Full Court Press
Staring down the barrel of a Page 1 story, and a sidebar, column and notes for sports, all on a Radio Shack Model 100 computer, the expression of pure horror on my face must have caught the eye of Los Angeles Times columnist Mike Downey. Life lessons from a
favorite Final FourSitting across from me in a room filled with endless rows of tables and chairs to accommodate the 1,500 media members who had just witnessed UNLV's dismantling of Duke in the 1990 national title game, Downey eased behind his newer Radio Shack Model 200 that sported the futuristic pop-up screen.
He had just finished a lengthy interview with bad boy Jerry Tarkanian, and needed no more than the allotted two hours to write a piece that would have them chuckling over breakfast in L.A. the next morning.
I don't remember looking up as he began pounding out his observations, but I smelled his famous 10-cent cigar, stuck at an odd angle out of the corner of his mouth that allowed the smoke to drift unimpeded over the back of his head.
"Hey Arnett," he said, never breaking from his composition. "How do children count to 21 in Las Vegas?"
My frozen face broke away from the blank screen long enough to catch the glint in his eye as he said, "Ace, 10."
Thanks to Downey, my writer's block was broken as I began to pound out the first of 2,000 words in about 100 minutes. Those four compositions probably had people chuckling over breakfast in Las Vegas the next morning, for different reasons, but I emerged from that night a different person.
Earlier that evening, writing companion Steve Carp, who now covers the Rebels for the Las Vegas Review-Journal, and I were walking around McNichols Arena in Denver, soaking up the Final Four atmosphere.
It's not often a beat writer finds himself covering a national championship team, so we both knew the enormity of that moment on a personal level. Our reverie was broken by Dick Vitale hanging over the midcourt railing, yelling so we could hear him over the den of noise created by the capacity crowd.
Carp tells this story much better than I do, but it goes something like this: "You're going to be a happy man tonight, Paulie! The Rebels are going to run the Dukies right out of the arena! Father Flanagan (his nickname for Tarkanian) is going to win it all! Tonight's your night, baby."
SOME 12 YEARS LATER, Vitale's prediction of it being my night still rings true. Even now, the voice of college basketball is yelling over my shoulder about tonight's Final Four matchup between Indiana and Maryland, but this time he's on a TV screen.
Barely a week after UNLV beat Duke by a Final Four record 30 points, I was offered a job in Hawaii, leaving behind one of the better basketball teams in collegiate history. In the early morning hours after winning his only national title, Tark talked about his own future.
Las Vegas Review-Journal beat writer Joe Hawk and myself asked Tark why he didn't just walk away from the strife-filled program on a winning note as he prepared for his "Today Show" interview live from his hotel suite. Even he knew the NCAA would make it difficult for a repeat, but he didn't care.
"We've got a chance to win it all again," Tark said, refusing to acknowledge history. At that point, the last time a team had gone back-to-back was UCLA and its remarkable seven-year run that ended in 1973. History prevailed as Duke avenged the 103-73 shellacking with a 79-77 Final Four semifinal win over the Rebels in 1991.
"You weren't there," Tark would say to me years later at the Stan Sheriff Center as Fresno State prepared for Hawaii in a key conference game.
"No, I wasn't," I replied with a smile. "It was something Mike Downey told me that night after the game that convinced me that perhaps Vegas wasn't the best place to raise a family."
"What was it?" he asked.
He laughed out loud when I recounted the old ace, 10 joke and waved good-bye as he headed toward the Bulldogs bench. It was the last time I spoke to Tark face to face. But I'm sure sometime today we'll recall with fondness that same night a dozen years ago, smile at the memory and know another like it won't pass by again.
Paul Arnett has been covering sports
for the Star-Bulletin since 1990.
Email Paul: parnett@starbulletin.com.