COLLEGE BASKETBALL / GENE WOJCIECHOWSKI : Are Coaches Under Stress? Are Insects Under Rocks?

One more case of coaching burnout and we’ll have enough for a starting five.

The latest casualty is Iona’s Jerry Welsh, a 25-year veteran who stepped down Saturday because of basketball-related stress and exhaustion. Welsh’s job status will be evaluated at season’s end, but until then, his son Tim, a former assistant at Syracuse who came to Iona four year’s ago, is the interim coach.

Welsh now joins Nevada Las Vegas’ Tim Grgurich, Duke’s Mike Krzyzewski and USC’s George Raveling on the inactive list. Grgurich, who now conducts practices, oversees recruiting and travels with the team, isn’t returning to the UNLV sideline until his doctors say so. Krzyzewski isn’t coming back until next season. Raveling isn’t coming back until Traveler whinnies the national anthem.

Meanwhile, coaches everywhere trade stress-management tips as if they were soup recipes.

“I try to be a stress conductor,” said Tennessee’s Kevin O’Neill, who insists there is no way to escape the pressure of the profession. “When I’m getting stressed, I try to stress everybody out around me. That way I don’t feel so stressed out.”

Then there is the John Chaney method, which doesn’t bother with usual 12-step program stuff. The Temple coach says he locks himself in a room with friends and then “eats peanuts, drinks beer and tells lies . . . old stories.”

Oklahoma’s Kelvin Sampson says he prefers a more orthodox solution.

“I love going to practice,” he said. “That’s my therapy.”

Of course, there is one other treatment gaining popularity.

It’s called early retirement.

Kentucky’s Rick Pitino, 42, said he has no more than 10 years left in the business. Massachusetts’ John Calipari, who is only 35 and has but seven seasons’ worth of head coaching experience, said he might survive another 10 seasons or so. That could change, depending on how many more sit-ins he witnesses.

“But I can’t see myself coaching at 55, 60,” he said.

But from the physician-heal-thyself catalogue comes this piece of advice from Calipari, whose team was ranked No. 1 for much of the season until North Carolina replaced the Minutemen this week: “Dean Smith says it best: ‘If you treat this stuff like life and death, then you’re going to die a lot.’ ”

HONK IF YOU LOVE THE HOGS

Beads of perspiration are beginning to form on the brows of every so-called expert (hello) who said Arkansas would repeat as NCAA champion.

So far, the Razorbacks have vanished from the Associated Press top 10, dropped as low as fourth in the Southeastern Conference West Division and, most recently, lost by 21 points at Mississippi State.

Not long ago, after victories over Kentucky and Louisiana State, Razorback Coach Nolan Richardson was ready to declare “Hog Ball” fully functional. Then Mississippi State did its square dance on Arkansas’ reputation and that was that. Now a glum and frustrated Richardson is hinting at lineup changes.

“The intensity level has been something that’s not been there for us,” he said. “It hasn’t been there in any of the games I’ve seen us play. It doesn’t matter when we win. We don’t seem to be as happy and we don’t seem to be totally disappointed (after a loss). The biggest concern (with this team) has always been from the neck up.”

Arkansas isn’t exactly on life support, but it’s clear last year’s team would beat this year’s team by double digits. Sophomore center Darnell Robinson started the year overweight and stayed there. Senior forward/center Dwight Stewart is hurt. The Razorbacks’ vaunted pressure defense makes only cameo appearances.

HOG FOOTNOTE

With the possible exception of Arizona, each of last season’s Final Four teams has suffered a significant drop-off.

Arkansas is 17-5 overall, but a so-so 6-4 in the SEC, including upset losses to Auburn and Mississippi and blowout defeats to Alabama and Mississippi State.

Florida (11-7, 5-4) has dropped from the top 25. In last week’s loss to Mississippi State, the Gators blew a nine-point lead and scored 19 points in the second half.

Duke is winless in the Atlantic Coast Conference and might stay that way. Many more losses and the Cameron Crazies will decorate the place in black crepe.

Why the struggles? Introducing the three most popular theories making the rounds.

--The SEC and ACC are deeper than John Thompson’s voice.

Of the 12 SEC teams, one is dreadful (South Carolina), two are bad (Tennessee, Mississippi) and one is ordinary (Vanderbilt). The ACC doesn’t have a dog in the bunch.

--Too much overscheduling.

It happens all the time. You go to the Final Four and during the off-season, the TV matchmakers start waving money, exposure and killer games in your athletic director’s face. The result:

Duke’s nonconference schedule includes Connecticut, Illinois, George Washington, Michigan, Iowa, Notre Dame and UCLA.

Florida has Boston College, Wake Forest, Texas, Kansas, Florida State twice and Villanova.

Arkansas opened with UMass, then Georgetown, followed later by Missouri and Oklahoma.

--Pressure.

Florida never had been to the Final Four. Arkansas never had won the national championship. Duke had lots of Final Four experience, but when is the last time it started two or three freshmen and played nearly two-thirds of a season without its head coach?

The Gators freaked. The Razorbacks got worn down by the preseason expectations and kamikaze play of every opponent. The Blue Devils learned about pay-back.

