Oct. 9, 2007

Erie, Pa. - The Mercyhurst athletic department has announced that legendary basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian will be the featured speaker for the 20th annual Basketball Tip-Off Dinner on Wednesday, Oct. 31. The event will take place at the Marriott Ambassador.

Dinner is served at 7 p.m., and Tarkanian will follow the dinner. Individual tickets for the dinner can be purchased for $45.

Prior to the dinner, there will be a VIP Cocktail Hour from 6-7 p.m., where corporate sponsors will have an opportunity to meet Tarkanian, the evening's featured speaker and former NCAA Championship coach. The hour also includes an open bar and hors d'oeuvres.

There are four different levels of corporate sponsorships that can be purchased. The Gold level sponsorship provides dinner for a full table of 10, 10 VIP Cocktail Hour tickets, as well as program and table recognition for $700.

A Silver sponsorship, which can be purchased for $650, includes dinner for 10, six VIP Cocktail Hour tickets and program and table recognition. A Bronze sponsorship, at the price of $400, includes a table of five for dinner, three VIP Cocktail Hour tickets plus program and table recognition.

Finally, high school basketball teams interested can purchase 10 tickets for $450.

All proceeds of the event benefit the Mercyhurst College men's and women's basketball teams.

In 38 years as a head coach at the collegiate level, Tarkanian built an impressive resume that includes 990 total wins, 729 victories at the Division I level, which stands as15th-best all time and a .784 winning percentage which is sixth-best in NCAA history.

He also boasts 29 20-win seasons, more than any coach, 18 NCAA Tournament appearances, and his 38-17 NCAA Tournament record ranks sixth all-time. Also, not one of his teams ever endured a losing season.

After qualifying for four NCAA Tournaments in five years at Long Beach State, Tarkanian moved to UNLV in 1973, beginning one of the most successful runs in college basketball annals. While there, his squads earned four Final Four berths, and his 1989-90 squad won an incredible 35 games en route to the NCAA Championships.

That squad proved to be one of the greatest ever assembled, using a fastbreak offense and a pressure defense to rout Duke 103-73 in the championships game. The following season, the team won 34-straight games before falling in the title tilt.

Tarkanian sent 44 players to the NBA and 12 were first round picks. In 1991 alone, Larry Johnson went No. 1 overall and Stacey Augmon and Greg Anthony were selected in the first round.

The coach recently released a biography titled Running Rebel in which he tells the tales of his coaching career on and off the court.

Tarkanian, who became known as "The Shark" during his tenure at UNLV, joins a long list of distinguished speakers at the Mercyhurst Basketball Tip-Off Dinner. Past speakers include Dick Vitale, Jim Boeheim and best-selling author John Feinstein.

Mercyhurst Basketball Tip-Off Dinner Past Speakers

1988 Jim Boeheim
1989 P.J. Carlesimo
1990 Steve Fisher
1991 Dick Vitale
1992 John MacLeod
1993 Billy Packer
1994 Chuck Daly
1995 Bill Raftery
1996 Clark Kellogg
1997 Quinn Buckner
1998 Tom Heinsohn
1999 Sean McDonough
2000 Jay Bilas
2001 John Feinstein
2002 Len Elmore
2003 Mike Brey
2004 Phil Martelli
2005 John Beilein
2006 Jay Wright