Is that a legit Tark quote? I know people who swear up and down its made up, does anyone know the actual origins and if he really said it or not?
"The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky, they're gonna give Cleveland state 2 more years probation."
- Thread starter ~Keyser Soze~
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From the first article I pulled up from the LA Times:
Tarkanian's rolling mantra was that the NCAA had a double-standard for enforcement, that it picked on smaller schools but protected the sugar-daddy power programs. This produced variations of his most famous quote: "The NCAA was so mad at Kentucky they gave Cleveland State two more years of probation."
Another one from espn.com:
“The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky it will probably slap another two years probation on Cleveland State.’’ Tarkanian uttered the famous quip after Kentucky and coach Eddie Sutton found themselves in the NCAA crosshairs. But the line has stood the test of time, emblematic of not only Tark’s battles with the organization but also of the long-held belief that the NCAA practices selective enforcement.
Tarkanian's rolling mantra was that the NCAA had a double-standard for enforcement, that it picked on smaller schools but protected the sugar-daddy power programs. This produced variations of his most famous quote: "The NCAA was so mad at Kentucky they gave Cleveland State two more years of probation."
Another one from espn.com:
“The NCAA is so mad at Kentucky it will probably slap another two years probation on Cleveland State.’’ Tarkanian uttered the famous quip after Kentucky and coach Eddie Sutton found themselves in the NCAA crosshairs. But the line has stood the test of time, emblematic of not only Tark’s battles with the organization but also of the long-held belief that the NCAA practices selective enforcement.
The irony of that line is that Tark's violations were far more severe and UNLV's punishment far lighter than UK's.
And the folks at UNCheat are smiling because of this.
I honestly don't understand why many UK fans like Tark. He was not a UK fan and was consumed with jealousy for UK's success. The only way he could win was massively cheating. I think some fans like him because he took on the NCAA, which was the same reason they liked Jay Bilas. Well, we see how that latter one turned out, didn't we?
I would caution against pulling second-hand quotes, especially from a news organization like ESPN.com. Referring to second-hand quotes decades (even years) after the fact don't necessarily verify them, because unfortunately most journalists can't be trusted to actually go back and verify these things themselves before they repeat them as fact.
There are some claims about UK that have long been accepted as factual which are simply not true. I can find literally hundreds of relatively recent quotes supporting the claim, but regardless of how many times it's repeated, they still don't make it true.
~Keyser Soze~ said:
I did a newspaper.com search and the best/earliest I could find was a Rick Bozich aricle from October 14, 1988 in the Louisville Courier-Journal.
Wrote Bozich:
"How about it, Jerry Tarkanian? What's the perspective from the Nevada Las Vegas, where arm-wrestling with the NCAA is an elective subject?
"'The coaches I've talked to all say Kentucky's going to get clobbered, but I still don't believe that,' Tarkanian said. 'I agree with (Oklahoma City coach) Abe Lemons. He said that the NCAA was so upset with Kentucky that they were going to give Cleveland State two more years' probation.'" - "It's Madness, and It's Getting Late" by Rick Bozich Louisville Courier-Journal, October 14, 1988
A couple comments:"'The coaches I've talked to all say Kentucky's going to get clobbered, but I still don't believe that,' Tarkanian said. 'I agree with (Oklahoma City coach) Abe Lemons. He said that the NCAA was so upset with Kentucky that they were going to give Cleveland State two more years' probation.'" - "It's Madness, and It's Getting Late" by Rick Bozich Louisville Courier-Journal, October 14, 1988
1.) If this is the origin, it's very intersting to me that Tarkanian receives credit for the quote when apparently he was paraphrasing Abe Lemons.
2.) Of course this had to come from Bozich.
3.) Despite the way this quote has been repeated time and again for decades now, the fact of the matter is that UK was hammered by the NCAA. That seems to be lost among many of UK's critics.
If people want to point to high profile teams getting away with violations without proper punishment from the NCAA, it would be more appropriate to mention Duke and North Carolina before saying anything about Kentucky.
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I believe this quote was actually from Abe Lemon who was the Texas coach
I'm curious why Tark would have been super jealous of our success during his time at UNLV when he won just as many titles as we did and actually went to one more Final Four than we did during his time at UNLV?
Yeah, would like to echo the sentiment that UK has been popped.
No one seems to remember our probation...basketball and football...
No one seems to remember our probation...basketball and football...
I thought it was fairly obvious. Tark was not happy that UK was taking players like Chris Mills from the West and, if you believe Raw Recruits, was cheating like crazy to get them.
His major success at UNLV came late in his tenure there. When he supposedly said what is quoted above, he had zero titles and two FF's on this record. That first FF was 1977 and his second was 87. His final years were rocked with scandal.
Whatever the case may be, it's a quote that was aimed at a Kentucky era decades ago.. a quote that more so applies to schools like UNC and UofL right now.
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