I am a Fresno State alum and fan and we had to play against that monster 2-3 times per season. He was an absolute beast. Not many college teams had guys who could match up with Johnson. He looked more like a football player. Incredibly powerful.
@Rusell Shaw Not quite that old! He was 22 when Vegas won the first time and had just turned 23 when they lost the Duke rematch! Yes he was a grown man against college kids but it was due to his muscular build more than his age
Boy I remember this like it was yesterday. I was a ten year old kid, we went and watched the game at Thomas and Mack Center, they had it on the big screen there. Afterward, driving home the streets were packed with people partying and I remember hanging out the window of our car high-fiving random strangers as we drove by. What an awesome night.
The '91 game was a semi-final, not the championship game. Not sure why the Committee put UNLV and Duke on the same side, thus meaning that they'd meet in the semi-final rather than the final, but they did. The result was one of the greatest college basketball games ever played. After getting clobbered by this same team the prior season, it was oh so sweet for Duke to edge that great undefeated team.
UNLV played that Omeba defense all season long and when this game started, they went into a zone....I already knew they were going to game railroaded...
I agree. It is true that teams improve, but UNLV was sooooo much better then Duke. It seemed strange. All the world is a stage. It came out later that some of the UNLV players were hanging out with point fixer Perry: articles.latimes.com/1992-02-14/sports/sp-2218_1_unlv-president-robert-maxson
Had Butler and Scurry not graduated, they would have defended their title! So many people forget how that limited their depth in '91 and Butler was a way better center than George Ackles! Scurry was the do everything cleanup guy and they lacked that the following March! Plus not being tested all season hurt them in dealing with a close game down the stretch! It almost bit them against Georgetown and did in the Duke rematch
For all that superficial bravado on the part of Duke they were literally scared of UNLV. The Rebels should’ve repeated the following year for back to back titles as well.
Yeah I mean I'm a Duke fan and I can't lie I mean just watching that game a just look intimidated by unlv's overall athleticism and talent they were just not going to lose that night no matter what. I will say however it's amazing to think my cisewski went to what for national championship first twelve years that's pretty good
U.N.L.V. RUNNING REBELS WERE #1 WORLD RECORD OF 103 POINT IN NCAA MEN BASKETBALL GAME FINAL IN THE HISTORY. 25th anniversary of 1990 U.N.L.V. rebels championship final. P.s. thank you Jerry trak. Rest easy.
I remember this game live. I was SHOCKED like most people who watched college basketball during this era. 8th grade middle school. I want really even a college basketball fan but there was so much hype about UNLV. At the time EVERYONE WAS ON THE BANDWAGON. THE GREATEST UPSET IN COLLEGE BASKETBALL at that time.
I was 10 during tgis fame and livd in Vegas as I still do, Cant believe UNLV is STILL THE ONLY TEAM to go over 100 and it is still largest margin of victory ever. Vegas woud not be rabid like this again until 27 years later with the arrival of the Golden Knights.
The best college team of all time. LJ was a man amongst boys. Anderson hunt lit Duke up for 40 plus points and still went undrafted in the NBA draft. Man the powers that be hated UNLV which added to their mystique.
I was watching that draft and the whole time I was like....when is Andersen Hunt getting drafted or did I miss that already!? I thought he was going to be a lottery pick. Such a great player and professional too imo. AND back then I was a Duke fan!!!
@@im2hastyle at the combine Terrell Brandon was giving Anderson Hunt the business. I think the scouts saw some serious flaws in AH game. There's a video interview here on RU-vid with TB talking about it.
Scotty Thurman roasted Duke 4 years later when Arkansas spanked them too and he didn't drafted either! They had no answer for him! If Anderson Hunt and Scotty Thurman were coming out in today's NBA system, they both would be lottery picks! Ijs!
@@Biggsneeky well they didn't spank them (final was 76-72) but yes today Thurman could be efficient in the League only because it's scoring and point production driven with little to no defense
2 of the best college guards I’ve ever seen play in an NCAA tournament. There are historically very few teams that could have beaten them in March/April of1990
“From Laettner to Hurley; misses, and that’s an indication of how this game has gone. At the other end it’s Hunt being in the pass for Augmon, and it’s all the Runnin Rebs. They feel it now and Krzyzewski will use another time out.” Still my favorite line, miss you doing PBP Brent.
I will never ever forget the night they won. I was 8 years old and my mom took my sister and I to drive to the Thomas and Mack Center to celebrate lol 😂
Wow... i remember hearing about this UNLV team; but DAMN; they gave a legendary program and Coach i think the worse ass whipping I ever seen in a NC Game. My goodness
And never forget - UNLV's 103-73 win over Duke marked the first, (and to date, only), time in the history of the tournament that at least 100 points were scored in the championship game. UNLV’s 571 points over six games set the record for most points scored by a single team in any one year of the tournament. UNLV is the only team in tournament history to average more than 90 points per game - 95.1. In six tournament games, they won three by exactly 30 points, while scoring more than 100 points in each 30-point victory. UNLV’s 30-point margin of victory in the championship game is also a tournament record. To date, UNLV remains the last team from a non-power conference (AAC, ACC, Big East, Big Ten, Big 12, Pac-12, and SEC) to win the national championship; and the only one since 1977. The championship game was UNLV’s eleventh-consecutive win. They would eventually run the win streak to an astounding 45 games. That is the fourth-longest win streak in NCAA Division 1 basketball history, and the longest win streak since the longest one ever (by UCLA) ended in 1974.
