This Is No Lie: Harrick Deserves an Opportunity

New Jersey Net Coach John Calipari called a Latino reporter a “Mexican idiot� last week and got a second chance.

Fresno State gave Jerry Tarkanian one. Eddie Sutton left the Kentucky program in ruins, but Oklahoma State forgave him.

Richie Parker did unspeakable things in a stairwell; Lawrence Phillips pulled his ex-girlfriend, by the hair, down steps.

People bent over backward to give them jobs.

So why can’t Jim Harrick get one?

Coaches who never sniffed a national championship are landing plum assignments. Steve Cleveland was handed the keys to Brigham

Young, making the quantum leap from Fresno City College.

Harrick sort of liked his chances for the BYU post given his eight 20-plus-win seasons at UCLA and membership in the Mormon church. Rondo Fehlberg, BYU’s athletic director, said Tuesday it was nothing personal.

“We looked at Jim, we think Jim’s a guy that’s had tremendous success,� Fehlberg said.

Fehlberg also mentioned that his school “lives in a glass house,� and has to be careful in such matters.

Harrick was also up for the Louisiana State opening and should have gotten strong consideration after Bayou favorites Tim Floyd (Iowa State), Rob Evans (Mississippi) and James Dickey (Texas Tech) took themselves out of the running.

Yes, the same Dickey whose school had to disqualify itself from NCAA tournament consideration for using ineligible players.

Instead of hiring Harrick, LSU opted for Samford’s John Brady.

Never heard of him?

LSU Athletic Director Joe Dean said he interviewed Harrick, considered him a swell guy, a friend, and that his problems at UCLA were no factor in his decision. Dean said he wanted someone who had recruiting ties to the state.

Fair enough.

As Harrick sits, coaches are leveraging deals that will secure hog heaven retirements.

Mike Montgomery turned down an $800,000 offer from Ohio State this week to stay at Stanford. Eddie Fogler got a $100,000 raise at South Carolina after losing in the first round of the NCAA tournament. Texas’ Tom Penders was being wooed by Rutgers but re-upped Wednesday at Texas for more money. Steve Alford, 32, interviewed for the Tennessee opening before sweetening his deal at Southwest Missouri State.

Ricardo Patton turned down overtures from Memphis and Tennessee to stay at Colorado for more cash. Steve Robinson was whisked and wined but ultimately signed a new deal with Tulsa. Mack McCarthy cashed Tennessee Chattanooga’s Sweet 16 chip into a five-year extension.

What do these coaches have in common? They have combined to win zero national championships.

The coaching market is booming and bustling for everyone it seems except Jim Harrick, the one candidate who has won a title.

Oh, don’t expect to Harrick to land at Ohio State, Memphis or Rutgers.

If you were the suspicious sort, you’d think someone was poisoning Harrick’s well to potential suitors. You know, someone with an ax to grind.

What, exactly, is the statute of limitations for filing a phony expense report at a university where the AD hates you?

Was it not enough to publicly fire a coach who privately begged you to let him finish out the season and walk away quietly with some dignity?

Far as I can tell, Harrick still has not been charged with anything more heinous than lying about his expense report. He still has never been cited for an NCAA violation. And even if he ultimately is, that would put him a “Who’s Who� pantheon of colleagues who have done so and remain gainfully employed.

Last week, UCLA Athletic Director Peter T. Dalis said he wrote an open letter detailing Harrick’s accomplishments at UCLA.

“I’m trying to help him,� Dalis said.

Those close to Harrick found the comments laughable.

Jim Harrick Jr., an assistant at Valparaiso, says Dalis is the primary reason his father is still unemployed.

“No question,� Harrick said. “You can quote me on that. Pete will say that this is bitter, this is sour grapes, it’s Jim Harrick’s son. But Pete is making sure that he doesn’t get a job.�

Harrick Jr. said he has spoken to several athletic directors who told him they considered his father until they placed a call to Dalis.

