NOTES : Report Says NCAA’s Berst in Party Mood After UNLV Beaten

According to an ESPN report, David Berst, the NCAA’s assistant executive director for enforcement, allegedly responded to Nevada Las Vegas’s semifinal loss to Duke by saying, “The drinks are on me.”

The supposed comment is noteworthy because of UNLV’s continuing feud with Berst and his enforcement staff. The Rebels will be ineligible for postseason competition in 1992 because of NCAA sanctions.

“It just verifies everything we’ve been saying all along,” said UNLV Coach Jerry Tarkanian, who attended the championship game Monday. “It doesn’t surprise me because he’s said things like that to other people. He’s said things even worse than that, and every time he’s confronted, he denies ever saying anything. He leads the nation in denying statements.”

Berst couldn’t be reached for comment. According to Tarkanian, Berst told people he never made the remark.

Vice President Dan Quayle was one of the 47,100 fans who had tickets to the title game. He sat next to Dick Schultz, executive director of the NCAA.

Reportedly not in attendance was Atlantic Coast Conference Commissioner Gene Corrigan. Corrigan, the superstitious sort, thinks he jinxes ACC teams in championship play. He was at Sunday’s NCAA women’s championship and sure enough, Virginia was defeated by Tennessee.

According to an NCAA tournament official, Corrigan watched Monday night’s game at his hotel. Afterward, he made his way to the Hoosier Dome and the Duke locker room.

The all-tournament team included Duke’s Bobby Hurley, Bill McCaffrey, Christian Laettner, Kansas’ Mark Randall and UNLV’s Anderson Hunt. Hunt, the outstanding player from last season’s Final Four, was the only player to make the team twice.

Laettner was voted the most valuable player.

Duke Coach Mike Krzyzewski is the winningest active coach in NCAA tournament winning percentage. His 27-7 record (79.4%) ties him with Georgetown’s John Thompson in tournament victories. North Carolina’s Dean Smith and John Wooden, the former UCLA coach, have 47 wins apiece.

Krzyzewski insisted that win No. 27 did not come easily.

“This team is deeper than and younger than the other teams I have had in the national championship,” he said. “As soon as the game with Vegas was over, we got on to the next thing. We did have that look. Kansas was really ready to play. I told my kids that I hope they have enough for 40 minutes.”

Doing daily observations for an Indianapolis paper, Bob Knight offered an opinion on why Nevada Las Vegas was knocked off.

“Duke deserves a lot of credit for beating Las Vegas--which, by the way, wasn’t prepared for a game like this because of its schedule,” the Indiana coach wrote. “They haven’t played anybody like Duke this year, a team which won’t take any of their stuff.”

What stuff, he didn’t specify.

Santa Ana’s Alonzo Jamison did not have a night to remember for Kansas. The junior from Valley High missed nine of his 10 shots, pulled down only four rebounds in 29 minutes and committed four fouls.

Pasadena’s Kirk Wagner of Kansas got into the game for only three minutes but had as many baskets as Jamison, hitting the only shot he took.

Dick Vitale undoubtedly will be hearing more about his reaction on ESPN to a series of Vitale “impersonators” that included a black teen-ager. “Al Jolson, baby! Al Jolson!” Vitale yelled.

Seven teams this season defeated the national champions--Arizona, Arkansas, Georgetown, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Virginia and Wake Forest, all of which made the NCAA tournament’s 64-team field.

Tarkanian stayed for the title game, although his team flew home. He and senior Larry Johnson will be in Los Angeles for Wednesday’s presentation of the John Wooden player-of-the-year award.

Having appeared in the film about Indiana’s high school tournament, “Hoosiers,” actor Dennis Hopper was back in Indianapolis as a spectator for the college tournament. Hopper was pulling for Kansas, being from Dodge City.

The losing coach, Roy Williams, said afterward he felt like a winner.

“With all the bad things about sports you read about, I’m glad to have been a part of such a good thing,” Williams said. “The way I figure it, the only person in America who is luckier than Roy Williams tonight is Mike Krzyzewski.”

The final return to Indianapolis in 1997. Next year’s host is Minneapolis, followed by New Orleans in 1993, Charlotte, N.C., in 1994, Seattle in 1995 and the Meadowlands in East Rutherford, N.J., in 1996.

Duke became the third member of the Atlantic Coast Conference to win a national championship, joining three-time champion North Carolina and two-time champion North Carolina State.

Duke won the title after making the Final Four four consecutive times and five times in six years.