Copyright 2019 Las Vegas Review-Journal, Inc. | Privacy Policy | Terms of Service, In this March 30, 1991, file photo, UNLV's Anderson Hunt (12) and unidentified teammates leave the floor after losing to Duke in an NCAA national semifinal game in Indianapolis. "UNLV were so cool and nonchalant like, Yeah, it's going to be a cakewalk. But that wide-ranging influence was rooted first in UNLV's dominance on the basketball court. Quinn Buckner, for one, had already stated his belief that UNLV was actually superior to his own team. By Ryan Swanson | Laettner, Davis and Grant Hill were able to find gaps in UNLV's interior defense, and remarkably, the Blue Devils shot 52% on their 2s as Laettner rang up 28 points. ", Yet the risk of a mental hangover persisted. Theyre just better than we are. Arkansas raced out to an early lead. 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Laettner made two free throws with 12.7 seconds left, and Duke won 79-77 when Hunt's contested 3 from 25 feet missed long just before time expired. Instead, the Rebels played without their point guard and managed just three points over their final four possessions. "Um, no. Saxon, Christin With NCAA sanctions banning UNLV from postseason play, Tarkanian announced in June 1991 that he would resign after the upcoming season. Though his team had gone 0-3 against the Rebels that season, Long Beach State head coach Seth Greenberg said Tarkanian's "biggest vulnerability is if Greg [Anthony] gets in foul trouble." Since freshmen were not eligible at the time of UCLA's run, Duke's. Its simple those teams are mentioned in passing - never with the reverence of 91 UNLV. Defensively, his foot speed was tremendous, which was crucial for disrupting passing lanes in UNLVs Amoeba Defense. Reggie Manuel was recruited to UNLV by legendary men's basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian shortly after the Rebels won the NCAA championship in 1990. Williams, Jordan UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian: This win is for the kids, but mostly its for the state of Nevada. Four of Fresno State's 10 wins have come in true road games (three in conference play). You call a last second shot that hits the backboard and grazes the rim better? Dembele, Justin "I don't think we were overconfident," he says. Augmon, Anderson, and Hunt had led UNLV to the Elite Eight the year before. Basketball; Football; Baseball; . Larry Johnson, a 67 monster of a power forward, with a terrorizing combination of skill and on-the-court fury, picked UNLV as his landing spot for the 89-90 season after a stint at Odessa College. Former Chicago Bears running back Walter Payton had by this time become a vocal fan of the No. 2023 Duke Athletics. Ill see you after the game, Johnson threatened as the referees pulled the players apart. DeShawn Henry. Solid scorer; a starter at any other school. ", "We're the greatest team to have not won a national championship. In the buildup to UNLV's title defense, countless features had been written on how to beat the Rebels. By this point in his career he had already taken the NCAA all the way to the Supreme Court. Sucker punch in OVC tournament leads to 3 ejections. Who will win each 2023 conference tournament? Everyone, and I mean everyone, hated UNLV. UNLV defeated the Aggies 84-82 thanks in part to two technical fouls called on the Utah State crowd. Weve never discussed going undefeated.. ", Duke had also added a freshman sensation. Hartman, Tim There was no way we were going to beat them. There the Rebels handled Arkansas-Little Rock, Ohio State, and Ball State, before crushing the dreams of Bo Kimble and Loyola Marymount. UAB did the best it could. Tarkanian died in 2015.) Not an arena it was a bleachers and lines all over the floor gymnasium. Daly, Torrence Neither team looked the least bit scared. The opponent: Alabama-Birmingham. Royce With Anthony on the bench, UNLV managed just three points the rest of the way. "I think it's the best a team has ever played against me," Krzyzewski said afterward. Russell Westbrook is being left wide open on offense, and hes still hurting the Clippers. As of 2011, the regional broadcasts have been replaced by simulcast feeds on non-broadcast networks owned by Turner Sports. Spencer was armed with a soft touch around the basket, effective rebounding and solid passing with true center size. As 7,963 Canadians looked on (in a stadium that could seat 60,000), the Rebels rolled. Augmon would like to refute a few notions surrounding the upset. The use of software that blocks ads hinders our ability to serve you the content you came here to enjoy. Anthony was a confident player, tough as nails. It wasn't. Any future tournament games played in Charlotte would be played at Spectrum Center (although the Coliseum did host the Final Four in 1994). Use without license or authorization is expressly prohibited. View Full Bio, Victor The Blue Devils opened the game against UNLV by making their first five shots and taking a 15-8 lead. Wins over Utah and Seton Hall at the Kingdome in Seattle carried the Rebels to the national semifinals in Indianapolis and a rematch with Duke. Larry Varnado Jr. Head Strength & Conditioning Coach for Men's Basketball and Volleyball. "Beating that UNLV team was a pivotal moment in Duke basketball history," Grant Hill says. 6th Man. Thomas Hill can recall the exact moment when he knew Duke would achieve one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history: it was during the pre-game lineup introductions. H Waldman: Smart player with solid 3-point shot and quality passing. Sara Doty. Some teams were ranked. The 1990 NCAA tournament concluded with UNLV winning the national championship thanks to a 30-point rout of Duke in the final, 103-73.The margin set the record for largest in championship game . More School Info. But if you really want to talk perfection and dominance, it's gotta be the 1991 UNLV Runnin' Rebels. EJ Harkless, Jordan McCabe, Elijah Parquet and Cameron Burist will be honored during senior night when UNLV plays Utah State on Wednesday at the Thomas & Mack Center. We definitely werent backing down from anyone. UNLV basketball made about $1.5 million during its championship season of 1989-90. . Laettner, Grant Awaiting them was the rare opponent who actually had better size than the Rebels. The Rebels met Duke in back-to-back Final Fours in 1990 and 91. The 1991 Rebels were the bad guys and they loved every minute of their role. He also converted a key three-point play with 1:02 remaining. 