NCAA Punishes UNLV : College basketball: Sanctions in Daniels case will limit television appearances, but won’t keep Rebels out of postseason play.

The NCAA resolved the oldest of its current infractions cases Tuesday when it placed the Nevada Las Vegas basketball program on three years probation for major rules violations, many stemming from the recruitment of former New York high school star Lloyd Daniels seven years ago.

Sanctions imposed by the NCAA Committee on Infractions will limit television appearances by UNLV over two seasons, but won’t keep the Rebels out of postseason play.

All but one aspect of the case focused on activities that occurred during the final years of Jerry Tarkanian’s 18-year tenure as coach.

Forced to resign after the 1991-92 season, Tarkanian has claimed that UNLV President Robert Maxson and other university officials conspired to discredit the Rebel program. Maxson has denied the charge.

The Committee on Infractions did not mention the Tarkanian-Maxson situation specifically in its report on the UNLV case. However, the document clearly showed that the committee was in Maxson’s corner.

Calling UNLV “a symbol of the struggle for institutional control of a university’s athletic program,” the report lauded Maxson for taking it out of the hands of “alumni and those outside the university.”

The report noted that the penalties in the case would have been much more severe had he not taken such action.

The committee also said that the nature of the case--prolonged by wrangling over a Nevada law that requires NCAA enforcement policy to conform to standards of legal due process--obligated the panel to consider sanctions that would be less likely to affect current Rebel players.

“Many of the student-athletes presently at UNLV were in high school or junior high school when some of these violations occurred,” said David Swank, University of Oklahoma law professor and chairman of the committee. “So we thought it improper in this case to impose a postseason sanction.”

Maxson called the case’s resolution “the end to a sad chapter” in the school’s history.

The most significant sanctions imposed by the committee prohibit UNLV from appearing in televised nonconference road games during the 1993-94 and 1994-95 seasons and from scheduling nonconference home games during the 1994-95 season.

Among the games affected is the Rebels’ matchup with UCLA at Pauley Pavilion on Dec. 4, due to be televised by ESPN. The teams are scheduled to play again during the 1994-95 season in Las Vegas.

The NCAA initiated its investigation of Tarkanian’s program in 1987, shortly after a series of articles in Newsday described apparent rules violations in the recruiting of Daniels.

Now playing for the NBA’s San Antonio Spurs, Daniels was at one time considered the best high school player to come out of New York in decades. He enrolled at UNLV in January of 1987, but was dropped from the basketball program a month later after his arrest on drug charges.

The inquiry led the NCAA to charge UNLV with rules violations in nearly 40 areas. Those charges were scheduled to be heard by the Committee on Infractions in 1991, but the case was put on hold because Tarkanian and others linked to the allegations claimed they were shielded from the proceedings by Nevada law.

UNLV and the NCAA were able to resolve the matter through the NCAA’s summary disposition process. The procedure, adopted by the NCAA this year, allows for quicker processing of cases in which there are no disputed facts.

In the UNLV case, the school and the NCAA agreed on rules violations in 26 areas, including a scheme in which Mark Warkentien, one of Tarkanian’s assistants, became Daniels’ legal guardian.

The Committee on Infractions did not rule on the actions of individuals named in the infractions, however, because of legal restrictions stemming from the due process matter, Swank said.