COLLEGE BASKETBALL : Arkansas Has a Chance, in Twilight Zone

OK, so UC Irvine isn’t having such a good season. But give Coach Bill Mulligan credit for this: Of the nine losses Nevada Las Vegas has suffered in its last 77 games, Mulligan’s Anteaters were one of the few, the proud to beat the mighty Runnin’ Rebels.

With this in mind, we asked Mulligan, who succeeded Jerry Tarkanian at Riverside City College in the mid-1960s and has coached against him for the better part of 30 years, to list five ways No. 2-ranked Arkansas can defeat No. 1 Las Vegas Sunday at Barnhill Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.

The Mulligan scenarios:

(1) Pray that you can force the Rebels to switch from their usual man-to-man Drapery Defense--where they hang all over you--to a slightly more passive 1-1-3 alignment, called, “the Amoeba” by UNLV coaches.

“We always liked it when they went to the Amoeba,” Mulligan said. “That way, we could hurt them if we shot the ball well from the outside. You work the ball to the inside and then out. You’ve got to remember that their man defense is so stifling.”

(2) Hope that guards Anderson Hunt and Greg Anthony are suffering from some serious bio-rhythm problems.

“The only way to get them is if their guards aren’t hitting,” Mulligan said. “If Hunt and Anthony aren’t shooting the ball well, you’ve got a chance.”

(3) Become close and personal friends with the officials.

The Runnin’ Rebels have one irreplaceable part in forward Larry Johnson and two semi-irreplaceable parts in Anthony and forward Stacey Augmon. If Johnson is hampered by fouls, there is no one available on Tarkanian’s bench with the same type of power and presence. The same holds true, to a lesser extent, if Anthony and Augmon are whistled early.

“If they get in foul trouble and they have to go to a zone, that Amoeba, then you’ve got a better chance to beat them,” Mulligan said.

(4) Hope that Tarkanian is forced to play Travis Bice a lot.

Nothing against Bice, a former walk-on who has worked hard to earn playing time off the bench, but Mulligan said he is mostly a one-dimensional player. “I don’t think he even would play for us,” the Irvine coach said. Ouch.

What Mulligan really means is that if Bice is in, then one of the guards--Hunt or Anthony, both of whom play much better defense--is out.

(5) Barnhill Arena.

The place seats about 9,000 fans, with every one of them, it seems, wearing one of those big plastic Razorback hats and screaming “Sooooeeeee” all game long. It could be enough to rattle even the Las Vegas players.

Now then, six reasons why Arkansas doesn’t have a chance:

(1) The new and improved Augmon.

“The first year or two, we didn’t even guard him outside,” Mulligan said. “Now you have to.”

In a season’s time, Augmon has raised his scoring average, his field-goal percentage and his three-point accuracy. While no sharpshooter, Augmon’s perimeter game now qualifies him as a legitimate scoring threat.

(2) Larry Johnson.

“I think Johnson could get 50 points about every night,” Mulligan said. “He doesn’t because he tries to keep the other guys involved. He’s almost impossible to defend, and he’s going to hit that outside shot, too.”

3) Depth at the center position.

The Hogs’ Oliver Miller won’t know what hit him. UNLV starts George Ackles, whom Mulligan said is a more complete player than last year’s center, the talented David Butler. After Ackles, Tarkanian sends in Elmore Spencer, a 7-footer who originally played at Georgia, left because of medical problems and spent last season at Connors State Junior College in Warner, Okla. He is the best center Tarkanian has recruited.

(4) The officials.

Tarkanian, no dummy, had it written into the contract that three neutral officials would work Sunday’s game. So, a trio of jeer-toughened Big East referees will be at Barnhill.

“The refs aren’t going to beat him,” Mulligan said. “Now, being the visitor doesn’t hurt you as much.”

(5) Tarkanian.

“They’re so good, but they’re also well coached,” Mulligan said. “People miss that point of it.”

(6) The Vegas aura.

“It’s a different UNLV team than I’ve seen before,” Mulligan said. “It’s on another level. I’ve seen Arkansas have some close games with some teams this year. That, to me, proves they’re not that great of a team. (UNLV) destroys teams. I think they’ll do the same to Arkansas.”

