Joy Might End Soon for UNLV : College basketball: National champion and its coach, Tarkanian, remain targets of NCAA investigators.

When the euphoria of winning the national championship finally wears off at Nevada Las Vegas, school officials might have to deal with a sobering question: Will the Rebels be eligible to defend their title?

UNLV officials might make two appearances before the NCAA Committee on Infractions before the 1991 NCAA tournament. Those appearances, to resolve cases a decade apart in origin, could determine not only the future of the school’s basketball program, but that of Coach Jerry Tarkanian as well.

Tarkanian, who won his first national title after 22 years of coaching at the Division I level, has been dogged by NCAA investigators--several of whom were in attendance at Denver’s McNichols Arena Monday night to see the Rebels’ 103-73 victory over Duke--throughout his career. But when the cheering stops, a double-edged sword will continue to hang over his program.

The most immediate concern for UNLV is the resolution of the 1977 infractions case that prompted Tarkanian to take the NCAA to court.

The NCAA banned the Rebels from postseason play for two years and ordered the school to suspend Tarkanian for the same amount of time or show cause why additional penalties should not be imposed on the school.

Tarkanian, saying his constitutional right of due process had been violated by the NCAA, obtained injunctions in District Court in Las Vegas preventing any action against him. The case eventually was heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled, 5-4, in favor of the NCAA in December of 1988.

An agreement signed by both sides last week allows Tarkanian’s injunction against UNLV to stand but lifts his injunction against the NCAA.

Although the agreement ends the Tarkanian-NCAA court battle, it does not prevent the NCAA from imposing additional penalties on the school instead of pushing for Tarkanian’s suspension.

Indeed, D. Alan Williams, the University of Virginia history professor who chairs the Committee on Infractions, said last week that, with Tarkanian’s injunction against the NCAA no longer in force, the committee will probably review the matter and consider imposing additional penalties on the school.

A wrap-up to the NCAA’s current investigation of the UNLV program, stemming from the Rebels’ recruitment of former New York City high school star Lloyd Daniels in 1986, also is somewhere down the road.

The NCAA informed UNLV officials that the school’s basketball program was the subject of a preliminary inquiry, the initial stage of an NCAA investigation, in October of 1987, shortly after a committee appointed by UNLV President Robert Maxson announced that it could neither prove nor disprove allegations concerning UNLV’s recruitment of Daniels reported by Newsday.

In a series of stories, the Long Island newspaper showed how Daniels received a variety of benefits--including cash, a car and a motorcycle--through the arrangements of UNLV coaches, boosters and other representatives of the school.

According to sources familiar with the inquiry, the NCAA has turned up several major allegations unrelated to Daniels--among them gifts of cash, cars and plane tickets to players from UNLV boosters and coaches--but has run into roadblocks in trying to corroborate many of them.

Tarkanian and UNLV Athletic Director Brad Rothermel have acknowledged the inquiry has gone far beyond UNLV’s recruitment of Daniels, who was banned from playing for the Rebels after his arrest on a drug charge in February of 1987. But they say the NCAA is finding only minor infractions. Nevertheless, UNLV recently began using Mike Garnes, a former NCAA enforcement representative, as a consultant to help the school deal with the NCAA investigation.

During the tournament, Tarkanian, 59, shrugged off talk that another bout with the NCAA might cause him to throw in his chewing towel.

But his son, Danny, a former UNLV point guard who is now a Las Vegas lawyer, has said: “If the NCAA put us on probation and Dad ran out of legal options, in my opinion he’d end up resigning.”

Tarkanian may also be influenced to leave by Maxson, who since coming to UNLV from the University of Houston five years ago has helped UNLV build a more positive academic reputation and become a major player in the state’s political scene himself.

Publicly, Maxson has been supportive of Tarkanian, but the two have already clashed several times.

Maxson called a news conference in October of 1987 to announce that he was calling in the Pacific Coast Athletic Assn., now known as the Big West, and the NCAA to investigate the Daniels matter.

Tarkanian turned down Maxson’s invitation to attend the news conference and later said he was “shocked and disappointed” by the president’s actions.

There has been talk that Tarkanian, who twice in the ‘70s turned down offers to coach the Lakers, finally might move to the NBA, particularly if a job came open on the West Coast. But those who have followed his career closely say the intensity with which he approaches practices would be a hard sell over the long NBA season.

Also, Tarkanian has a base salary of $174,000--about $50,000 more than Maxson gets--a 10% cut of the school’s NCAA tournament revenue, about $100,000 this year, and the free use of a luxury car. He also has a shoe contract with Nike that pays him $120,000.

On the other hand, he could walk away from coaching today and live comfortably off his business interests in Las Vegas, which include a restaurant and bar near UNLV, an airport sporting goods store and a stable of boxers.

The events of the last few days haven’t made the name Tarkanian any less golden in Las Vegas. But the events of the coming year might provide some tarnish.