25 years later, UNLV players still feel the heartbreak of losing toDuke, The Clippers Russell Westbrook experiment is off to a terrible start. No team has won 40 games or more in a row in the 30 years since. Almost everything to say about this team has been said. He had made his famous The NCAA was so mad at Kentucky they gave Cleveland State two more years of probation quip. Both were ejected. Before that St. Josephs in 2004. But unlike Conference USA with its marginal prospects, the Big West had several solid pro prospects in Randy Brown, Cedric Ceballos, Lucious Harris and Byron Russell. . "I would watch their games. The left-hander often backed up Ackles or Larry Johnson depending on foul trouble and opposing team personnel. The tournament also returned to Charlotte in 1991, this time to the new Charlotte Coliseum, then the off-campus home of the Charlotte 49ers men's basketball team. [2] This was the first National Championship game for Williams as a head coach. With their black sneakers, anti-establishment attitude and gold fronts, Jerry Tarkanians Rebels embodied youth and hip hop culture2Pac rocked the schools gear in the"Brendas Got a Baby" videobefore the Fab Five even existed. One of the few figures associated with that UNLV team who's willing to revisit the subject of 1991 in 2021 is Jerry Koloskie, who then served as athletic trainer for the Rebels before later becoming the school's senior associate athletic director. With 1991 UNLV there was absolutely no disputing it. Updated December 31, 2020 - 7:44 pm. "In hindsight, I think it's less of a surprise that we won that game than when it happened. The game turned when UNLV point guard Greg Anthony fouled out with 3:51 remaining. Fresno State is now 5-4 against UNLV in Hutson's five seasons. Kansas made its second trip to the National Championship game in four seasons, the prior appearance being 1988 when they defeated Oklahoma. "We knew we had a target on our back in every game and had to play our best.". But still, UNLVs last game of a perfect season was played in a gym. AZ, CO, CT, IL, IN, IA, KS, LA, (select parishes), MD, MI, NH, NJ, NY, OH, OR, PA, TN, VA, WV, WY, CA-ONT only.Eligibility restrictions apply. Say what you want about level of competition, but while the Big West wasnt the Pac-10 or ACC, think of Memphis in conference USA. Sidney Green enjoyed a four-year career at the university from 1979-1983 and Dedan Thomas Sr., who ranks sixth all-time in assists for the Rebels, represented the university roughly a decade later . A 30-point blowout doesnt usually have much pride or excuses associated with it. The Runnin Rebels of lore were great in a number of ways. Duke, meanwhile, won the first of five National Championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015) two nights later. There is no additional information to display: As for specific tactics, Duke sagged an extra defender, often center George Ackles' man, on Johnson whenever he caught the ball down low. When writers praised his team's valiant effort after the game, John Thompson was having none of it: "We're not in the moral-victory business at Georgetown.". UNLV Rebels Men's. Roster and Stats. Augmon was an award-winning defender and an elite finisher near the rim. Then UNLV smashed Duke in the NCAA Championship game. UNLV Rebels Men's. Roster and Stats. We won some. Yet the Rebels were untouchable, outscoring opponents by nearly 30 points on average. Or write about sports? Stacey Augmon had 31 points, Anderson Hunt. Learn more and register, College Basketball at Sports-Reference.com Blog and Articles. Four of Fresno State's 10 wins have come in true road games (three in conference play). . If Anthony didnt get into foul trouble against Duke, wed almost certainly be talking about UNLVs back-to-back championships today. Hinton. Duke, meanwhile, won the first of five National Championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015) two nights later. Complete roster for the 1991-1992 UNC Basketball team. By the time he graduated in 1995, he had . Spencer was considered by many to be a top 25 high school player. Stacey Augmon, who had set off an impromptu autograph mob scene on the campus of UBC the night before, opened the game with a thunderous dunk. The margins were ridiculous. After the first TV timeout, Tarkanian switched his defense from man-to-man to the infamous "amoeba" zone. Marred records from the Sun Belt, to the American East, to the West Coast Conference, and everywhere in between. How could he not take up for what he had built? Greenberg added that "Johnson may be the best player in the country, but Anthony is their key.". Larry Johnson shot 66% from the floor for the season. There is no additional information to display. We can also describe in great detail the championship game the previous year, a 103-73 victory over Duke. "We heard some of the worst comments," Tarkanian would recall in 2009. Buckley, Christian Menu. You call holding two All-Americans in Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon to a combined 16 points better? If there was a weakness to Ackles, other than his lack of offensive ability, it was his foul trouble. The 1991 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in single-elimination play to determine the national champion of men's NCAA Division I college basketball.