tark ranked with Sinatra and Elvis in the pantheon of popular Vegas headliners. Although his program was controversial and butted heads with the NCAA, it also gave an outlaw community a sense of pride.

Forget the Xs and Os. Think of flickering lights and rattling chains. While many would-be replacement coaches simply faded under the performance pressure or were distracted by university intrigue, even the few who were successful by any reasonable measure didn’t stay for the long haul.

In a rare quiet moment, outspoken UNLV super booster and former player Bruce Chapman would probably admit it’s asking a bit much for any coach to compete with Tarkanian’s ghost. But that doesn’t change the fact.

“One thing that’s not brought up during this process is, ‘What style of basketball do these guys play?’” he asks. (Chapman favored making UNLV assistant Stacey Augmon the head coach.) “This town is used to running. This town is used to teams that put points on the board. I don’t care if they lose, 105-102, fans want the team to run. They want to be entertained. If they win 52-50, they won’t put butts in seats.”

Chapman may sound like a cranky old-timer, but even relative newcomers and occasional fans easily get lost in the statistical phantasmagoria of the Tarkanian era.

Beard not only has to beat his opponents. He also has a legend that’s impossible to compete with.

Welcome to Las Vegas, coach Beard. And good luck.

You can’t say you weren’t warned.

John L. Smith’s column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday. Contact him at 702-383-0295 or jsmith@reviewjournal.com. On Twitter: @jlnevadasmith