“The first thing he says to them is, ‘Well, I’ll tell you what, if he didn’t lie to me, he’d still be my coach,’ � Harrick Jr. said.

Dalis, reached Wednesday evening, denied Harrick Jr.’s charges.

“Absolutely not,� Dalis said. “This is pure fiction. I have not interfered in Jim Harrick’s getting a job. I hope Jim Harrick gets a job.�

Dalis also denied, as Harrick Jr. suggests, that Dalis reprimanded current UCLA staffers who have seen his father socially or that he ever prohibited UCLA players from wearing Harrick’s initials on their uniforms.

“I know nothing about that,� Dalis said.

Where is the truth?

If Dalis is indeed waging a protracted, petty, private feud with Harrick by means of sabotage and subterfuge, that is reprehensible.

Even if he’s not, it’s still time to move on in the case of UCLA vs. Jim Harrick.

The dirty deed is done. Dalis fired the man he wanted fired, refusing to grant a Mulligan to the coach he never invited to play golf.

Harrick will be in Indianapolis this weekend for the Final Four, working for Fox Sports West. He says he does not intend to roam hotel lobbies peddling his wares like some down-on-his-luck traveling salesman.

He did not want to be interviewed for this column.

“I’ve got to get out of the paper,� he said.

Of his current job status, Harrick said, “I’m just exploring opportunities.�

Harrick certainly is no saint. What he did at UCLA was wrong.

Maybe he doesn’t deserve a major Division I coaching position and a television show.

But doesn’t Harrick deserve a job somewhere, even if it’s Podunk U.?

Here’s hoping there’s an athletic director out there brave enough to cut through the muck and examine Harrick’s record in total.

ADD HARRICK

Jim Harrick Jr. said that after his father was fired in November, Dalis and a top associate turned over eight years of his father’s UCLA files to the Pacific 10 office for investigation.

Harrick Jr. said he believes the inquiry will conclude that:

1--His father once gave former player omm’A Givens $20.

2--The school may have made “excessive� phone calls to recruit Jelani McCoy in 1994.

3--His father purchased 50 extra national championship rings with his own money to give to friends.

“You turn over eight years of files on anyone, you’ll probably find one or two things,� Harrick Jr. said.

LAST ADD HARRICK

One athletic director said he heard the reason Harrick has not landed a job yet is because of his age, 59.

This was a subject Harrick was willing to talk about.

“That’s a great article, right there,� Harrick said.

“Sixty-six . . . Dean Smith,� Harrick said. “Sixty-two . . . Lute Olson. Fifty-something . . . Clem Haskins.�

Those, of course, are the ages and names of three of the four coaches in the Final Four.

LOOSE ENDS

It make take months for Roy Williams and Kansas to recover from the team’s stunning Southeast Regional semifinal loss to Arizona. It is difficult to think Williams will ever assemble a more title-worthy team, even more difficult to imagine that point guard Jacque Vaughn will have never played in a Final Four.

Williams was asked if there was perhaps a flaw in his system that has prevented him from winning a national title. “I hope not,� Williams said. “As a coach, I’ve got to do a lot of soul-searching, to see if the something missing is Roy Williams. I’d like to think that it isn’t.�

North Carolina fans will want to know that this is only the second time three top-seeded teams have advanced to the Final Four. It happened in 1993, when North Carolina, Michigan and Kentucky advanced to the Final Four. The Tar Heels won the title.

Much will be made of this weekend’s freshman point guard matchup between North Carolina’s Ed Cota and Arizona’s Mike Bibby. Cota, in fact, is considerably older, turning 21 in a few weeks. Cota, from Tilden High in East Flatbush, spent two years of finishing work at St. Thomas More Academy prep school in Connecticut. What was the problem? Tilden Coach Eric “Rock� Eisenberg told the New York Times that Cota once cut 56 consecutive days of school.

Bibby, a true freshman, turns 19 on May 13.