Basketball's Most Deadly Fish:

By SALLY B. DONNELLY LAS VEGAS

In college basketball, March is not the month of lions or lambs, but of sharks. For the ninth consecutive year, coach Jerry ("Tark the Shark") Tarkanian has led his University of Nevada at Las Vegas Runnin' Rebels squad into the National Collegiate Athletic Association men's basketball tournament. UNLV, which compiled a crushing 30-0 regular-season record, was the pretourney favorite to win its second-straight national championship.

But that attainment, if it happens, may be almost irrelevant. The major surprise was that UNLV could actually show up. For 17 years, Tarkanian has been involved with numerous NCAA investigations for rules violations that range from illegal recruiting to grade fixing in order to maintain the eligibility of his players. Many of the accusations have stuck, yet in one case Tarkanian fought the NCAA all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court and won. Last fall, in order to avoid punishing current players for recruiting violations committed by UNLV in the 1970s, the NCAA lifted a ban that prohibited the school from playing in the 1991 tournament. The team will take its punishment in 1992.

Tarkanian's continuing presence in the tourney is testimony to his clout as major-college basketball's winningest coach, despite the fact that he is also one of the sport's most controversial figures. The chief reason why he continues to appear in the NCAA knockout event is also the focus of much of the controversy: his 30-year-old coaching system, built on finding and nurturing players that other schools have passed up. This year eight of 14 UNLV players, including All-American forward Larry Johnson, came to UNLV from junior colleges or as transfers. Once on the Rebels team, they are welded into a high-speed, aggressive machine.

The Rebels' combative, fast-and-loose style of play is a reflection, of sorts, of Tarkanian's approach to the NCAA's regulations. The coach's 1986 recruitment of New York City prep star Lloyd Daniels, who attended four high schools but never managed to graduate, is an example of his pursuit of a questionable player. (In the end, Daniels never wore a UNLV uniform.) Tarkanian points to the likes of Johnson and current guard Greg Anthony as signs that his system works.

In recruiting, Tarkanian focuses on the kind of kid he was himself: hardworking, aggressive, looking for the main chance. Tarkanian was born to working-class Armenian parents in Euclid, Ohio. His father died when he was 12, and the family moved to Pasadena, Calif., in the 1940s. Tarkanian was already planning a coaching career as an undergraduate at Fresno State university, and began working with high school teams while earning a master's degree in education from University of Redlands. He moved up to Riverside City College as head coach in 1961, spent seven seasons at the community-college level, then moved up to California State University, Long Beach, in 1968. His reputation as a winner, and coach of winners, steadily soared. He made the NCAA Final Four for the first time in 1977. He earned his nickname at UNLV, where visiting teams referred to the small arena as the "shark tank," where the Runnin' Rebels and the crowd chewed up opponents.

Tarkanian's outreach to talented but overlooked players began in his community-college years, and so did his solicitude for less fortunate players. Joe Barnes, who came to Riverside after being cut from his school's team in Detroit, recalls barbecues and parties at the Tarkanian house. But these days it appears as if Tarkanian's players enjoy a bit more than ribs and sodas. At a UNLV team practice last week there was no cookout, but there were plenty of fancy grilles on the player-driven Mercedes and BMWs in the gym parking lot.

A small, balding man with dark, deep-set eyes, Tarkanian strikes a strong contrast with his tall, predominantly black charges. But his sense of easy authority over the team is equally marked. Says Lonnie Wright, a UNLV forward in the early 1970s: "Coach Tarkanian is the first strong male figure many of his players have ever had, and they have a great deal of respect for him. The Father Flanagan image is not too far from the truth."

Tarkanian admits he is extremely good at "communicating" with his players and at motivating them. "I start with the first minute I meet a kid. If he can trust you from the outset, he'll run that extra mile for you." The players can, and do: in 30 years of college coaching, Tarkanian has never had a losing season.

He has become something of a Las Vegas institution. He has his own retail sports shops, is a frequent TV commentator and counts show-biz entertainers like Frank Sinatra and Dionne Warwick among his friends. His total earnings are estimated at $500,000 a year. Despite his wealth, there is talk every year -- and especially this year -- that Tarkanian is considering a move to the pros. With the NCAA continuing to pursue what Tarkanian calls its "vendetta" against him, the National Basketball Association might be a very attractive option. But close acquaintances say such a move at the moment is unlikely. Even with tournament suspension looming in 1992, the Shark hasn't finished being the biggest prowler in his college pond.