Tarkanian’s death casts pall, but Las Vegas sports rallies behind others

1. Goodbye, dear friend

He put the run in the Runnin’ Rebels.

He changed how the game was played.

Jerry Tarkanian was a Hall of Fame basketball coach who more than anyone else grew and promoted the national brand of UNLV.

Tarkanian died at age 84 on Feb. 11, succumbing at Valley Hospital Medical Center to respiratory and cardiac failure.

UNLV advanced to four Final Fours under Tarkanian and won the national championship in 1990. His family remembered him along with friends and former players and fans at a heartwarming service at the Thomas & Mack Center.

For only the eighth time in history, lights across the Las Vegas Strip were dimmed as the city honored Tarkanian in the days after his death.

He produced a 729-201 record in a career that spanned 31 years with three Division I schools, beginning at Long Beach State and ending at Fresno State.

And that doesn’t count all the chewed towels.

2. (Dud) Fight of Century

Do you know when the most anticipated fight in boxing history proves to be a massive disappointment? When the biggest news it makes comes hours after the final bell and involves a pre-existing injury.

Floyd Mayweather Jr. defeated Manny Pacquiao by unanimous decision May 2 at the MGM Grand Garden, a fight first hyped in 2009. Six years later, the two finally met, and the matchup proved to be the highest-grossing fight in history at a reported $600 million.

But it was revealed during a postfight news conference that Pacquiao had sustained an undisclosed injury to his right shoulder while training, and that while it had healed in time for the fight, he re-injured it in the fourth round.

Fans then began filing class-action lawsuits, claiming the fight was a fraud. The lawsuits argue that the injury wasn't revealed until after the fight, too late for 4.4 million viewers who had paid up to $100 each to watch it.

3. Kyle stands supreme.

When Douglas MacArthur escaped from the Philippines in a PT boat back in the day, he famously promised that he would return.

When Kyle Busch was wheeled out of Daytona International Speedway in February with a bone protruding from his right leg and a pulverized left foot, he made no such promise. He was in too much pain.

General MacArthur would have loved his moxie nonetheless.

Busch would miss 11 races after suffering devastating injuries in a crash.

He would return.

He would become a father.

And, in yet another sports comeback for the ages, he would win his first NASCAR Sprint Cup Series championship.

When they set the stock-car playoff field, there were 16 eligible drivers. Then there were 12. Then eight. Then four.

After the final race of the season in the distant Miami suburbs, Busch was the last man standing. Albeit kind of gingerly.

Kyle Thomas Busch, the brash kid from Las Vegas with a piledriver for a right foot, threw M&M’s chocolate candies into the stands. He thanked his sponsors; he thanked his crew; he thanked his doctors. He thanked the hard-to-win-over race fans whose respect he finally had earned.

4. The kick heard around the world

Ronda Rousey wasn’t, after all, the unstoppable force of the Ultimate Fighting Championship.

Holly Holm put on a striking clinic at UFC 194 in Melbourne, Australia, and won the women’s bantamweight title with a vicious kick on Rousey in the second round.

The woman who had beaten her past four Ultimate Fighting Championship opponents in a total of 2 minutes, 10 seconds dropped to the octagon mat and was beaten unconscious until the fight was stopped.

It was over and (knocked) out for Rousey.

Holm is 10-0 in her UFC career, but it’s unlikely we will see the champion again until the rematch with Rousey is set, reportedly next summer in Las Vegas.

Question is, what to expect from Rousey then?

She was clearly devastated by her loss of a title and sense of invincibility, going into seclusion for weeks after the fight. She struggled with the reality of being kicked (literally) off her pedestal. Can she recover? Stay tuned.

5. Local baseball studs among MLB's best

They were baseball’s Simon and Garfunkel. It was as if Joltin’ Joe had never left and gone away. It was as if there were two Joltin’ Joes.

It was difficult to invoke the name of Bryce Harper, a young slugger from Las Vegas, without invoking the name of Kris Bryant, another young slugger from Las Vegas.

After putting together two solid seasons for the Washington Nationals, Harper manufactured a spectacular one. He hit .330 with 42 home runs and 99 RBIs en route to being named National League Most Valuable Player and making assorted Gatorade commercials.

