NCAA MEN’S BASKETBALL TOURNAMENT : It’s Time to Cast the Images Aside : Championship game: Whether heroes or villains, Duke and UNLV will settle the question of who is best.

Duke and Nevada Las Vegas, two teams with similar defensive styles and radically different images, will decide the 52nd men’s collegiate basketball championship tonight. But there is much more at stake.

Neither has ever won an NCAA title. Duke, with its squeaky clean reputation, is appearing in the Final Four for the eighth time, and longtime NCAA renegade UNLV is here for the third time.

Some see it as matchup of Good Guys vs. the Bad Guys, the law students vs. the law breakers, the Establishment vs. the rebels.

Hearing such contrasts makes Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski slightly uncomfortable.

“I don’t look at Las Vegas as the bad guys and us as the good guys,” Krzyzewski said.

“People are talking like we’re Cinderella or Snow White. Geez, I’ve ridiculed the press this year. I’ve charged officials. We’ve yelled at one another. We’ve been pretty bad, too, I guess.”

Coach Jerry Tarkanian said this is his best team in his 17 years operating in the neon glare of Las Vegas, many of them spent under the spotlight of NCAA investigators.

Even as Tarkanian’s Runnin’ Rebels play for the NCAA title, NCAA investigators continue their two-year inquiry into the recruitment of former New York high school star Lloyd Daniels--an inquiry that could result in probation for UNLV.

Tarkanian isn’t sure what a victory over Duke might mean to himself and his program.

“I don’t know if we’ll ever be vindicated,” he said.

But Tarkanian is certain of at least one thing.

“Our image is a crock,” he said.

For UNLV (34-5), it has been a long season alternating between flashy victories and highly publicized brushes with trouble.

Eight players were suspended for one game for failing to pay their hotel room incidentals during the 1988-89 season. Two players were arrested and charged with disorderly conduct when they didn’t leave an off-campus party.

Chris Jeter and Moses Scurry were suspended for a game for their roles in incidents surrounding UNLV’s game with Utah State in which Scurry punched Utah State Coach Kohn Smith.

Scurry later termed it a case of mistaken identity. Scurry said he didn’t know Smith was a coach because he wore a sweater.

“Our coaches wear ties,” Scurry said at the time.

David Butler, who was academically ineligible for the first six games of the season, said he pays no attention to talk of his team’s poor image. “It really doesn’t annoy me at all,” he said. “I’m just one of those guys who focuses on the game and doesn’t listen to that stuff.”

At a news conference Sunday afternoon, Greg Anthony feigned confusion when asked about a confrontation between good guys and bad guys.

“Are you labeling Duke the bad guys?” Anthony asked. “We’ve just got two good teams vying for the national championship. That type of talk, to us it’s bad because we know we are the good guys.”

The Rebels have been especially good playing the game. The multiple talents of 250-pound forward Larry Johnson and 6-foot-8 forward Stacey Augmon have helped UNLV to 20 victories in the Rebels’ last 21 games.

“Augmon and Johnson are two of the class basketball players in the United States,” Krzyzewski said.

Said Alaa Abdelnaby of Duke: “Butler and Johnson and Scurry, those guys like to bang.”

Duke’s assignment is to match up with UNLV’s strength in a man-to-man defense. Krzyzewski plans to use 6-5 Robert Brickey on Augmon, 6-11 Christian Laettner on Johnson and 6-10 Abdelnaby on Butler.

Conversely, Tarkanian has to find somebody to stop Duke’s Phil Henderson, who scored 28 points in the Blue Devils’ victory over Arkansas. Krzyzewski expects to see Augmon defending Henderson, and Tarkanian said he will employ either Augmon or Anthony on Henderson.

Krzyzewski said even though his Duke teams have not won a national title, his record needs no defense. “It really doesn’t bother me,” he said. “I think it’s fortunate that we have the opportunity to try to do it. And if we do win it and then don’t win it again for a period of time, the question will be, ‘When will you win it again?’ That’s just the nature of sports.”

The way UNLV has played it, so long an NCAA outsider, the sport seems to have taken its toll on Tarkanian. There are whispers he may step down before next season.

Butler, who said he believes the NCAA would be as happy for UNLV if the Rebels won as it would be for any other team, said Tarkanian deserves a victory.

“With all the problems that coach has had, if we were going to come out and win the whole thing, I think he would celebrate forever and ever.”