This is tough to watch even 33 years later. I know the outcome but think it might end differently this time. Wildcat guards didn't shoot well after Lofton hit a couple of threes early. The fatigue from the altitude doesn't help, and the non-call on Augmon for the intentional in the first half is still maddening. When Elliott gets the ball on the wing, two guys in red shirts close in to help augment Augmon, and when they do the isolation, the one that Elliott thrived on against them in December, Augmon knows it's coming. People say this means that UNLV wasn't that good as they got trounced by Seton Hall in the next game, but it's hard to come back at altitude and do this again. Hunt shot well the whole game, so the last one was true to form that afternoon. To me the difference was UNLV's length inside--Butler, Scurry, and Ackles. Rooks was too young yet to battle them with his bulk. And poor Matt Othick couldn't make a three. Augmon was a tremendous defensive player, and in this one he plays well offensively, too. For two high scoring teams, the final score is so low, yet the FG%'s aren't bad, because the possessions are all tested.
Solid post. All great points. Your devastation is my elation, though we got our eternally bitter taste two years later at the hands of Duke. Surprisingly, the refs called a fair game. Buechler undercutting Anthony was a dirty play, and changed the dynamic of how the Rebels played thereafter. They started beating up on Lofton which threw off his shot, and Augmon kind of made the same move on Elliott that Buechler made on Anthony - the no-call you speak of. To me, it was a "don't start none, won't be none" type of thing, and the refs let them play. Of course, like most media at the time Stockton and Raftery were leaning anti-Vegas, so their opinion of that play was dramatically in favor of Arizona. All in all, this rivalry was gold. Deep rooted on and off the court. It's part of what made this era of college basketball the greatest of all time.
Great college B-Ball when the game was quality with seasoned players. Now days less than quality players bail out early to a water downed NBA has made C B-Ball less than...
So true. Thats why the teams like Gonzaga are good, because while they do have talented players, they almost always stick around at least 2 seasons, letting them build chemistry.
I miss the old days of college basketball. Since 1991 conference expansions and around the same time the early NBA entrances have destroyed the game. I miss the days when there was no more than 10 to a conference and you seen a true round robin schedule.
Really? Did you know that 3 short years ago, Oregon and Gonzaga were both in the final 4??? Did you also know that there are double to triple the # of teams east of the Mississippi vs west of it?
@@rawn4203 yeah but in the 70s 80s 90s you had consistent FFs from UCLA, Az, UNLV .... Zags need a title to make the program legit and Oregon had a magic run. You need consistent FFs
Thanks for posting this. Just shows that damn near anything can be found on youtube. I'm in Tucson and think about this game often this time of year. Still pains. Really hoping this is the year we exorcise some demons. Lofton definitely flopped.
As a 8-9 year kid , I watched a lot of UNLV games. They were my favorite college team at that time. I believed because of their style, they influenced the new generation as I said in another post before the fab 5. They still wore the God awful short shorts Lol!!!, but it was a team that a younger generation can identify with. Hip Hop generation. Pac use to always Roc UNLV gear early stages of his career. Check some old interviews. That shows how respected UNLV was at that time. They ended with 3 guys in the nba who had long nba careers. Stacy “Plastic Man” Augmon, Larry “Grandma ma” Johnson , and Greg Anthony. Fab 5 had C Webb, Jalen Rose, and Juwan Howard. I don’t understand why a 30 for 30 was not done on this group. “The Shark” was a celebrity character of his own biting that towel before he died. I hope they do do a 30 for 30 on these guys. They did a whole HBO doc on them a few years back but a 30 for 30 would be even better bringing all these guys back together. Including Anderson Hunt who was a very underrated player on that team just as Jimmy King was on the Fab 5 Michigan Wolverines.
@Richard Franklin if you need to hack your gf insta account that relationshit is long gone partner. You miles well leave while you can with some dignity still hahha.
I'd take that UNLV squad over the Fab 5 24/7. College Basketball was at it's best from the Mid 1980's to the early 1990s and UNLV was a huge reason for it.
@@BAYAREA-kd1ig It would be close but because of Michigan size with Howard and Webber, that would’ve given them a slight advantage I believe. Larry Johnson and Stacey Augmon at the wing, would’ve given Michigan some problems.That UNLV squad beat actually blew out the same Duke team that beat Michigan in 1992. Duke actually beat a undefeated UNLV team in 1991 in the rematch . It is not like these teams overlapped by that many years . They just missed each other . They were both connected by loses to that great Duke team .
A documentary about the 1989-90 Runnin' Rebels called Kings of Vegas will be released in 2024. They are almost finished with production, it's going to be very good. Lots of great interviews and other content.
I'm only here to see what kind of basketball player Kenny (Ken) Lofton was. Don't really care about giant dudes playing nerf hoop. Hopefully some day they will increase the height of the baskets in men's basketball.
I enjoyed watching this again. I always remember that after Hunt hit the shot at 1:33:30 it looked like Cvijanovich on the bench had to pee. He was standing the way a toddler who's holding his pee would. Maybe he was just nervous, or maybe he drank too much water on the bench.
Such a shame the camera cut away from the post game handshake between the 2 coaches, would have loved to have seen that shit eating grin by Tark when meeting Olson.
Typical Lute Olson choking against a far inferior opponent. And rubbing salt in the wound, 48 hours later, Seton Hall ripped this rebels teams head off. What a shame - one of the probably top 3-5 teams Olson ever had and goes down in flames against a team that couldnt throw it in the ocean except at the very end. I think given this result and the seton hall - unlv result from the regional final, Seton would have beaten AZ pretty badly, maybe not Utah like in 98 regional final but a solid 10 to 15 point win, as AZ wasnt much if any better than Indiana who Seton hall beat soundly earlier this night in 89.
@@dudermcdude9245 Yes the year before though AZ wasnt nearly as big a fave in that one as they were in this one. In fact OU was truly the better team. Unlike this game here where had AZ and vegas played a best of 7 games AZ would have won in 5 or 6. Now 10 years after this a 13 seeded OU team knocked out a 4 seed AZ in a close game however. The l8 shark has often said (in his final years) this was one of his sweetest wins.
@@rawn4203 Vividly remember Tark had a shit eating grin after this game. Olson from what I can remember hated Tarkanian because of probation with Long Beach State in the 70s.
@@BAYAREA-kd1ig Yep that and another huge issue was the recruitment of Tom Tolbert, where tark accused lute of swooping in at midnite and getting tolbert to decomit from vegas to AZ, thus tark gave lute the nickname "midnite lute". And Matt Othick from Vegas (bishop gorman high??) committed to AZ too. Yes its clear this was maybe tarks sweetest win and another choke in a long line of chokes from olson. Maybe not as bad as santa clara or east tennessee, but still pretty bad.
You never know for one in college basketball (that's something you left out of your senseless post). Also... two teams never matchup the same with a common opponent, not ever. If they did we who bet sports would be rich!
