FRESNO — It had the feel of a perfect fit, this fast-growing farm town aching for a national winner and the legendary basketball coach seeking one last chance at redemption, one last shot at restoring his luster.
Fresno and Jerry Tarkanian. The land of Armenians and the wandering Armenian son come home after a 37-year road trip that saw "Tark the Shark" become college basketball's most winning and most investigated coach.
"It's Tark Time," crowed the Fresno Bee headline in April 1995, the day he penned the deal. The whole town, sensing at last its chance for glory, went nuts.
But two seasons into his comeback, Tarkanian is once again trying to fend off allegations that could not only cost him his basketball program but also rob this city, which wants to be so much more than a raisin town, of a big piece of its pride. This time, the FBI is investigating allegations that two players at Fresno State University conspired with local gamblers to shave points in several games during this season.
It was the Armenian community that two years ago persuaded university officials--jittery over Tarkanian's reputation for playing loose with National Collegiate Athletic Assn. rules--to bring him back home. And now it is members of that same ethnic community, a pawnshop broker and a car salesman, who are alleged to have conspired with two of Tarkanian's players to betray the 66-year-old coach in the worst possible way.
"Point shaving is the worst thing that an athlete can ever do," Tarkanian said. "It would destroy the program. It would destroy me personally. It would kill me. I couldn't live with that. . . . If it's true, I'll quit."
With so many hopes in this irrigated flatland pinned on Tarkanian's last hurrah, it is no wonder that the wagons are circling the coach and the team. The same Fresno Bee that handed out free "Tark Time" T-shirts and printed full-page posters of each starting player is now being pilloried by much of the town for pursuing the point shaving story. One Bee reporter has had his life threatened.
The timing of the allegations could not be worse. So much good seems within such easy reach--an 18,000-seat on-campus basketball arena, national television exposure, and a stunning lineup of talent waiting in the wings that Tarkanian has lured from inner cities across the country to this improbable spot.
Now, the next season of great expectations may never come.