BILLY BALL

Remember the lame duck Southwest Conference? It’s still there, though you wouldn’t know it by the rankings.

Trying to stir up some noise is first-year Texas Christian Coach Billy Tubbs, who brought his Jack Nicholson voice and hyperactive offense to Ft. Worth. Then again, it didn’t take much to excite the locals. Under former coach Moe Iba, crossing midcourt in less than 10 seconds was considered a fast break.

The Horned Frogs, picked to finish sixth in a preseason poll of SWC coaches, were tied with Texas and Texas Tech for the league lead before losing to the Longhorns, 111-99, Wednesday night.

Center Kurt Thomas, who entered the game leading the nation in rebounding (13.6), was second in scoring (28.5) and among the leaders in popping off (averages 1.0 memorable postgame quotes), said the SWC race was over when TCU beat the Longhorns earlier. In response, Texas Coach Tom Penders saved the clippings, closed practice Monday and instructed his team not to say a word about Thomas’ comments.

“We have enough bulletin- board material to win a holy war,” Penders said.

Tubbs and Thomas wouldn’t have it any other way.

“We’re making it game to game,” said Tubbs, who came to TCU after 14 seasons at Oklahoma. “It’s an adventure, and I kind of like that.”

Thanks partly to Tubbs’ hurry-up offense, Thomas has increased his scoring average nearly eight points from a year ago, and his rebounding average up nearly four. Tubbs calls him “the best inside player in the nation offensively. But it isn’t like I stepped in here and all of a sudden developed his talent.”

The way Tubbs figures it, two SWC teams will get NCAA tournament bids. Right now, the battle includes Texas, TCU, and preseason favorite Texas Tech.

“I think it will be us and somebody else,” he said. “When you look around the nation, there’s not a lot of truly great teams out there. There’s maybe seven or eight who are probably better than everybody else. From somewhere in the 10-100 range of teams, there’s not a lot of difference.”

THE REST

UNLV, seemingly under the NCAA’s thumb longer than Siegfried & Roy have been snapping whips, can see a speck of TV light. After Sunday’s game against Virginia, the Runnin’ Rebels no longer will be under NCAA-imposed TV sanctions for nonconference matchups. Good thing too. Vegas plays, among others, UCLA, Seton Hall and Michigan next season. . . . One more UNLV item: Howie Landa, 63, who came out of semi- retirement to replace a stressed out Grgurich--and then stressed out himself--has been reassigned as an administrative assistant. Cle Edwards is the game coach. . . . So much for UMass’ bold new fashion statement. With President Clinton in attendance, a superstitious Calipari allowed the Minutemen to wear new uniforms for their game at George Washington last Saturday. UMass promptly lost the game and its No. 1 ranking. “They may hit the mothballs,” Calipari said of the uniforms. “Everybody told me they looked so good.”

Tennessee’s 24,535-seat Thompson-Boling Arena was packed for Wednesday’s visit by Kentucky. It was the first sellout since first-year coach O’Neill arrived. Or was it? “Well, I filled it for the Eagles last week,” O’Neill said. . . . Must-see viewing: “Hoop Dreams,” an amazing and often sobering documentary that follows the lives of two inner-city Chicago players as they attempt to reach basketball stardom. Every high school player, high school coach and college recruiter ought to be required to watch what happens to William Gates and Arthur Agee as they pursue those dreams. Gates is now a junior swingman at Marquette, where he’s averaging 3.4 points, 1.8 rebounds and 11 minutes of playing time. Agee, after a stop at Mineral Area College in Flat River, Mo., is a senior point guard at Arkansas State, where he leads the team in assists and is averaging 7.6 points and 3.2 rebounds.

It’s probably not a good idea to invite Temple’s Chaney to any faculty mixers. Chaney, whose team is likely to miss the 20-victory mark for only the second time in the last six seasons, is peeved about recent in-house criticism of his team. “We got professors--educators in the stands--who are criticizing kids about their foul shooting, saying, ‘That’s their grade-point average,’ ” Chaney said. “These are educators, in the stands, who claim they’re Temple fans. I wonder where we are in sports. I wonder where we are in athletics.” Here’s where: Chaney tells his players to “stay the hell away from the newspaper, stay the hell away from people and only listen to me.” . . . Oklahoma star forward Ryan Minor, who was drafted out of high school by the Baltimore Orioles and played on the Sooners’ College World Series championship team last season, said he’s “leaning” toward the NBA. And if he were asked to become a major league replacement player? “I don’t know,” he said. “I probably would have to turn it down.”

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Top 10

As selected by staff writer Gene Wojciechowski

No. Team Rec. 1. Kentucky 16-3 2. UCLA 14-2 3. Kansas 17-3 4. Massachusetts 17-2 5. Maryland 18-4 6. North Carolina 18-2 7. Connecticut 18-1 8. Arizona 17-4 9. Arkansas 17-5 10. Miss. State 14-4

Waiting list: Arizona State (16-5), Michigan State (16-3), Purdue (16-5), Wake Forest (14-5), Stanford (15-3).