Unlv

Remember that Indiana team that won the 1987 NCAA championship game on a bucket by Keith Smart? Beat a Syracuse team that had Derrick Coleman and Sherman Douglas and Rony Seikaly?Nudged UNLV in the semifinal game, a Runnin' Rebel team that featured Fred Banks and Jarvis Basnight and Armon "Hammer" Gilliam?So, for $10 and an autographed photo of Jimmy the Greek, which team graduated more players? The Indiana crew-cuts coached by the snow-pure Bobby Knight . . . or the UNLV rabble coached by the notorious Jerry Tarkanian?

It appears Rick Pitino isn't going to be out of work very long. Sources close to Pitino said the former coach and president of the Boston Celtics is close to being named coach at Nevada-Las Vegas, a deal that could be finalized in the next 10 days. Pitino confirmed yesterday that he's been offered the job and will visit UNLV in the next few days, but stopped short of saying he's already made up his mind. "I have a very real interest," he said, "but I still need some time to decide what I'm going to do."

Two weeks ago, Maryland coach Gary Williams said that North Carolina was the team that could beat Nevada-Las Vegas in the NCAA tournament and nothing has happened to change his mind, especially since both teams have reached this weekend's Final Four in Indianapolis.Williams rates both the Tar Heels and the Runnin' Rebels as solid favorites to win their semifinal games Saturday and advance to Monday's national championship game.But before analyzing the semifinals, Williams pauses a moment to gloat over the ACC's success in placing two of its teams in the Final Four for the second straight year.

One of the best-known gambling figures in Las Vegas said yesterday that he was interviewed by the FBI about possible point-shaving by Nevada-Las Vegas players during last year's Final Four.Lem Banker said he told authorities that players on the Runnin' Rebels, unbeaten and ranked No. 1 at the time, wouldn't have dumped the Duke game in the national semifinals. The Rebels failed to repeat as national champion when the Blue Devils beat them, 79-77, last March.UNLV officials said two weeks ago that federal authorities had subpoenaed university records relating to convicted sports fixer Richard Perry.

INDIANAPOLIS -- The Nevada-Las Vegas basketball team won't be playing for its second straight national championship tonight at the Hoosier Dome. The Runnin' Rebels have long since left town.But as much as this year National Collegiate Athletic Association Final Four will be remembered as the one that Duke or Kansas won, it also will be talked of in terms of UNLV's 79-77 semifinal loss to the Blue Devils on Saturday night.The defeat -- which ended a perfect season (34-0 coming in) and a 45-game winning streak -- prevented the Runnin' Rebels from becoming the first team to repeat since UCLA in 1973 and the first unbeaten champion since Indiana in 1976.

And so, the college basketball season comes to a merciful end in Indianapolis this coming Monday.But before the finale, here are a few random observations:* There's been a lot of weeping and moaning and gnashing of teeth over the NCAA's decision to delay Nevada-Las Vegas' sanction to next year, allowing the Runnin' Rebels to play in this year's tournament.You won't hear any of that in this corner, for the far bigger crime would have been to penalize this current team for violations that occurred when the players were in elementary school.

INDIANAPOLIS -- One more time: It is spelled Krzyzewski and pronounced Shu-CHEF-ski. He is a product of a working-class Polish family in Chicago. Blue-blazered, button-down, penny-loafered West Point graduate. Could be president of the local Jaycees. And, now, at last, coach of the national champions.Round about midnight Monday, when the nets had been snipped and the tears were drying, Mike Krzyzewski said something so crystalline, so perfect, that it seemed to hang in the air, giving off light.

The NCAA Committee on Infractions will meet later this month to consider new information that could cause the body to alter its ruling barring the University of Nevada-Las Vegas from defending its NCAA basketball title.The committee announced on July 20 that UNLV will be ineligible for postseason competition after the 1990-91 basketball season as a final penalty stemming from the infractions case that caused UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian to take the NCAA to court 13 years ago.Immediately after the ruling was announced, UNLV president Robert Maxson said the school would appeal, and its appeal and the Committee on Infractions' response were scheduled to be heard by the NCAA Council's Division I Steering Committee during the council's meeting next week in Kansas City, Mo.However, the matter will not be heard by the council because of a request by UNLV officials to present unspecified new information to the Committee on Infractions, D. Alan Williams, the chairman of the six-member committee, said yesterday.

LOS ANGELES -- In an unprecedented move, the National Collegiate Athletic Association lifted its sanction prohibiting Nevada-Las Vegas from defending its national title in basketball.The NCAA Committee on Infractions had ruled in July that UNLV would be prohibited from postseason play after the 1990-91 season as a final penalty stemming from the infractions case that led UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian to take the association to court 13 years ago.However, in a ruling released yesterday, the committee offered UNLV two alternative penalties, both of which allowed the Runnin' Rebels to participate in postseason competition at the end of the current season.

LAS VEGAS, Nev. -- On a evening when he could have used one of his world-famous white towels to dab away the tears, an emotional coach Jerry Tarkanian said a reluctant goodbye to UNLV basketball.The words, of course, didn't come as easily as the Runnin' Rebels' 65-53 victory against Utah State last night at the Thomas & Mack Center. Standing at center court afterward, doused in a spotlight, showered with farewell gifts and the heartfelt applause of 18,944 spectators, Tarkanian was asked to address the first and only sellout crowd of the season.