When he coached at Long Beach City College in the early 1970s, Lute Olson would sometimes have lunch with Jerry Tarkanian.
Contrary to what Arizona Wildcat basketball history might suggest, the conversations were actually pleasant.
Fun, even.
โHe was really a good guy,โ Olson said of Tarkanian, who died Wednesday at a Las Vegas hospital at the age of 84 after battling a variety of health issues in recent years. โHe had a lot of personality.โ
The two hit it off after some of Olsonโs players went on to play at Long Beach State under Tark in 1970, and they remained intertwined, sometimes heatedly, for decades while Arizona and UNLV battled on and off the court in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
Some of it is pure Arizona basketball folklore: The one-point loss UNLV handed UA in the 1989 Sweet 16, the trash-talking, the UA locker room display that the Rebels autographed, and, of course, the recruiting battles that led to Tarkanianโs infamous โMidnight Luteโ moniker for Olson.
Tension was inevitable.
โIt was always personal. But itโs all business when youโre competing to be the Westโs best program,โ said Pac-12 Networks analyst Kevin OโNeill, an assistant under Olson during the late 1980s. โIt was a great rivalry in recruiting and on the court.โ
On the court, UNLV won four of five games when Olson and Tarkanian matched up, and none was more painful for Olson than the 1989 Sweet 16, when Kenny Lofton tried to draw a charge from Anderson Hunt while guarding him in the final seconds.
There was no call, so while Lofton fell to the floor, Hunt was left alone to hit the game-winner. That ended the season for the No. 1-ranked Wildcats, and the college career of legendary UA forward Sean Elliott.
โProbably the biggest disappointment I had,โ Olson said Wednesday, still convinced Hunt pushed Lofton. โIf our player had stayed upright, (Hunt) couldnโt have gotten a shot off.โ
A year later, when UNLVโs eventual national champions beat the Wildcats at Las Vegasโ Thomas & Mack Center, Hunt drew more notoriety. This time it was for yapping at UA coaches while sliding into the UA bench, according to Star archives, although UNLV assistant coach Cle Edwards said one of UAโs coaches started it by calling Hunt a โjerk.โ
Olson never scheduled a game with Tarkanian again.
โIt was just that there was a big difference in philosophy between the two of us, so I just felt at that time it was best to cut off that series,โ Olson said.
Tarkanian left UNLV in 1992 after a long battle with the schoolโs administration, and by the time the UA-UNLV series resumed in 2006-07, he had coached the San Antonio Spurs for 20 games in 1992 and Fresno State for seven seasons before retiring in 2002.
But, even without a game in 1990-91, tension remained between the Wildcats and Rebels. UNLV played first-weekend NCAA tournament games at Mc-Kale Center and, as the No. 1 seed, was assigned to UAโs locker room.
Inside it, the Rebels took note of a half-basketball on prime display โ and signed it.
It was a humorous yet โdisrespectfulโ move, UA center Brian Williams said at the time. But Olsonโs longtime assistant, Jim Rosborough, said Wednesday that it blew over quickly.
โThey signed the ball and trashed the locker room, but to be honest I think that was more blown out of proportion,โ Rosborough said. โNone of our players were very concerned about it.โ
Ill will in the recruiting world tended to last longer. Especially when it came to Tom Tolbert, the junior college star whose recruitment led to Tarkanian accusing โMidnight Luteโ of nabbing his guys at the last hour.
The story goes that Tark had a commitment from the highly regarded junior college star, but that Tolbert changed his mind after meeting with UA coaches the night before he signed in 1987. But Olson said he had a commitment from Tolbert even before he committed to UNLV.
โTom said he had a trip scheduled to UNLV and he was going to take some of his friends over for the weekend,โ Olson said. โWhen that happened, Tark had Tom in his office and he said, โWell, are you coming?โ Tom said, โOh yeah, Iโm coming.โ
โI didnโt think he was really serious. But thatโs why I got the nickname Midnight Lute, that I swept in and stole Tom Tolbert. (Tarkanian) was very upset about losing Tolbert, but I never did tell him we had a commitment before he went to UNLV for his visit.โ
Before a game with UNLV in 2007-08, when he was UAโs interim head coach, OโNeill said he would joke about Tolbert and other craziness with former Tarkanian assistants heโd sometimes see around the NBA.
โIt was one of those things where weโd say, โDid we really say those things to each other and do those things? Did we really have Tom Tolbert in a bathroom at Colorado Springs, threatening him that heโd never play (at UNLV)?โ โ OโNeill said. โIt was just the way it was.โ
Reached Wednesday, OโNeill said he remembered that the UA just kept recruiting Tolbert hard.
โI donโt know exactly what changed, but that was a big recruit,โ OโNeill said. โAnd then to get Matt (Othick) from the city of Las Vegas was a big coup for us.โ
Othick, a guard from Las Vegas, was a curious story because he couldnโt sign a second binding letter of intent (his first, to New Mexico, was disregarded when it was discovered he did not date the letter). Othick committed to UNLV but later flopped to Arizona.
Othick told the Star in 2002 it was simply about playing time, since he found Greg Anthony had been promised a starting point guard role at UNLV.
But back during the early days in Long Beach, Olson actually wanted his guys to play for Tark. And even when he took over Long Beach State for the 1973-74 season, when his 24-2 team was banned from the postseason because of infractions found during Tarkanianโs reign, Olson said he did not resent Tarkanian for it.
He blamed the LBSU administration for telling him there would be no sanctions before he took the job.
โThe thing was, Bobbi (Olsonโs first wife) heard the wives saying that โWe knew we were going to get it but we didnโt think it would be that bad,โ โ Olson said. โThat was an indication they werenโt straight up with me. So I left, even though it was one of the best years in Long Beach State history.โ
Four decades later, the two coaches met again in Southern California. But this time there was no recruiting, no games, no trash talking and nobody watching.
Jerry Tarkanian and Lute Olson were just hanging out at the Del Mar racetrack, a meeting arranged by Tucson car dealer and horse owner Paul Weitman, a longtime friend of Olsonโs who had also come to know Tarkanian well through horse racing.
โWhen Lute would come to the track, Iโd tell Tark that Lute was coming so he could talk to him,โ Weitman said. โI would take them back there and theyโd talk. They would tease each other about things. That was good for both of them.
โI think they both mellowed a bit. Both of them were fierce competitors when they were playing each other, and thatโs the way it should be.โ
So for Olson and Tarkanian, the past was just the past. But their relationship and history is forever.
Weitman should know. The name he gave to one of his most successful race horses, after all, was โMidnight Lute.โ
