1990-91 UNLV RUNNIN’ REBELS

Backstory
In 1989-90, UNLV won its only NCAA title, setting a record for margin of victory in a final game with a 103-73 pasting of Duke. And everybody was coming back for 1990-91. A compromise worked out by UNLV’s president allowed the Rebels, under NCAA watch since nearly the first day coach Jerry Tarkanian set foot on campus in 1973, to delay a probation for one year so they could defend their title.

The regular season
The John Wooden UCLA teams had sustained excellence, but no one had ever seen a basketball team so thoroughly stomp through its competition as the 1990-91 Rebels. A lineup featuring Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony and Stacy Augmon went 20-0 before winning a game by only single digits (a 112-105 win at Arkansas). They wouldn’t have to worry about a margin that close the rest of the regular season, finishing 34-0.

Even with a weak, Big West schedule, the defending champions looked monstrous. They won at Michigan State, a tournament team, by 30. They beat Florida State, another tourney team, by 32. Arkansas was the No. 2 team in the nation when UNLV played them. They seemed also a sure thing to become the first undefeated team, including the NCAA tournament, since Indiana in 1976.

The postseason
The Rebels blew through the NCAA tournament, with only one single-digit margin (a 62-54 win against Georgetown) before reaching the Final Four. But Duke exacted revenge in the semifinal, coming back from a late 76-71 deficit to win 79-77 and eventually take the NCAA title itself.

Postscript
The game was a crossroads for both UNLV and Duke. The Blue Devils and coach Mike Krzyzewski both shed their reputations as postseason chokers and became the standard-bearers for NCAA basketball.

Meanwhile, UNLV immediately went down the toilet. Two months after the NCAA Final Four loss, the Las Vegas Review-Journal printed photos, taken in the fall of 1989, of four UNLV players sharing a hot tub with Richard “The Fixer” Perry, who among his crimes was his involvement in the infamous Boston College point-shaving scandal. No evidence was ever found of point-shaving by UNLV, but it still doesn’t look good when your players are sharing a bath with a guy named “The Fixer.” Tarkanian resigned effective the end of the 1992 season, and UNLV fell off the basketball map. It didn’t win another NCAA tournament game until 2007 — as a plucky, mid-major upstart.

The greatest regular seasons ever Introduction 1934 Chicago Bears 1971-'72 Los Angeles Lakers 1972 Miami Dolphins 1976-'77 Montreal Canadiens 1979-'80 Philadelphia Flyers 1990-'91 UNLV Runnin’ Rebels 1995 Nebraska Cornhuskers 1995-'96 Chicago Bulls 1997-'98 Tennessee Lady Vols 2001 Seattle Mariners 2003-04 Arsenal FC VOTE: Which was most impressive?

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