COLLEGE BASKETBALL / NCAA TOURNAMENT : Tarkanian Mad After 83-66 Win : West Regional: UNLV coach unhappy with everyone but Johnson, who is too much for Utah.

UNLV’s Larry Johnson, consensus All-American . . . All-Swagger . . . All-Business, introduced himself to Utah Thursday night. It was a meeting the Utes could have done without.

Johnson’s calling card? How does 23 points, 13 rebounds, four steals and countless glares look on paper?

Of course, an 83-66 beating of Utah looked better to the No. 1-ranked and undefeated Rebels.

Nevada Las Vegas, winner of 44 consecutive games, faces Seton Hall in Saturday’s West Regional final. Until then, the Rebels can savor Johnson’s performance and remember the postgame tongue-lashing Coach Jerry Tarkanian delivered.

Seventeen-point victory or not, Tarkanian was peeved at his team for playing lousy man-to-man defense. So intense was his criticism that many of the Rebel players sat in front of their lockers, towels draped over their heads, declining to say a peep about the game.

Finally, center Elmore Spencer broke the silence.

“Did he yell at you guys?” a reporter asked.

Spencer grimaced. “Of course,” he said.

Tarkanian expected UNLV to pressure Utah into mistakes galore. Instead, he said, the Utes were able to run their offense with moderate ease. Just like Montana had against the Rebels in last week’s sub-regional at Tucson.

Faced with no alternative, Tarkanian switched from his beloved man-to-man defense, a UNLV trademark, to the more distasteful Amoeba Zone. The zone caught Utah by surprise, but still Tarkanian wasn’t pleased.

“I just talked to them,” he said, which is Tark-speak for yell. “We got to get our intensity back. It’s not there.”

Tarkanian was merely warming up.

“Seton Hall is playing absolutely great right now,” he said. “Right now, they’re playing better than we are. We got to get our game back together.”

About the only person Tarkanian wasn’t upset with was Johnson.

“I thought Larry played great,” he said. “How many points did he get in the first half? Eight. Well, he didn’t get the ball much.”

The rest of the Rebels got nothing but an earful.

“Excuse my French,” said UNLV guard Greg Anthony, “but we’ve just been playing like . . . It’s been that way for about a month. Right now we’re a very average basketball team.”

Utah trailed by only six points at halftime. There were plenty of reasons for the small (by UNLV standards) lead.

For instance, Utah Coach Rick Majerus was able to dig deep into his bench. In all, the Utes used nine players. The four reserves accounted for 12 of Utah’s 35 first-half points.

Nor did Utah get flustered by UNLV’s defensive pressure in the first 20 minutes. The Utes committed only seven turnovers and caused six Rebel mistakes.

Most important was Utah’s ability to stave off the inevitable: matchup problems. As expected, guards Tyrone Tate and Byron Wilson held their own against UNLV’s Anthony and Anderson Hunt. Josh Grant managed to score eight first-half points against the best defender in the country, Stacey Augmon. And centers George Ackles and Spencer didn’t inflict terminal damage.

But what to do about Johnson? It would be a question Utah never would be able to answer.