A Shark's Tale

The Yard did not endorse Barack Obama for President but we do expect our leader in chief to hit at least one out of thirteen jump shots that he took on this past Easter Monday. Barry wanted to show his game for the national media and the Washington Wizards who were there for some reason. The Prez rolled up his sleeves, as he does often, and missed every shot. With all due respect, his campaign promise was not his ability to hit the three but come on 0 for 13? In a related story, North Korean President Kim Jong-un stated that he hit 11 of 13 three pointers and beat Dennis Rodman in a game of horse. In breaking news, The Yard has a scoop on reported abuse of players by Rutgers Head basketball Mike Rice. We also are chasing down a story about a Louisville player apparently breaking his leg on national television but have not been able to confirm through normal channels. In the Rutgers story, administration was aware of the abuse when the existence of the incriminating tape was revealed last November. School President Robert Barchi saved his own job by forcing Athletic Director Tim Pernetti to resign from his in the lack of oversight in the aftermath. College administration turning a blind eye to college sports running off the rails is becoming too common in these days of regional television money and imploding conference alignments. It seems like the only winners in this particular situation is Penn State who was pleased to hand off the College’s running amok baton to Rutgers for now. College Presidents spending the athletic department’s largess is a common as the sacking of the AD to save their own skins. College basketball is dominating the Yard-scape these days. March Madness is not just Yard madness it is a pleasant psychosis that infiltrates the heartland and the mainland. The communities of Syracuse, Ann Arbor, Wichita, and Louisville will be joined by the rest of the nation rooting for their student athletes this weekend. Those cities will not just root harder than most of us next weekend; they root harder than us every weekend throughout the college season. These are not NFL cities; these are communities who generate the passion on which we tailgate. Their fans will be in cheap seats in Atlanta while the sterile corporate fans take over the best seats. The Yard has watched from our luxury sofa box suite. Kentucky Fan is not embracing this NCAA playoff season so much. The Wildcat nation expected to be in the finals every year after John Calipari took them back to the title last year. They never expected to miss the whole dance this year let alone lose in the first round of the frigging NIT. All was good as long as Louisville went out early. With the Cardinals looking like the favorite to win the title this year, the state of Kentucky is looking ahead to the Derby not a Louisville title. Coach Rick Pitino is making his redemption tour for his family, the Cardinals, and the family restaurant he had sex in with someone other than his wife in August 2003. We are not sure if his wife had wanted to bang him in that diner but she was not consulted prior to the incursion. She has stayed by her man but they are eating elsewhere these days. Rick did get voted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as well. It is a mean season in Lexington, KY for sure. With the announcements of the 2013 inductees into the Basketball Hall of Fame, the proud city of Las Vegas applauded their three local residents who got into the Hall. One was a first ballot; one was a wrong ballot and one maybe on his last ballot. The Glove Gary Payton was defensive specialist who learned to score. He had a Ray Allen snark before Ray Allen was in the NBA. Spencer Haywood was the poster boy for fighting the establishment. He fought the NCAA, the NBA and the ABA at different times early in his career. He ended up having a championship career but the establishment that acquiesced to let him play kept him out him out of the hall in the twenty plus years he has been eligible. He was elated as it was widely reported on Friday that he would be inducted. In a sad bit of irony from a city paved with broken dreams, Haywood was informed Saturday that he was not inducted. Old grudges do not die easy. Just ask Jerry Tarkanian! Tark finally made the Hall what might be the last chance of his lifetime. Jerry Tarkanian, like Spencer Haywood took on the big bad NCAA who doggedly pursued him throughout the last 20 years of his coaching career. The NCAA looked with disdain on Tarkanian's style and recruits. Constantly, harassed by the NCAA over any questionable new athlete and investigating the program constantly finally forced Shark to resign following the 1991-92 season. Tarkanian was victimized for taking chances with troubled youth. The recruitment of Lloyd Daniels was the tipping point when Daniels was arrested buying crack cocaine before enrolling at UNLV. Daniels had been seen cavorting with known gamblers in Las Vegas. Apparently, there are gamblers that live in this town! These were not Mafia and gambling is legal in Nevada. And these gamblers followed the talented local team with gusto…go figure! Tarkanian resigned and sued the NCAA for their two decades of harassment. It was uncovered that NCAA “due process” was no process at all with the deck stacked heavily in the favor of the NCAA investigators. Tark was awarded a $2.4 million out of court settlement in 1998 before the case would go to trial and the NCAA’s draconian measures exposed. Jerry Tarkanian hopefully finally receives the recognition that he deserves. Tarkanian not only changed the face and pace of college basketball, he was a Hall of Fame coach. He was not a pariah that needed to be investigated. He was a Father Flanagan at a Boys Town for basketball. He brought in “at-risk” athletes and gave them an environment where they could not just win basketball games but maybe create a chance to win at life. For every Lloyd Daniels that he took a chance on and failed there were 50 other players who succeeded. You cannot always take the hood out of the kid but he took many out of theirs and out to the desert to play hoops for him. And play they did, they all became the Tark’s Running Rebels. He took a school that had only been playing D1 basketball for two years in 1973 when he arrived, to a Final Four in 1977 and three more in the years that followed. Tarkanian has the highest winning percentage of any coach with more than 600 wins. He is ahead of both coaches in the Final Four who are part of that club. He is ahead of the Saint who coaches Duke. He is still revered in this town and hopefully Monday night, the rest of the nation. The Basketball Hall of Fame maintains a shadowy voting process for election. It is for all of basketball, not the NBA, College or International. It is everything basketball. There are 24 votes cast each year by unnamed voters. Potential inductees have to survive preliminary elimination that are as invisible and unknown as the final ballots. The winners must get 18 votes to be elected. Then the winning names are dribbled out to the public over the week prior to the College Basketball National Championship game. At halftime, this year’s inductees will be trotted out a halftime. Inductee Pitino will be coaching his most important basketball game in 20 years. He may not come out for the ceremony but the rest will share in the spotlight. The Yard wishes there was more spotlight on how the Basketball Hall votes or does not vote. How Rick Pitino with his 621 wins and one national title gets voted in at the height of his career and The Tark of the 729 wins and one national championship has to wait until he is 81 year old broken down shell of his former Sharkness is insidious.