Tark the talk of the Big Apple

As usual, they were all in pursuit of Jerry Tarkanian.

Tarkanian, the coach of troubled Fresno State, was the center of attention at a luncheon yesterday introducing the coaches of this year's NIT semifinalists.

But with Tark in town, Minnesota's Clem Haskins, Penn State's Jerry Dunn and Georgia's Ron Jirsa - all good guys with nice teams and compelling stories of their own - went virtually unnoticed.

Fresno State (21-11), which has endured a season of arrests, suspensions and scrutiny, plays Minnesota (18-15) in Today's first semifinal at Madison Square Garden. Penn State (18-12) meets Georgia (19-14) in the second game with the winners playing for the tournament's 61st championship on Thursday night.

Tarkanian's team has received as much attention as any in college basketball this month, mostly for the wrong reasons. A "60 Minutes" profile on Fresno State's problems was followed just days later by the arrest of two more players.

That incident, in which senior center Avondre Jones and freshman Kenny Brunner were accused of threatening a man with handguns and samurai swords, came just hours after Fresno State's buzzer-beating win over Memphis in the NIT's second round.

"That was about as low as we could get," Tarkanian said.

Before the team's trip to Hawaii for its third-round game, Fresno State president John Welty threatened to pull the team out of the NIT if there were any more problems. There weren't any, and the Bulldogs defeated Hawaii, 85-83, to earn a trip to New York.

And now, despite having only seven scholarship players left on his roster, Tarkanian has his team among the final eight men's college basketball teams still playing.

"It's been a real tough season," Tarkanian said. "We've been up and down. We've had a lot problems and it's been very difficult for us. ... Our kids have hung together, and I'm real proud that they've been able to overcome some of the adversity and still pull together. I don't think many people gave us much of a chance."

03-24-98