COLLEGE BASKETBALL: COACHES AND TEAMS MAKING THEIR MARKS THIS SEASON : He Relaxes, but 49ers Can’t : CS Long Beach: Harrington puts team in position for NCAA bid with 20 victories entering Big West tournament.

Joe Harrington, an Easterner whose tempestuous coaching style can seem out of place in California, has become almost well-behaved on the basketball court. He hasn’t received a technical foul in seven games.

“You didn’t think I could do it, did you?” the 44-year-old Cal State Long Beach coach says to anyone accustomed to watching the displays of screaming, cursing and foot-stamping he has often directed at officials. These outbursts have at times overshadowed Harrington’s success in reviving Long Beach basketball.

The 49ers have won 20 games for the first time in 10 years, and a good showing in this week’s Big West Conference tournament would strengthen their chance of getting into the NCAA tournament.

The Big West tournament starts tonight at the Long Beach Arena with games between UC Irvine and Cal State Fullerton at 7 and Fresno State and San Jose State at 9.

During an 84-67 loss to UC Santa Barbara on Feb. 8, Harrington received two technical fouls for the second consecutive game.

“I told him, ‘Relax,’ ” said Santa Barbara Coach Jerry Pimm. “I told him his guys were playing tight because he was so tight. I told him that we’re more laid-back out here, that he doesn’t have to wear socks during the winter and that he has to learn to slow down and smell the roses.”

Although he still wears socks, Harrington is more relaxed now that he at last has something to savor. He believes that the 49ers, 20-7 with a seven-game winning streak, are on the verge of national acclaim, which they haven’t had since the early 1970s, when Jerry Tarkanian was coach.

Harrington, who assisted Lefty Driesell at Maryland for 10 years, has turned Long Beach around with hard work and an aggressiveness that is reflected in a pressing defense, a fast-break offense and even in the team’s fluorescent “California gold” uniforms.

“I like his intensity and work ethic,” Pimm said.

There has been speculation that Harrington may leave for a more prominent school. Last year, Basketball Times listed him as one of five “hot coaches.” Recently, he was interviewed by the University of Miami. That prompted chants of “Don’t go, Joe” from the Long Beach fans he has endeared through his youthful charm.

“When he gets off the court, he’s a different person,” 49er guard Tyrone Mitchell said. “He’s actually kind of quiet. People seem to flock around him. He’s got that young look. His look is definitely in.”

But Irvine’s Bill Mulligan is not impressed.

“I don’t really want to get into it,” said Mulligan, who is 1-6 against Harrington and has suggested that Harrington disputes every call the referees make. “I think it’s self-evident.”

Mulligan thought a moment and added: “When we beat them in the tournament two years ago, they sprinted off the court (without shaking hands). You don’t do that.”

Earlier that season, Mulligan claimed that Harrington cursed Anteater forward Jeff Herdman after Herdman’s elbow struck a 49er. Harrington denied it.

“I learned a long time ago from Coach Driesell that if you outwork people and you’re successful, people are going to be jealous and take shots at you,” Harrington said. “Maybe not everybody likes an aggressive style of basketball.”

Harrington realized last month that he was becoming overaggressive.

After his rash of technicals, he apologized to Curtis McCray, the university president, and vowed to donate $1,000 to charity if he gets another one.

He said he was making a fool of himself and worried about what his mother would think if she heard his blistering language.

Frances Harrington, though, has heard it before.

“I went to a game when he was at George Mason,” she said from the family home in Phippsburg, Me. “I was sitting with the university president. I was so embarrassed. He put on such a temper tantrum.”

She laughed and added: “I never went to another game down there.”

Harrington points to the nature of his business as a defense.

“It’s easy to look at coaches and say, ‘Look at that crazy guy losing control,’ ” he said. “The average American doesn’t get tested like coaches get tested.”

Harrington arrived at Long Beach from George Mason University in Fairfax, Va., inheriting a program that had endured five consecutive losing seasons.

“When we took the job here, two prominent coaches said we’d never get it done, that this was a dead-end street,” Harrington said. “And the players didn’t have any pride in themselves or in Long Beach State.”

In his first year, with Morlon Wiley as the star, the 49ers were 17-12 and appeared in the National Invitational Tournament. They slipped to 13-15 in 1988-89. But this season, Harrington has finally been able to use the players he recruited.

“I still don’t see where we’ve accomplished great things yet,” said Harrington, who has not won a postseason game in three attempts at Long Beach. “It takes time to be an NCAA team. To do it in three years is a lot to hope for.”

Driesell had a great impact on Harrington.

“He established Maryland basketball,” Harrington said. “I saw him do that and I was a part of it. I learned how to build a program.”

On his desk is a plaque, given to him by Driesell, that reads: “The harder you work, the luckier you get.”

Driesell, now the coach at James Madison University in Harrisonburg, Va., chuckled this week as he thought of Harrington. “His nose used to bleed every time he blew up,” he said.

Harrington, who played at Maryland, grew up on a coastal farm in Maine. In the summer he ran a vegetable stand. In the winter he shoveled snow off his driveway so he could keep playing basketball.

“I was just an aggressive, hard-nosed player,” the 6-foot-5 Harrington said in a voice that still bares his New England roots. “I coach the same way I played.”

His first head coaching job was at Hofstra in Hempstead, N.Y., in 1979. After a season there, he coached seven years at George Mason.

His collegiate record is 176-133.

“My first impression was that this man was crazy,” said 49er forward Kevin Cutler, recalling the first Harrington practice he attended. “He jumped on one of the players and screamed and yelled at him for 20 minutes.”

At a practice in Logan, Utah, this season, Harrington observed while assistant coach Seth Greenberg set up plays.

Suddenly, Harrington screamed at Mitchell, “You’ve got to get on these guys!”

“ You’re the coach!” the player screamed back.

“He doesn’t mind if you lash back,” Mitchell said. “He wants feedback. I like his fiery personality, the way he motivates, but he can be too fiery.”

Harrington said: “I truly love our players. You can’t be hard on people and expect them to perform if they think you don’t care for them. I think players like to know that they’re appreciated, that you want what’s best out of them academically, athletically and as a person.”

Harrington does not tolerate inattention to academics. When Cutler and freshman guard Lucious Harris missed a biology lab recently, they were not allowed to start in the next game.

Harrington’s tirades are not taken personally by the 49ers, who hang around his office.

“We have a very relaxed atmosphere,” Greenberg said. “They just don’t see (Harrington’s) fanatical side, they see his human side--they see him chipping golf balls.”

Golf is Harrington’s escape. Three hours before the 49ers played Nevada Las Vegas, he was on the driving range at Recreation Park, thinking about the game.

“I am not anxious to make a change just to make a change,” Harrington said about the possibility of his leaving Long Beach.

There had been a report that the Miami job would pay $180,000, about 2 1/2 times what Harrington earns now.

“Money is important but it’s not all-important,” he said. “As a staff, we work as hard as the Las Vegas staff or a staff at any of the top 20 schools, maybe harder. And financially, those coaches are getting incredible rewards. If you work hard, you might as well get paid for it.

“But there’s a lot to be said to be at a school and in a community like Long Beach, where people appreciate the job you’re doing. There’s a lot of satisfaction in that.”

Harrington’s three-year contract at Long Beach runs out at the end of the season.

His streak of good behavior almost ended last Thursday night, when, before his team finally overtook Fresno State, he again raged at the officials.

“I made sure they had their backs turned,” he said.