Las Vegas Isn’t a Lock, but Few Hold Any Keys : PCAA Tournament Begins Tonight

The Pacific Coast Athletic Assn. is getting a new commissioner and maybe even a new name, but the big question is whether someone can break Nevada Las Vegas’ stranglehold on the conference’s automatic berth into the National Collegiate Athletic Assn. playoffs.

The seventh-ranked Rebels have won the PCAA tournament--and the ticket into the NCAA tournament that goes with it--every year since joining the conference in 1981, and they’re favored to repeat this week. The difference this time is that conference officials haven’t had the trophy engraved with the Rebels’ name yet.

It’s not as if anyone will be surprised if UNLV (26-4 overall and 15-3 in conference) wins the four-day tournament, which begins tonight at the Forum with the 7th through 10th seeds playing for the right to advance to the quarterfinals Thursday--but the Rebels aren’t considered invincible this year.

At this time last season, Las Vegas was 18-0 in the conference and bound for the Final Four. But this season, the Rebels have lost twice to UC Santa Barbara and once to Cal State Long Beach. And everyone seems to agree that this is the time--if ever there was or will be one--to jump over the Rebels while they’re down, providing you consider 26-4 down.

“I think by the time we get to Thursday, any of those eight teams could conceivably win the whole thing,” Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm said. “Just look at the last couple of weeks. Long Beach beats Vegas, then loses to Fullerton. We beat Long Beach, and then New Mexico State beats us. The conference has never been this close.”

Las Vegas Coach Jerry Tarkanian will pick up his 500th major-college career victory if the Rebels win Thursday at 9 p.m., when they play the lowest remaining seed from tonight’s games. Tarkanian has had a lot of teams that were better than this one, but few that have worked any harder.

“I’m so proud of these kids,” he said. “We don’t have the kind of scoring you’d like from your post people and no real play-making guard, but they have managed to overcome it by working their butts off every day in practice.”

The teams the coaches figured would challenge Las Vegas this year had disappointing seasons and must win tonight to advance.

San Jose State, picked in the preseason polls to finish second, wound up seventh with an 8-10 mark. The Spartans, who won their last three regular-season games, will play University of the Pacific (0-18) at 9 tonight.

And Cal State Fullerton, which won five of its last six to finish 7-11 and in eighth place, faces Fresno State (6-12) at 7.

Two teams that exceeded expectations, Long Beach and UC Irvine, will meet in Thursday’s 2 p.m. game. Long Beach (11-7) is the fourth seed, and Irvine (9-9) is No. 5. The 49ers and Anteaters were picked to finish tied for eighth by the coaches.

Utah State (13-5), which tied Santa Barbara for second and won the No. 2 seed because it swept the Gauchos during the season, lost the battle for an evening tipoff Thursday. At 4 p.m., the Aggies will play the highest remaining seed from tonight’s games.

The Gauchos, who are 21-6 overall and a good bet to make the NCAA field of 64 even if they don’t win the tournament, could bring as many as 2,000 fans with them and convinced conference officials that a night game would help the gate. So Santa Barbara will play New Mexico State (8-10) at 7 p.m.

The semifinal games will be played Friday night at 7 and 9, with the championship game scheduled for 2 p.m. Saturday.