Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, February 5, 1993 TAG: 9302050139
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: BLACKSBURG LENGTH: Medium
WAVE OF RUMORS ALWAYS INCLUDES TULANE'S CLARK
Like the man-to-man pressure that pushes his college basketball team upward in the polls, Perry Clark always seems to be playing defense.The Tulane coach - in only three years - brought his program from nowhere to the New Orleans school's first NCAA trip. The question now isn't so much where the Green Wave is going, but rather what will be Clark's next destination.
While the Wave battles Louisville for the top of the Metro Conference standings, Clark is chased by his own success. He knows how to stop a fast break, but even denial defense doesn't work against rumors.
"I don't deal with them," Clark said after the 18th-ranked Green Wave stretched its win streak to 11 Thursday night with a 72-59 victory at Virginia Tech. "The only way I know stuff like that is when you guys tell me. You've heard them before. You'll hear them again."
Rumors are as much a part of the coaching business as shoe deals. Some coaches don't like to see their names on the rumor wheel of fortune, but at least that presence is flattering. A few 13-14 seasons can put a guy's resume in the roundball round file.
The faces become familiar, too. If a job is to be had at a glamour program in a league of influence, the name game begins. The current hit list: Clark, Pete Gillen of Xavier, John Calipari of Massachusetts and Mike Jarvis of George Washington.
Why Clark?
His coaching pedigree is stamped by 1,000-game winner Morgan Wootten at DeMatha Catholic High, then former bosses Dick Harter and Bobby Cremins. He not only built a program at Tulane, he had to pour a new foundation when the program came back from four hoopless seasons that followed a points-shaving scandal. Being a young black head coach enhances Clark's candidacy, too.
The latest speculation has Clark's next zip code in South Carolina. The Gamecocks have a new athletic director, Mike McGee, and the word bouncing around is that Carolina wants a black coach. McGee just left Southern Cal, where George Raveling stands next to Georgetown's John Thompson in prominence among black college coaches.
The South Carolina list is said to be topped by Clark, Jarvis and Tulsa coach Tubby Smith. The fuel is Cremins, a Gamecocks grad and former coach who was Clark's boss at Georgia Tech. South Carolina will wave big money at Clark.
This may be just the latest shot in an intrastate rivalry. Clemson coach Cliff Ellis is said to be hanging on to his job by a frayed net cord. Clark's name has floated to the surface in Tigertown, as it did last year at Wichita State, Wisconsin, Nevada-Las Vegas, Oregon, Villanova and Alabama.
The fact that Clark signed a new contract after last season is no deterrent to name-dropping. However, a two-way buyout in the deal may make Clark think twice about moving, as may a commitment to a talked-about palace to replace Tulane's condo-sized Fogelman Arena.
Clark, 41, isn't wasting his communications degree from Gettysburg College. His players learn not only plays, but a mentality and toughness that has carried Clark from his hometown Washington, D.C.
He's a tinkerer and adjuster during games, a recruiter and taskmaster before and after. Tulane's practices can be longer and tougher than games. The way Clark's staff dissects film, you'd think his assistants were Siskel and Ebert.
Clark is driven, but not driven to distraction. When he was hired in July 1988, Tulane had no basketballs. Clark had no office. There were neither players nor rumors.
Riding a Wave is fun, but not easy.