NCAA Tournament Comes to Town : L. B. Savors Brush With Good Basketball

LONG BEACH — The color and pageantry of college basketball came here last weekend, and a city that hadn’t been equated with the sport for more than a decade tasted that special March flavor of good teams, great players, famous coaches and frenetic fans.

On Friday morning before the first game of the NCAA regional tournament between Nevada-Las Vegas and Northeast Louisiana University, UNLV fans, dressed in red, streamed by the thousands toward the Long Beach Arena, a squat, gray cylindrical building that sits by the sea and resembles a huge oil storage tank.

One group sang and danced to its team’s theme song: “I got Runnin’ Rebel fever and I feel so fine.” The beat was catchier than that of the jackhammer that could be heard across the street, digging into the rubble of demolished buildings along Seaside Way.

Fans had not streamed by the thousands to the arena for college basketball since Cal State Long Beach was a successful team in the early 1970s. Total attendance for the tournament was more than 30,000. To draw that many people, Cal State Long Beach would have to play almost two full seasons.

“It’s real nice to have crowds like this again,” said Glenn McDonald, a 49er star in the team’s glory era, as he stood in blustery Midwestern-type weather before the Sunday double-header that would match the winners of Friday’s games. The losers--Northeast Louisiana, Pepperdine, Montana State and Arizona--had long since picked up the pieces of their shattered dreams and gone home.

McDonald, now a 49er assistant coach, said the tournament would be a good recruiting tool for Cal State Long Beach, the host of the regional tournament. “TV is going to be saying, ‘Long Beach, Long Beach’ constantly,” McDonald said.

Nearby, a man held up a ticket and hawked, “Center court, best seat in the house, 30 bucks.”

“We are St. John’s,” the fans of that New York City university chanted before their team’s game with Auburn, although no one had asked their identity.

St. John’s, the top-seeded team in the West, quickly headed for a fall, mainly because of an Auburn player named Chuck Person. Person was 6 feet, 8 inches tall and looked a ton, with musculature that made the St. John’s players look almost anemic.

Person played like a man on a personal crusade, which he was. Miffed that he had been left off All-American teams, Person was out to show the world that he was up there with stars like Walter Berry of St. John’s. He slam dunked, scored on long, right-handed jumpshots, made tip-ins with his left hand, ran like he was at a track meet and rebounded with ferocity.

Berry, meanwhile, did little against a hounding Auburn defense. Wherever he turned, he ran into a blue-uniformed player.

By the time Auburn had built a 30-20 lead, Lou Carnesecca, the famous St. John’s coach whom the New York tabloids refer to as “Looey” in headlines, knew he was in trouble. A short man in a blue shirt and baggy trousers, he was as jumpy as a marionette, and when particularly excited or exasperated, he would dart sideways up and down in front of his bench.

Carnesecca got coaching assistance from a priest in the first row of the stands, who yelled, “Play to win, get back on defense, quick.” But that didn’t help, and at half time the Redmen trailed, 44-32.

Priest Is Faithful Fan

The priest, Jim Dorr, chaplain of St. John’s College of Business, did not appear to be midway through a crisis. He was confident of a comeback, he said, “if we penetrate more and hit the boards.”

Dorr said he attends every St. John’s game “if I don’t have a wedding, a christening or a funeral.”

St. John’s made a serious challenge in the second half and cut the gap to eight points. A dark-haired cheerleader shrieked for support and the fans responded with a loud “We are St. John’s.”

But the Redmen couldn’t shoot and Auburn rushed back into command. With less than four minutes to play, the sad finality of ending the season far from home sank in for St. John’s. “Next year, Walter,” a fan yelled to Berry.

As the last seconds of the 81-65 game ticked off, the small group of Auburn fans sang what has become sort of an anthem for poor sportsmanship: “Na na na na, na na na na, hey, hey, good-bye, “ and that was too much for the St. John’s cheerleader, who broke into tears.

She accepted the hug of a fellow cheerleader, picked up a red and white “We are St. John’s” banner and left the court, on the first leg of the journey back to Jamaica, Queens.

After each game, the coaches and significant players filed into an interview room that was bright with TV lights and adjoined a larger room, which, because it held the computers of some 300 writers, resembled an electronics convention.

Of Auburn, Carnesecca told the reporters, “They were simply marvelous.” Of his plight, he said: “It’s not the end of the world. Maybe after a day or two, the bitter taste of defeat won’t be so bitter.”

When Nevada-Las Vegas took the court against Maryland in the second game, the Rebel followers, who made up more than half of the capacity crowd of 11,690, turned up the volume to full blast.

“Rebels, Rebels,” they chanted.

Jerry Tarkanian, the famous Las Vegas coach, was no stranger to the arena--he had coached Cal State Long Beach in the early ‘70s. A bald man, the half circles under his eyes joined the arcs of his eyebrows to form dark rings and give him a raccoon-like look. In comparison to most college teams, whose coaches dress like Secret Service agents, Tarkanian, in shirt sleeves, and his assistants, in sweaters, were casual.

But only in dress. “Pay attention, pay attention,” Tarkanian demanded during a timeout. And when a Rebel made a mistake, Tarkanian would stomp the floor. But in the first half he had little to stomp about.

The climax to an impressive performance came when Anthony Jones, a smooth forward who wore a constantly serious expression, launched a long jumpshot from the left corner. The orange ball hung briefly at the top of its arc, then descended into the net as thousands of voices roared “Yes” simultaneously and detonated the building. The shot gave Las Vegas a 33-27 half-time lead.

At half time, DeAnthony Langston, center for Cal State Long Beach, waited to buy a hot dog and wondered how far away his team is from being where Las Vegas was at the moment--the 49ers had almost upset the Rebels during the regular season.

“I’d love to be out there,” Langston said.

Shock. Maryland scored the first 14 points of the second half. Guard Keith Gatlin made four long shots and Len Bias, the Terrapins’ 6-foot-8, blacksmith-shouldered forward, made a spectacular reverse dunk shot that brought down some thunder from those in the crowd who weren’t from Nevada.

Tarkanian chewed nervously on a towel and told his team to change from a zone to a man-to-man pressure defense. The Rebels scored the next 13 points to lead, 46-41. Jones kept supplying finesse, but the Rebels had a couple of hulks to counteract Bias in Armon Gilliam and John Flowers, both with the perspiring bodies of horses who are used to pulling heavy loads. Between them, they had 19 rebounds.

With 2:20 left and the Las Vegas fans celebrating, the Rebels led, 61-54. But Maryland came back, led by the scowling Bias, who was en route to 31 points. He made two shots from the side and four perfect free throws.

With 40 seconds left, Las Vegas had only a 63-62 lead, and the Rebel fans’ stomachs churned at the dizzying prospect of the game slipping away.

But guard Mark Wade streaked down the court to retrieve a long in-bounds pass and fed the ball to Jones, who was fouled. Jones stepped to the line and pretended he was at practice. “Lift, follow through and extend,” he said to himself, and then sank two free throws, which sank Maryland.

With a 70-64 victory imminent, Jones finally smiled. So did Tarkanian. The Rebels high-fived one another on the way to their dressing room.

In moments, the arena emptied. Cars gunned up the hill to Ocean Boulevard and a dark, deserted downtown. The feverish Las Vegas fans had permitted themselves only a brief celebration. They had to get home and make plans to go to Houston, the tournament’s next stop, where in just four days the Rebels would play again.