COLLEGE BASKETBALL / DAILY REPORT : AROUND THE NATION : Tulsa’s Smith Goes to Georgia

Tubby Smith, who coached Tulsa to the NCAA Sweet 16 the last two seasons, accepted the coaching job at Georgia on Wednesday, becoming the school’s first black head coach.

Smith, 43, succeeds Hugh Durham, fired March 19 after 17 seasons.

Georgia Athletic Director Vince Dooley said Smith agreed to a six-year contract at $115,000 a year, but with a compensation package that includes basketball camps, a tennis shoe contract and television and radio shows, the coach’s annual income is expected to be about $500,000.

Smith was 79-43 in four years at Tulsa, his first head coaching position after 12 years as an assistant.

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UCLA forward Ed O’Bannon is one of 10 players named to the L.A. Athletic Club’s John Wooden All-American team.

Others on the team, in alphabetical order: Connecticut guard Ray Allen, Wake Forest guard Randolph Childress, Villanova guard Kerry Kittles, Michigan State guard Shawn Respert, Massachusetts forward Lou Roe, North Carolina forward Jerry Stackhouse, Arizona guard Damon Stoudamire, North Carolina center Rasheed Wallace and Arkansas forward Corliss Williamson.

The Wooden Award for the player of the year will be presented April 7.

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Assembly Speaker Willie Brown and five San Joaquin Valley legislators have circulated a letter asking Fresno State’s president to hire Jerry Tarkanian as the school’s new coach.

The one-paragraph letter says the legislators “enthusiastically and wholeheartedly support the hiring of Jerry Tarkanian.” The former Nevada Las Vegas coach is one of 40 candidates being considered.

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Meanwhile, UNLV officials focused on four prospects as they tried to select a coach to rescue the school’s sagging basketball program.

Miami of Ohio’s Herb Sendek was scheduled to meet with school officials Wednesday afternoon, joining a list of candidates that included Massachusetts assistant Billy Bayno, Cal State Bakersfield Coach Pat Douglass and St. Louis Coach Charlie Spoonhour.

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An NCAA probe of New Mexico State basketball centers on possible academic fraud involving transfer credits from correspondence courses, according to an NCAA letter obtained by the Albuquerque Journal.