An Odds-on Favorite In Vegas

Tarkanian's wife Lois is his avenging angel. She is writing a book about the NCAA and coaches who live in glass houses. If everything she says is true, its title could be: Graft Is Their Craft. "We heard that the NCAA told one coach that Jerry was trying to blackmail its investigators with prostitutes and marijuana," says Lois. "We're neurotic here. How would you like to live 4� years with people asking you questions every day? Now they're checking into where our players get their clothes. They wear T shirts and jeans. Well, once in a while Reggie Theus will look nice, but he had those clothes in high school. And they want to know who paid for our house." That is the five-bedroom, $100,000 edifice with the swimming pool, the Jacuzzi and the high-ceilinged, air-conditioned garage with a basketball goal inside so the kids can play during the hot summers.

Before junior Forward Jackie Robinson's mother died last year of cancer, she gave Lois a notarized statement condemning an NCAA investigator for harassment. The Tarkanians briefly considered adopting Robinson, but the plan was dropped, probably because Tarkanian yells at him so much in practice that Robinson did not want to have to listen to more of the same at home.

"The NCAA's always buggin' us," says Forward Theus. "Look, if they want to get you, they'll get you," says Robinson. "All schools do something illegal. They have to, because the money they are allowed to give the players isn't enough to live on. I was considering quitting school because I didn't have money for food and no parents to give me any. The place I lived in last year was like Watts, holes in the wall and everything."

"He didn't have rugs on the floor," interrupts teammate Robert Smith. "He had dirt."

"Now I live with my girl friend," continues Robinson. "One NCAA guy asked me if they gave me $100,000 to come to school. I said, 'If somebody offered me that, I'd take it, and I wouldn't tell you about it.' Wow, $100,000! They don't even offer Jabbars that much. I can't change no program around."

Tarkanian still can laugh, a little. He saw a friend in a new Thunderbird and said, "If I were driving that, the NCAA would machine-gun it." And after John Whisenhant, an assistant at New Mexico who also has been investigated by the NCAA, kidded Tarkanian about joining the Las Vegas staff, Tark said, "If I hired you, the NCAA would parachute in the investigators."

In more serious moments Tarkanian claims the NCAA, which will release the results of its preliminary investigation of Las Vegas soon, has nothing on him. He says he has been so cautious that he makes school boosters carry copies of the NCAA recruiting rule book.

Unfortunately for him, Tarkanian looks the part of a master criminal. He is short and balding and has dark circles under his eyes. He is so nervous that he bites his fingernails down to where it hurts to look at them. And he is superstitious. Tark keeps two towels under his seat at courtside and munches on them during games. Other rituals range from the selection of clothing and hotel rooms to strict procedures for pregame walks and handshakes. Then there is the clipboard that sits on the seat next to him. Once he forgot to take it to an away game, and Manager Gil Castillo, who has been with Tarkanian for seven years, had to return to Las Vegas to retrieve it.

Tarkanian's players have one major criticism of him; they say he is too hard on them. During preseason conditioning drills he made them wear 20-pound weighted jackets, and they complain that he never congratulates them after a good game. "Aw, they all want to be kissed on the ear," responds Tarkanian.

By keeping his kisses to a minimum, Tarkanian has won 12 league championships in 13 years of coaching on the junior-and major-college levels. While he was at Long Beach, his teams had never dropped a home game. When the Rebels lost to Texas Tech in the Convention Center two years ago, one of only two defeats there under Tarkanian, booster Sig Rogich went home and threw up. Rogich was the man who lured Tark to Las Vegas with an offer that was widely reported to include a $22,000 salary, a house, furniture, two cars, an unlimited expense account, free medical and dental care, houses and cars for his two assistant coaches and a $3,000 clothing allowance.