THE NBA / MARK HEISLER : Rating the College Programs

Some college basketball programs produce level-headed young men who know how to play the game.

Then there are the rest of them.

In honor of the NCAA tournament, here’s a pro perspective on some of the prominent programs, starting with one near and dear:

UCLA--Once the standard, now the land of the free-spirited and the home of the raving. The Bruins still put out some big-time players such as Reggie Miller and Pooh Richardson but headstrong young men such as Trevor Wilson and Don MacLean only cheat their own development.

In the Wizard of Westwood days, you couldn’t ask for anything more: the cream of the crop, consummately drilled. Several of the Lew Alcindor and Bill Walton teams probably would have beaten NBA teams and they’d have thumped Nevada Las Vegas like a drum.

North Carolina--Today’s standard. Dean Smith attracts so many top athletes, he no longer allows mention of high school honors in the basketball yearbook, so that people won’t be reminded how great his team is supposed to be. As a teacher and authority figure, he’s as good as it gets.

No school can match the ‘80s Tar Heel alumni: Michael Jordan, James Worthy, Brad Daugherty, Sam Perkins, Kenny Smith. Before that, Walter Davis, Phil Ford, Bob McAdoo and Mitch Kupchak weren’t too bad. The rule of thumb holds: A Tar Heel will be better in the pros than he looked at ego-sublimating Carolina. Only one bust: J.R. Reid, whom Smith couldn’t reach.

Indiana--The other great fundamentalist, Bobby Knight, builds men but few NBA stars since his first criterion for recruits is not ability but obedience.

IU has one great pro--Isiah Thomas who shocked Knight by leaving as a sophomore--and several prominent busts--Kent Benson, Scott May, Randy Wittman, Keith Smart, Steve Alford. Alford, the Dallas bench-warmer, is the lone NBA player off Knight’s ’87 NCAA champions.

Duke--Surprisingly little pro impact yet. Johnny Dawkins is the only pro starter among ‘80s alumni. Mike Krzyzewski, Knight’s nice alter ego, is another fine teacher but only in the mid-’80s did he start landing recruits the caliber of Danny Ferry, Alaa Abdelnaby, Christian Laettner and Cherokee Parks.

Nevada Las Vegas--Also surprisingly little impact, since Jerry Tarkanian coaches an NBA-style running attack. Best pros: Reggie Theus and Armon Gilliam, with Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon forthcoming. Despite the continuing NCAA hullabaloo, Tark gets relatively few blue-chip recruits and relies on junior colleges for non-predictors and passed-over prospects.

Along with the misconception that he doesn’t coach defense is the one that the Rebels are wild youths.

“Pretty much any kid I’ve had from there has been a good kid,” says one general manager.

Georgetown--Would you believe the Hoyas have only one NBA starter--Patrick Ewing? John Thompson, criticized for Hoya paranoia and forgoing recruiting in recent years, now seems to be looking for a career alternative.

Michigan-Arizona State--Bill Frieder resurrected both programs but doesn’t seem able to command respect from the kids he woos, sitting in the bleachers at their games from the time they’re high school sophomores. Glen Rice and Loy Vaught are fine, but many are wild, undeveloped or both: Roy Tarpley, Terry Mills, Rumeal Robinson, Gary Grant.

Syracuse--Jim Boeheim can recruit--Derrick Coleman, Rony Seikaly, Sherman Douglas, Billy Owens--but after that they’re on their own. Owens, a lottery pick if he declares, isn’t much better than when he left high school.

Says a GM: “Since they’ve been taught nothing at Syracuse, those kids can come a long way when someone does show them something.”

Louisiana State--Dale Brown is a fair country bench coach but up to now, there are two things you can say about any stud recruit in his, uh, lavishly funded program: (1) He wasn’t going to learn much and (2) he wasn’t going to stay long. John Williams and Chris Jackson left as sophomores. Now to see what Shaquille O’Neal does.

Georgia Tech--The personable Bobby Cremins is another fine recruiter, but what you arrive with is what you leave with. He’s got taste, though--Mark Price, Dennis Scott, John Salley and lottery-pick-to-be Kenny Anderson.

Nostradamus rides again: Mychal Thompson after the Lakers had moved into first place.

“Now, no looking back.”

Not for 24 hours, anyway.

