COLLEGE BASKETBALL NOTES : Exposure Almost Adds to UNLV’s Trouble

The last thing UNLV needs is help in getting in trouble with the NCAA. Yet that is what almost happened with the school and Sports Illustrated.

The Runnin’ Rebels’ program, which was granted an appeal to defend its NCAA championship this season in return for being kept out of next year’s tournament for violations dating to 1977, and which received a letter of inquiry this week about more recent violations, almost incurred a violation for the way the magazine posed and dressed two of its players.

In the periodical’s Nov. 19 College Basketball issue, UNLV forwards Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon were dressed in stylish outfits from shoes to overcoats. The magazine included a tag line giving credit for the items to each manufacturer, a definite violation of NCAA rules as far as amateur athletes promoting products.

An NCAA spokesman said it was a “non-issue.”

“Legislative Services was in contact with the school right away,” Jim Marchiony said. “The kids and UNLV were able to verify that they did not know Sports Illustrated was going to put the credits in. If they had known it would have been some kind of violation.”

The first NCAA individual statistics for the season are out and the Southwestern Athletic Conference takes a back seat to no other league as far as scoring goes.

Three of the top six scorers in Division I through Dec. 17 play for SWAC schools, including Nos. 1 and 2.

Bobby Phills, a 6-foot-4 senior guard from Southern University, tops the scoring list at 37.0 points per game, 17 points higher than his average last season.

Alphonso Ford, a 6-4 sophomore from Mississippi Valley State, is second at 34.8, just better than his 29.9 as a freshman which was good enough to lead the conference.

Steve Rogers, a 6-5 junior from Alabama State, is tied for sixth at 29.9, slightly better than his 29.7 last season when he was fifth in the nation in scoring and eighth in steals at 3.1 per game.

Three NCAA records have been tied already this season and one gets an asterisk in the shape of a video camera.

UNLV matched the record for 3-pointers in a game with 21 against Nevada in a 50-point win. There was no doubt that tied the standard set last season by Kentucky against North Carolina and matched by Loyola Marymount against Michigan in the NCAA tournament.

Samford went 34-for-34 from the free throw line on Thursday night in an 89-80 victory over Central Florida. The win snapped a nine-game losing streak for the Bulldogs and the free throw shooting matched the best ever for a minimum of 30 in game as Cal-Irvine went 34-for-34 against Pacific on Feb. 21, 1981.

Brigham Young’s 7-6 freshman center Shawn Bradley blocked 14 shots in a 90-86 victory over Eastern Kentucky in the opening round of the Cougar Classic to tie David Robinson’s mark for swats set against N.C.-Wilmington on Jan. 4, 1986.

When the game ended, however, Bradley had been credited with just 12 blocks. A further review of game films verified the two more which got him a piece of the record.

Nicholls State point guard Ray Washington was activated with his Louisiana National Guard unit as part of Operation Desert Shield. He averaged 4.9 points, 5.1 rebounds and a team-leading 4.5 assists and 2.4 steals when he was called to active duty last week.

Several of his teammates wore gray sweatbands with Washington’s No. 10 on them in his honor. Washington was the second Nicholls State athlete to be called to active duty as tailback Bennett Williams received his orders last month.

Georgetown didn’t lose a player to the Mideast military action, but the Hoyas did lose their voice.

Rich Chvotkin, who just started his 17th season calling Georgetown games on the radio, was called to active duty and is set to leave for the Persian Gulf in the immediate future. Chvotkin, who is a lieutenant colonel with the Army Medical Services’ Combat Psychiatry Unit, called the first four games of the season before receiving his orders. Chvotkin’s full-time job is as a psychologist with the Washington Instsitute.

Fairfield has had one of the country’s most amazing offensive turnarounds. The Stags averaged 57.7 points per game last season and 60.2 over the last two years. This season, Mitch Buonaguro’s team is averaging 86.4 points over the first seven games, a difference of more than 28 points per game.

An update on two coaches who had health problems this season:

Southwest Texas State’s Harry Larrabee, who suffered a mild stress-related stroke just before a game in Missoula, Mont., last month, was discharged from the hospital and has begun his recovery at home. With some weakness in his left side, doctors have imposed a late-December earliest return to any on-court duties, quite a difference from the early prognosis of a full season off.

Wichita State’s Mike Cohen, who tore his patella tendon below his left knee when he was accidentally bumped by one of his players as he was leaving the floor at halftime of the Shockers’ upset of Alabama, will remain in a brace and on crutches for a minimum of 8-10 weeks. He faces a minimum of two months’ therapy after that for the injury which usually ends athletes’ careers.