Sport: Making Its Points, the Hard Way

None of the country's choice basketball players ever arrive at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, on the fly, though a few have come in on one bounce. Jerry Tarkanian, a coach who looks like an all-night poker game, is the best rebounder in college basketball. At the moment, five of his first seven players are junior-college transfers. Three of the starters, including Star Forward Armon ("the Hammer") Gilliam, had no other scholarship offers at all. They are merely the top-ranked team in the nation.

Neglecting to win only one game in 29, Tarkanian is still deliberating over "whether we're really...