Add Lakers: The team of Jerry Buss and Jerry West had never had a festering contract problem with a key player, but they have one now with James Worthy.

Now isn’t really such a good time.

Magic Johnson is showing the wear and tear of a long season.

The bench remains a problem. When Johnson was out Friday, Tony Smith turned the ball over three times and lasted only 13 minutes and Larry Drew was summoned back from the grave to play 35. Terry Teagle’s 43% shooting is a career low.

Vlade Divac, who has been wandering in and out all season, has wandered back out.

Aside from that, no problemas.

Carnage in the West, cont.: Scouts say Clyde Drexler and Jerome Kersey never worried enough about shot selection, secure in the knowledge that a teammate could rebound the miss. However, the Portland Trail Blazers, until recently the leading NBA rebounders, had been outrebounded in eight of 12 games through Thursday.

Their three-point shooting, an NBA-best 39%, dipped to 28% in that span.

Shooting depends on confidence and momentum, but rebounding is effort.

Said Coach Rich Adelman after the Clippers outrebounded them in that stunner at Portland: “That should never happen to this team. This team is too good to be manhandled like that on the boards. I’m at a loss for words.”

NBA Notes

Charles Barkley, recently nominated by Sports Illustrated as an MVP candidate ahead of Magic Johnson, David Robinson, Karl Malone, Terry Porter, Clyde Drexler, Kevin Johnson, Larry Bird and Patrick Ewing, was fined $5,000 for yelling in the locker room about Coach Jim Lynam pulling him after he got a technical foul. . . . Said former 76er Derek Smith of his former teammates: “They don’t have any harmony. You can see that. It shows. You can tell by the head shakes and the facial gestures on the floor. There’s no better coach in the league for preparing a team than Jimmy Lynam, but you can’t win if the players don’t believe in him.”

Barkley is said to be unhappy about the trade for Armon Gilliam. The 76ers were 19-11 with Mike Gminski, whom Charles wasn’t crazy about either, 18-18 with Gilliam. . . . Barkley, never out of the top six rebounders since becoming a starter, has dropped to No. 10. Aside from that, I’d vote for Barkley for MVP, too, if about 20 players retired.

More from that Indiana-Clipper game when Pacer players, informed Donald T. Sterling had shown disrespect for them, yelled insults at him: Sterling had been sitting next to actress Cybill Shepherd, who left early. Yelled Greg Dreiling: “Where’d Cybill go, to catch the end of the Laker game?” . . . Injury of the year, beating the sore wrist Lionel Simmons got from playing Nintendo: The Knicks’ Gerald Wilkins suffered a strained right thigh muscle on the flight home from Charlotte--stamping his foot in glee at a teammate’s joke. Honest. . . . Let your conscience be your guide if you have one: Said Orlando rookie Dennis Scott, after taking 33 shots--37% of his team’s total--and making eight: “They all felt good.”

S-u-r-e: Sacramento Coach Dick Motta denied an NBC report that he called Kenny Smith “the most gutless player I ever coached,” but noted, “We traded Kenny to Atlanta, not Houston and we’re pretty happy with what we got (Antoine Carr).” . . . When Motta was at Dallas, he was alleged to have said that Alvin Robertson didn’t deserve selection to the All-Star team. Robertson had a big game against the Mavericks, whereupon Motta said he had been misquoted. In fact, he had written it--in his column in the Dallas Morning News.

A Boston TV station reported that Celtic players are muttering about Bird’s shot selection. Other observers have previously noted the same complaints. Coach Chris Ford is threatening to rein in the media. . . . Isiah Thomas had the pins removed from his right wrist and may shorten the prescribed six-eight weeks of rehabilitation. If he comes back in three, he can make the Pistons-Bulls game at the Palace April 11. Said his surgeon, Kirk Watson: “You tell me a way to stop him.”

Golden State’s Coach Don Nelson on Houston, now a winner of 23 of the last 27: “They’re the most feared team in the league right now. That’s what happens if a team gets on a roll. Nobody wants to play them.” . . . Former star and current legend Wilt Chamberlain, in Philadelphia to have his 76ers’ No. 13 jersey retired, on free-throw shooting: “I went to see a psychiatrist once. After six months, the psychiatrist could make 10 out of 10, but I was still screwed up.”