College Basketball / Mal Florence : With Tarkanian, Towel-Chewing Has Become a Ritual

Jerry Tarkanian of Nevada Las Vegas isn’t the first coach to nervously chew on a towel during basketball games. Pete Newell, for instance, used to gnaw on one when he was California’s coach in the 1950s and ‘60s.

But Tarkanian doesn’t just chew on any old towel during a game. There is an orderly ritual to his towel habit.

It dates back to Tarkanian’s days at Cal State Long Beach, when a bright student manager provided a towel to keep the coach’s mouth from getting dry.

Tarkanian now has two towels at his disposal. The one on top is wet--soaked in nothing more than tap water--and the one on the bottom is dry and is used simply to keep the wet one from resting on the floor.

The towel is wetted and folded into 16ths by a designated student manager, who learned the folding technique from a predecessor. The towels are handed to Tarkanian as he comes onto the court.

It is not known whether Tarkanian tips the towel attendant.

A penny for your thoughts:

North Carolina Coach Dean Smith managed to remain cool after he was hit in the head with a penny in the final seconds of the Tar Heels’ 66-64 victory over Marquette at Milwaukee Jan. 19.

“Let me tell you, that hurts,” Smith said. “I wanted the officials to call a technical on the crowd, but if they had, they would never have gotten out of there alive.”

Everyone who follows college basketball knows that Smith is one of the sport’s most successful coaches--and has been for a number of years.

How successful? Well, Smith has averaged 25.33 victories in his last 19 seasons at North Carolina. He is, of course, ahead of that pace this season.

Louisville Coach Denny Crum has averaged 24.14 victories in his 14 seasons at Louisville.

On a longevity basis, the late Adolph Rupp and John Wooden stand out. Rupp averaged 21.3 wins in 41 seasons at Kentucky, and Wooden averaged 23 wins in 29 seasons at Indiana State and UCLA.

Joe Rhodes of the Dallas Morning News will be well established as a basketball junkie at the end of this season.

Rhodes is criss-crossing the country and will have covered about 150 college games and 25,000 miles in a van furnished with a portable computer-printer and a writing desk.

Rhodes was at Pauley Pavilion recently to cover UCLA’s game with Arizona State. While there, he visited with Wooden, who expressed his feelings about the slam dunk in basketball.

“It has become showmanship, and television has brought a lot of it about,” Wooden told Rhodes. “I think it has brought about more selfish play. People would rather see a spectacular dunk than a good give-and-go. And as far as the beauty of the game (is concerned), there’s nothing prettier than a good give-and-go.”

The return of Big Foot: Bob Lanier may have had the biggest feet in pro basketball, but the collegiate title in that category seems likely to go to Will Perdue, Vanderbilt sophomore reserve center.

Perdue wears size 21-AAAAAAA shoes.

During his junior year in high school, Perdue started suffering from the pain of such unusually large feet. Among other things, he had a lot of discomfort with ingrown toenails. He went to labs, clinics, coaches and counselors but couldn’t find a suitable solution for the problems caused by his long, narrow feet.

At Vanderbilt, he met Jack Jensen, a shoe salesman and Commodore fan. Jensen used plaster of paris to mold a special pair of shoes suited just for Perdue.

“They fit like a glove,” Perdue said.

A very big glove.

USC Coach Stan Morrison said that every once in a while he realizes he’s only involved in a game that needs to be put in the proper perspective.

“On the bus ride to the airport after we had beaten Arkansas last Sunday, I learned that Nolan Richardson (the Arkansas coach) has a 13-year-old daughter who has leukemia,” Morrison said.

“I think that would make it very tough to do (his) job--and she is not doing real well. That brings things back into focus as to understanding what is really important in the world.”