UNLV: The Mid Major who became so popular, you didn't remember what conference they played in. Gonzaga: The Mid Major who can't seal the deal, and reminds you how weak The WCC is.
I remember the blue blood programs wanted nothing to do with UNLV back then. College basketball scheduling was more flexible than college football. I heard Tarkanian tried scheduling against any of the major programs and even offered to play on their home court, but not many excepted. Arkansas was one of the exceptions and UNLV beat them by 7, but the game was more lopsided than the score indicated. The Runnin' Rebels were scary good and the rest of the college basketball world knew it.
I remember watching the 1991 quarter finals, and thinking to myself, "this is not the same team from last year". They beat the brakes off the very same team(Duke), and just seemed not to be in the building then. I hoped that it wasn't fixed, but I know in my heart it was. Damn shame, could have been way above any other team, EVER!
The greatest thing about this UNLV team was not the dunks or the blocks. It was the fact that they could pass the ball like few teams could on the fast break. That's what hurt most teams that played UNLV.
UNLV in 1990 was a lot like Gonzaga is today - a powerhouse program in a non-power conference that wins 30+ games every season, will play anyone anywhere, almost never loses at home, always in the tournament, but 0 for 2 in Final Fours with people questioning whether they could ever really get over that last hurdle and win it all.
I remember the post game when Larry Johnson said call us thugs,criminals,etc.........just remember to call us champions....... Loved the Moses Scurry yell.....
unlv is the only college basketball team i've ever rooted for long term. their games were on here in l a. in the mid 80s on channel 9 with chick hearn calling them from las vegas. at halftime, he'd bring on someone from one of the hotels in town to talk about the place while some video of it ran. i wondered even then if that was legal for them to do, as if you could gamble at whatever hotel chick's guest worked for, it'd be a soft approval of gambling at a time when there was still a huge taboo against it outside of vegas and anywhere near college sports. well usc and ucla were hardly ever on tv, so i became a runnin reb fan for life. (although i did get into loyola marymount at thus time too, as they were like unlv on steroids; rest well hank) such an easy team to like. high scoring. ran a lot. cute cheerleaders. a cool mascot. the indiana loss at the superdome (97-93; don't even have to look it up) was my first sports heartbreak, but this night was the payoff for what was, at the time, about 4-5 years of fandom. i had to work late this night, then take a couple of friends home, but got home to watch the last 5:00 or so. 1900 and 1991 unlv is still the best college ball teams i've ever seen. such a fun team and time. right before he died, pasadena city college out here did a nice ceremony on campus for tark and i think unveiled some kind of tribute to him there (statue, plaque; i forget what). PCC is like 15 minutes from where i work, and i thought about going, but didn't. tark was in a wheelchair i think by that time, and i just didn't want to see him like that. when i watch the rebs today (and i still do) to a degree, i see this era and this game, and that's not good. unlv's been "meh" for so long now. noone (players, coaches, admin.) seems to want to stay there. how hard can it be to recruit 18 and 19 year old guys to come to las vegas? but when they're on these days, and the rebs are at .500 and may or nay not be winning in front if 5,000 at the t &m my mind always wanders back to nights like this. good good times.
None of the players for UNLV received cash under the table, none got fake grades to stay eligible, and they all graduated from college with honors. It would be interesting to see how every member of that Duke team is doing now compared to all the UNLV players.
@@anthonytaylor7928 Plus the NCAA hated Tark so the next year the officiating intentionally screwed them and kept them from beating Duke again. It's a known fact.
THOSE WERE GREAT TIMES UNLV!!! IT SHOULD HAVE BEEN A REPEAT AND A PERFECT SEASON IN 1991, BUT IT'S ALL GOOD!! DUKE IS A GREAT TEAM TOO!! I'M JUST GLAD I LIVED TO SEE MY HOMETOWN RUNNING REBELS BECOME THE BEST TEAM IN AMERICA!!
I think I was the only one in the world that told everyone that Duke was going to win in 91. I even had a Duke starter jacket I was so confident. After the 91 championship I wore that jacket till it fell apart, and everywhere I went people gave me the evil eye hahahaha.
Actually u weren't the only one! As '91 progressed (I was a freshman in college at that time), the maturity of both Laettner and Hurley, coupled with the addition of gifted wing Grant Hill gave me belief! I've been a die-hard Duke fan since the '81-'82 season, and once I saw Hill, he was a player of the likes Duke hadn't had since I'd been a fan, athletic who could defend and play multiple positions! Plus we had more time to prepare in between games (5 days) in '91 than only the one day in '90 without needed leadership to win a championship! Once the rematch was set I knew we'd be better off
They were one of the best ever. But it was known shortly after this that UNLV did not have student athletes. They had athletes. There was nothing studious about them. They were signed to play ball. Just wiki Jerry Tarkanian. Fun to watch tho.