Bryant thrilled local fans by knocking two home runs out of Cashman Field during the Chicago Cubs’ annual spring training visit. After beginning the season in the minors because of some silly baseball rule, he was called up after a couple of weeks and immediately started hitting baseballs off the new Wrigley Field scoreboards.

He finished with 26 home runs, matched Harper with 99 RBIs and batted .275 on his way to being named NL Rookie of the Year and helping the Cubs return to the playoffs.

Bryant did not make a Gatorade commercial. But he signed every autograph, or so it seemed, in endearing himself to Chicago baseball fans, especially the ones who sit in bleachers beyond ivy-covered walls and take off their shirts.

6. Drop the puck, please!

With the new arena behind the Monte Carlo rising in the manner of a Phoenix or a slap shot from the blue line — and with the people of Las Vegas having put down the necessary dibs on season tickets for a NHL team that does not yet exist — the puck got a little closer to stopping here.

Will it be an expansion team? Will it be the team in the Phoenix suburbs that continues to struggle? Will it be the Charlestown Chiefs or their archrival, the Syracuse Bulldogs?

Vegas doesn’t really care. Vegas just wants hockey.

7. Nowhere to go but up ...

It’s all relative. Nobody knows that better than UNLV’s football coach.

Tony Sanchez brought a level of preseason national publicity to the Rebels that the program hasn’t seen in its history, a high school coach from Bishop Gorman making the trip across town from a championship outfit countless times over to a place that has produced one winning season in 16 years.

The Rebels, for the most part, competed admirably under Sanchez, but a lack of depth and defensive skill led to a 3-9 season. It was above the projected win total of 2.5, but certainly not anything to scream about atop the Lied Athletic Complex.

UNLV did win its rivalry game against UNR 23-17, and for it, the Fremont Cannon is again painted a shiny shade of red.

"Losing sucks," Sanchez said. "But if I had an out-of-whack expectation of what this job was, it probably would have been a little tougher."

8. Troubles of a baseball coach

One season removed from guiding the UNLV baseball team back into the NCAA playoffs, popular coach Tim Chambers began having health issues again. His chronic back problems flared up.

Then in October, Chambers was arrested for driving under the influence and was put on administrative leave.

In December, published but unconfirmed reports said he was on his way out as UNLV coach. Then he was.

Chambers resigned his position Dec. 18.

Chambers was a dynamic personality, and a go-getter, and a pretty good baseball coach. Maybe he still can be all of those things. A lot of people around here are pulling for him even if he never coaches again, because there are more important roads in life than the one to Omaha, Neb., for the College World Series.

9. Little bro to big bro: "I've got this."

When they were younger, older brother was an assistant coach on little brother’s baseball team and spent batting practice whizzing fastballs at the kid’s head. Tony Sanchez was making a point, trying to toughen Kenny and prepare him for more challenging days on the fields of play. It worked.

Tony moved across town to UNLV this year, and Kenny stepped onto center stage as the football coach at Bishop Gorman, having been tutored and prepared by the man who won six straight Division I state championships before making the jump to college.

Now, Kenny has his own in a leading role.

The Gaels secured a second straight 15-0 season and seventh consecutive state title by routing Liberty 62-21. Gorman has won 39 straight games and hasn’t lost to a team from Nevada since 2008.

The state title was followed by news that Gorman had won a second straight mythical national championship, again sitting atop USA Today’s Super 25 rankings.

10. 51s lend a hand (and arms)

The 51s did not make it back to the Pacific Coast League playoffs, and despite a toilet exploding near the dugout during the pennant race — that wasn’t peanuts and Crackerjack you smelled — the home team doesn’t seem any closer to getting a new ballpark.

But a trio of young starting pitchers that served apprenticeships in Las Vegas before becoming master craftsmen in New York turned into one of the season’s biggest stories.

Noah Syndergaard, Jacob deGrom and Steven Matz were even more spectacular for the Mets than they were for the 51s, with the biggest difference being that a lot more people noticed in New York, and that toilets at Citi Field did not explode. All three pitched in the World Series, where the Mets lost to the Kansas City Royals.

— Ed Graney can be reached at egraney@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-4618. He can be a heard on "Seat and Ed" on Fox Sports 1340 from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday. Follow him: @edgraney. Ron Kantowski can be reached at rkantowksi@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0352. Follow him: @ronkantowski