The Runnin' Rebels, 20 years later

Truth be told, UNLV had no prayer of beating Duke the second year, the NCAA would never have allowed that.

 

Tark the Shark, Anderson Hunt, LJ, Anthony, Scurry, and that bunch was one team that I enjoyed watching as a kid. High-flying, brazen, wild, and had a bunch of characters that no one couldn't emulate anywhere else.

It was at that '90 Final Four in Denver when on April Fools Day, Brent Musberger got whacked by CBS. He thought it was a joke. It wasn't. On his final CBS radio Sports minute, he predicted Vegas would win, but "it'll be close."

I was jumping up and down watching Vegas pimp-slap Duke.

 

Remember Tarkanian throwing his players under the bus after the Duke loss?

http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1139808/index.htm

 

I'll never understand why Stacey Augmon didn't spend more of the game defending Christian Laettner. Augmon was about defense, not saving for the other end of the floor. And George Ackles' cluelessness on the floor - should have said something to him during the game instead of trashing him after it, Tark - allowed Duke to bracket Larry Johnson. Duke sacrificed role player Greg Koubek in an attempt to keep Johnson from running wild, but every time Ackles got any appreciable distance from the bucket, it allowed Duke to blatantly double-team Johnson with no price to pay.

The quote from John Wooden was a nice cap to that.

 

Speaking of coaches who won tainted titles . . .

 

It's kind of a ... hot tub time machine!

Maybe ESPN can jump into this one and do another revisionist history/team highlight documentary like it did for Miami where they recast everyone as a just a bunch of brash, misunderstood fellers who would have been beloved by all if only they weren't black. Or hanging out with convicted felons.

Kind of funny how Duke went from this ...

... to this ...



A butterfly must have flapped its wings.

 

Who knew that Las Vegas would have the same amount of pro basketball titles in the last 20 years as Boston and New York combined?

 

Yeaah ... there's some serious revisionist history at work in that UNLV story.

 

Forget the arrests involving a gang fight, the on-court brawl with Utah State and several drug-related offenses. It's just inconvenient to dwell on that because, well, the Rebels were victims.
Very much in the tradition of the Miami documentary. Well put.

 

The biggest key to that game was Duke friendly officials putting Greg Anthony into foul trouble and allowing Bobby Hurley to "defend" guys by grabbing them.

 

And they haven't stopped.