NCAA BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : Johnson Is Magic to UNLV : Rebels: Junior college transfer has been everything Tarkanian wanted--if he would only shoot more.

During a 14-0 run by Nevada Las Vegas at the start of a nationally televised game against Louisville last month, forward Larry Johnson of the Runnin’ Rebels waved toward the bench.

He wanted out.

“Oh, no,” Coach Jerry Tarkanian thought. “He must be sick.”

Once on the bench, though, Johnson assured his worried coach that everything was OK. “But it’s seniors night,” he told a surprised Tarkanian. “Let Mo play.”

UNLV’s leading scorer and rebounder had given up his place on the floor for senior Moses Scurry.

Such magnanimous gestures have come to be expected of Johnson, a transfer from Odessa College in Texas who joined a veteran team this season, established himself as UNLV’s first consensus All-American and still managed to ingratiate himself with his new teammates.

“He’s just fun to be around,” Anderson Hunt said. “When you’re around him, you get that feeling like, ‘Damn, I’m around Larry Johnson.’ You don’t run into too many people like him.”

So accommodating is Johnson that his teammates call him Ambassador. His generosity is said to have held down his statistics, which may sound surprising because the 6-foot-7, 250-pound junior is averaging 20.7 points and 11.6 rebounds a game.

Some expected more.

Three years ago, at Skyline High School in Dallas, Johnson was the Parade Magazine high school player of the year. He signed with Southern Methodist, but questions about the validity of his score on the Scholastic Aptitude Test diverted him to Odessa.

In his first season in West Texas, he was the junior college player of the year and was named freshman of the year in all of college basketball by the Sporting News and Basketball Times. He was the only junior college player invited to the Olympic trials.

Last season, Johnson was even better, averaging 28 points and 17 rebounds a game and again earning recognition as the JC player of the year. He led the U.S. team to the gold medal in the World University Games last summer at Duisburg, West Germany.

So, before he had played a game in major college basketball, Johnson was projected by some as the player of the year.

Tarkanian called him the best player he’d ever recruited.

Although UNLV had five returning starters, Johnson was on the cover of the media guide along with Olympian Stacey Augmon. Above them was the declaration: “The Big Year Is Here!”

It would have been difficult for anybody to live up to that kind of advance billing, but Tarkanian said Johnson has been everything he expected.

UNLV has reached the Final Four for the second time in four seasons--the Rebels (33-5) will play Georgia Tech (28-6) in a semifinal game Saturday night at McNichols Arena in Denver--and Johnson was the player of the year in the Big West Conference.

“All those news clippings don’t mean anything, but when I saw him play for the first time, I knew we could win the national championship,” Hunt said of Johnson, who was named this week as a finalist for the Wooden Award as college basketball’s player of the year.

Tarkanian lost only one letterman from the team that fell one victory short of the Final Four last season, but Johnson’s arrival has not upset the Rebels’ chemistry.

“He came into a veteran team and he fit in beautifully because he’s so unselfish,” Tarkanian said. “I think part of the reason for the way our kids feel about each other--the closeness--is because of Larry. He’s always giving credit to somebody else, praising somebody else. And I think that kind of attitude rubs off.”

Said Coach Jerry Pimm of UC Santa Barbara: “His ego is not involved in the game.”

Tarkanian describes all of his players as “great kids,” diminishing his credibility in a season that has been filled with academic problems, suspensions, fights and arrests, but he can’t seem to say enough about Johnson.

“He’s such a nice person that you almost can’t believe it’s true,” Tarkanian said. “I absolutely love him. I don’t know anybody who doesn’t like him. Even opposing players like him.”

That’s not true of many Rebels, but Pimm said of Johnson: “Our players all thought he was a great guy. He’ll talk at you once in a while--he gets his little street talk going--but he is a good person. And, therefore, he’ll do what he has to do to help his team win.”

Such as limit his offensive role to get everybody involved.

“I don’t think a lot of people have seen all his potential,” said Ed Goorjian, former Loyola Marymount coach and an administrative assistant to Tarkanian. “I think he has definitely held back. I don’t know if that’s the right word, but the important thing for Larry is to be a team player and for the team to do well.

“What he’s doing is good for the team because of the personalities (involved). It definitely would not be the kind of team that would be happy with a one-person show.

“He has handled himself just tremendously. He has passed up shots and made the extra pass.”

Occasionally, he has done so to Tarkanian’s consternation.

“I always encourage him to shoot more,” Tarkanian said, using as an example a play where the center flashes across the key to take a pass from the wing.

“Whenever (David) Butler flashes high, he shoots it,” Tarkanian said of the Rebels’ 6-10 center. “When Larry flashes high, he never shoots it. And Larry’s a great shooter! But he never shoots it. I said, ‘Larry, shoot the ball.’ He never misses it in practice.”

Next season, Tarkanian said, he probably will force the issue.

“We will utilize him more,” he said. “And I think he will feel like exerting himself more.”

It’s possible, though, that Johnson will forgo his senior year to join the NBA.

“Everybody’s known about him since high school,” said Jerry Reynolds, vice president of the Sacramento Kings. “He’s not exactly a sleeper.”

Reynolds said Johnson would have been a first-round draft choice last year. He would be a lottery pick this year, Reynolds said, and would “definitely” be among the top five next season.

“There’s nothing he can’t do quite well,” said Reynolds, who compared Johnson to Charles Barkley of the Philadelphia 76ers. “The only negative I can see is that for the position he likes to play--around the basket--he’s not very tall. But his strength makes up for it.”

Last November, Laker General Manager Jerry West called Johnson “absolutely tremendous,” adding: “I don’t know how he can stay in school, he’s so tremendous.”

Asked this week if Johnson had been everything he expected, West said: “Is he everything you expected? He is a great player. He’s tough. He knows how to play. His court demeanor is wonderful.”

Johnson, though, said the NBA will have to wait.

“That’s what I’ve said 20,000 times,” he said again this week. “I’ll be back. I love it here. I’m just having too much fun.”

Johnson and Augmon, who met during the Olympic trials two years ago, are the best of friends, often sneaking out of pregame meals to dine together at McDonald’s.

“But don’t tell Coach,” Johnson told a television reporter.

Tark probably wouldn’t mind.

Just the other day, Johnson asked Tarkanian, 59, if he would be back next fall for an 18th season as UNLV coach, and Tarkanian told him: “If you come back.”

How would Johnson benefit from another season at UNLV?

“The only thing he doesn’t do is put it on the floor and pull up quickly for a jump shot, but he’s got much better range than people think,” said Pimm, who watched Johnson during tryouts for the World University Games last summer and called him dominant.

Said Johnson: “There are a lot of things I need to work on--perimeter defense, shooting, ballhandling. Hopefully, next year I can work on those things and become a better basketball player.”

Tarkanian said Johnson, 21, has told him that he isn’t ready for the NBA lifestyle.

And Johnson has told friends that he would like to stay to help make Augmon a better player.

Apparently, that’s his way--always thinking of somebody else.