This being UNLV vs. Arkansas week, we consulted an even higher authority on the game--former UCLA coach John Wooden.

“I’d say Arkansas probably has good athletes,” he said. “I said some time ago that I think this will be (UNLV’s) test. I would say if Vegas played Arkansas at Vegas, they’d probably go through the rest of the season undefeated. Since they play Arkansas (at Fayetteville), that gives Arkansas a chance. I believe they’re the only team that has a chance (of beating UNLV), but I won’t say how good a chance.

“You’re going to have to have a good game against them,” he said. “Johnson getting in foul trouble, now that would hurt them. They could afford to lose Augmon more than Johnson.”

Not surprisingly, the Runnin’ Rebels have been compared favorably with several of Wooden’s teams, specifically those led by Bill Walton or Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, then known as Lew Alcindor. To this, Wooden respectfully disagrees.

“I’ve been asked this a lot of times,” he said. “We’re talking about undefeated teams, right? As good as (Larry) Johnson is, I think with Alcindor, (Mike) Warren, (Lucius) Allen . . . I don’t think (UNLV) would give us any more trouble than some of the other teams.

“(UNLV) is an extremely well-balanced team. They play pressure defense. It’s not a press, it’s pressure. But if I had Warren and Allen as my guards, I don’t think (UNLV would) cause them a great deal of trouble.”

Wooden also said that the Walton-led teams of the early 1970s probably would have beaten UNLV, too.

“You’d have to compare (UNLV) more with the (Sidney) Wicks, (Steve) Patterson, (Henry) Bibby, (Curtis) Rowe outfit,” he said.

The Big East Conference remains the strongest in terms of overall talent, balance and coaching, but not far behind is, ta-da, the Pacific 10 Conference.

Already, the Pac-10 is 79-23 vs. nonconference opponents, which easily overshadows last year’s best record of 62-31. Also, the Pac-10 is 3-0 this season against the Big East.

As for the conference race, Pac-10 historians said they can’t recall when things were so close this late in the season. Only two games separate the second- and 10th-place teams. So balanced is the conference, every team is .500 or better during their last 10 games.

“I now know the word parity ,” Washington State Coach Kelvin Sampson said. “Ten years ago, you never heard a word like that. Now everybody is talking about it. It’s like cholesterol. But it’s true, parity is here. In this conference, everybody is capable of finishing from third to 10th. I think when the dust settles and everything is clear, you’re going to see Arizona and UCLA. That’s reality. But whoever is in 10th could finish third, and whoever is third could finish 10th.”

Sampson, whose Cougars (13-6 overall, 5-4 in the conference) have enjoyed a remarkable turnaround after last season’s dismal 7-22, 1-17 records, said the Pac-10 has been helped by:

--Arizona’s Final Four appearance, UCLA’s reputation, Stanford’s and Cal’s NCAA tournament showings, Gary Payton’s acclaim at Oregon State and, surprisingly enough, UNLV.

“It’s like radiation treatment,” he said. “UNLV is the attention-getter, and we’re getting the radiation from that.”

Sampson also had some theories on the conference’s lack of national exposure, especially when compared to the Big East.

“You have to go back to television,” he said. “ESPN has its studios back in Connecticut (Big East country). No one’s ever said that, but I think that has something to do with it.”

Quiz: In those nine UNLV losses in the past 77 games, only one coach has beaten Vegas twice. Guess who?

Isn’t it about time Vanderbilt joins the 20th Century and moves the benches from the baseline to courtside? LSU’s Dale Brown earned a costly technical foul in the waning minutes of last Saturday’s game against the Commodores for walking around to the midcourt line and yelling instructions to his point guard, T.J. Pugh. After the loss, Brown vowed to seat Vandy players and coaches on the baseline when they visit Baton Rouge, La., next season. NCAA rules won’t allow it, but that doesn’t mean Brown won’t try.

Quiz answer: Dale Brown.

Our top 10: (1) UNLV, (2) Arkansas, (3) Indiana, (4) Arizona, (5) Syracuse, (6) Ohio State, (7) North Carolina, (8) St. John’s, (9) Kentucky, (10) Duke.

Our waiting list: Southern Mississippi, Oklahoma State, UCLA, East Tennessee State, Utah and Virginia.