One of the greatest College Hoops crowds in its hay days. The whole building would shake and you could see the fear in the eyes of the opponents during warm ups. Some of the best memories of my life in person!! Isla vista after a UNLV win was a riot.. the ones of us who were there.. will never forget it for the rest of our lives!!
I was a Gaucho back then and lucky enough to have a friend camp out for like NINE days to get my ticket. I remember Carrick DeHart and Eric "The Freeze" McArthur. Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon. And the McDonald's promotion that if we got The Thunderdome up to something like 115 decibels, the next day Big Mac's would be $1.15. I know we did that more than a couple times. The place was electric! May The Turk find peace. Much respect on this day.
Wow!! What a wild and pumped up crowd from start to finish. I don't know if there's been a game played in a greater college environment than this, but if so, this has to rank towards the top. Looking back over the years, we've been told how dominant the 1990 UNLV team was (and certainly they were) and that they may be perhaps the greatest college team ever (debatable, but quite possible), but this game proved that they were not invincible. Everyone talks about how they mopped up both Duke and Loyola Marymount in the tournament, but they also had tough games against Ohio State and Ball State (a game they nearly let slip away). They did sort luck out in that Arizona, Michigan, Louisville, and Oregon State with Gary Payton were all in that region and they never had to play any of them because they were all upset, but hey, you play the teams that win in the tournament. This was a tough UCSB team. I can't believe that it's been over 25 years ago since this all took place and that these players are now in their late 40's now.
UNLV this season also lost at New Mexico State. I personally think the team the following season was way better than the one that won the title game. The one and only weakness of the 1991 team is that they lacked a backup point guard, and so when Greg Anthony fouled out (on a typical Duke flop), Vegas' offense went to pieces. But the 1991 team that went unbeaten until the national semis was better. First of all, they had the experience of playing together all that time. Also, while Scurry/Butler were good frontcourt players, Tark replaced those guys with a 2nd round pick (George Ackles) and a 1st round pick (Elmore Spencer). Their frontcourt rotation was insane that year. Two lottery picks, a first rounder and a 2nd rounder. Four pros. For me, the game at #2 Arkansas in February 1991 is the game that demonstrated how great the 1991 UNLV team was. Even though Duke won the title, Arkansas probably was the 2nd best team in 1991. It was close at the half, but after some typical 2nd half adjustments from Tark, they blew the Razorbacks out of the arena. They just torched them. You can see the game on youtube.com. It's still the most impressive regular season win I have ever seen from a college basketball team because at the time analysts were starting to compare UNLV to the Wooden UCLA teams. The pressure was getting to be that crazy and over the top. BTW - the UNLV/UCSB game above is also a reminder to people that in many ways, playing at 5,600 seat gym full of screaming fans is tougher than playing at a huge 20,000 seat arena. Things are more compact, and the sound has nowhere to go.
@@MattSmith-iq1ld I went to UCSB in the 90's. Home crowd was a huge matter of pride with us. One of the UNLV guards, can't remember if it was Hunt or Anthony, was asked about how they would handle the tough home crowd of Arkansas. He said they've played in tough arenas before and specifically mentioned the Thunderdome in UCSB.
I used to live for these late night games on ESPN, while in high school. I'd stay up to 12:30 - 1 am watching these games, knowing I had to get up at 6 am to go to school. I believe I fell asleep on this one though. I couldn't believe that UNLV lost.
Between games broadcast on ESPN or other networks, or the occasional game available on Los Angeles TV announced by Ross Porter or Chick Hearn, I watched UNLV games religiously. Maybe the loss helped the Rebels in the long run. After it, and a tight tournament game against Ball State, the Rebels played free and loose in the title game. In 1991, with the long undefeated streak that started after this game, the Rebels were extremely tight in the 1991 Final Four against Duke.
Crazy that UCSB was the favorite in this game! UNLV was definitely mortal in '89-'90 but when they brought their "A" game that season the runnin' rebs were ridiculous....
