Jerry Tarkanian, and Iowa’s most-painful basketball loss

I'll always think of two primary things when remembering Jerry Tarkanian.

One was how good and how entertaining his UNLV basketball teams were. Part of the reason I sometimes find today's college game dreary - luckily, it's being played at a higher level in the state of Iowa this season than at most places - is because of the way I've seen it played in the past.

The Runnin' Rebels of Tarkanian played it the way it should be played, with aggressive, up-tempo offense and with defense that was highly underrated.

The 1990 night UNLV bombed Duke 103-73 in the national-title game was a showcase for suffocating defense as much as offense that made your head spin.

The second thing cost me a trip to New Orleans as a young man, which probably would have been a good thing had it not also denied me a professional opportunity that I still haven't had. Which was to cover a men's basketball team from the state of Iowa in a Final Four.

Hawkeye fans age 36 or so and older need no reminding. It was, I will insist, the most-painful defeat in Iowa history. It was UNLV 84, Iowa 81 in the 1987 NCAA West Regional final at Seattle's Kingdome, a building that is no more.

The Hawkeyes led 58-42 at halftime, which is when then-Iowa sports information director George Wine passed out forms for the Iowa media regarding credential and hotel requests for the Final Four in New Orleans.

But Tarkanian's guys started popping in 3-pointers with ridiculous success in the second half. However, the comeback was built on tough, hands-on defense that held high-scoring Iowa to a paltry 23 points in that half. The Rebels deserved their trip to New Orleans, where they were upset by eventual-champion Indiana in the national semifinals.

Three years later, UNLV cut down the nets. The Rebels had a terrific coach and great players. They, like that 1987 Iowa team coached by Tom Davis, made basketball a beautiful thing to watch.

Simply scoring a lot of points isn't how that is done. It's doing that combined with going at it hard on the defensive end. It's what can happen when a team is coached extremely well, but isn't overcoached. It's what can happen when a coach trusts in players who can play.

What's forgotten is Iowa got a sliver of revenge the following year in Los Angeles, when it drubbed UNLV 104-86 in the second-round of the NCAAs. The Hawkeyes led 51-39 at the half, but kept the foot on the gas after that. They shot 46 free throws to UNLV's 10. They did the Runnin', and they pressed the Rebels out of the tournament. UNLV made 23 turnovers.

Iowa senior guard Jeff Moe had 24 points in that game, and made a great defensive play when he knocked the ball away from a UNLV player who appeared headed for an easy layup.

'All year, we thought we should have won that (1987) game,” Moe said. 'All year, our friends and relatives said, ‘How could you lose with that lead?' ”

Iowa returned to Seattle for the Sweet 16, but was outclassed there by the Arizona team of Sean Elliott and Steve Kerr, 99-79. The Hawkeyes haven't come any closer to the Final Four since then.

If you want to read a terrific essay on Tarkanian, I highly recommend this piece by Dan Wetzel of Yahoo Sports.