25 years later, Rebels’ dominance unmatched

Jerry Tarkanian addresses the crowd after UNLV won the 1990 NCAA Tournament by beating Duke, 103-73. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal File)

Lois Tarkanian stands during a post-game celebration after watching her husband, Jerry Tarkanian, coach the UNLV Rebels basketball team in a win over the Duke Blue Devils for the 1990 NCAA National Championship crown at the McNichols Arena in Denver, April 2, 1990. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal)

In this April 2, 1990 file photo, UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian chews on his towel while watching his Runnin’ Rebels take on Duke in the NCAA Championship game in Denver.

Jerry Tarkanian addresses the crowd after UNLV won the 1990 NCAA Tournament by beating Duke, 103-73. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal File)

UNLV players gather behind coach Jerry Tarkanian as he prepares to accept the NCAA championship trophy from Selection Committee chairman Jim Delany on April 2, 1990, at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver. Athletic director Brad Rothermel, right, signals the Rebels’ No. 1 status in the college basketball universe. (Courtesy)

UNLV forward Larry Johnson does some fancy stepping along the sideline to make a behind-the-back pass over two Duke players during the Rebels’ record-setting 103-73 victory in the NCAA championship game 25 years ago today, April 2, 1990, at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver. (Jeff Scheid/Las Vegas Review-Journal File)

The minutes passed. The lead kept expanding.

It started at 10. Then grew to 13. Then 18. Then 23. Then 28. Then 34 before finally coming to rest at 30.

Thirty. That was UNLV’s margin of victory in the 1990 NCAA basketball championship game over Duke in a record-setting 103-73 performance by the Rebels.

And it happened 25 years ago today — April 2, 1990.

That the Rebels won that night at McNichols Sports Arena in Denver wasn’t shocking. Coach Jerry Tarkanian’s team had been playing at a high level entering the NCAA Tournament and was the West Region’s No. 1. UNLV had survived a close call against Ball State, winning 69-67 in the regional semifinal, and rallied from seven points down at halftime to defeat Georgia Tech 90-81 in the national semifinal.

Still, there was one game remaining. Duke, the No. 3 seed in the East, had handled Arkansas 97-83 in the other semifinal. But UNLV was a confident team as it stepped onto the court for the final time in the 1989-90 season. Every player and coach thought the Rebels were good enough to beat the Blue Devils.

But 103-73? No one, not Tarkanian and his players, not former NFL star Walter Payton, who had given the team a pregame pep talk, not Dick Vitale, the ESPN announcer who had jumped on the UNLV bandwagon, not the 17,765 who were in the building, thought this would be a blowout, much less an NCAA record — that still stands — for the largest margin of victory in a title game.

“We expected a closer game,” said Anderson Hunt, who started at shooting guard. “We were confident we would win, but we thought it would be a much tougher game.”

Stacey Augmon, the starting small forward, said: “I was very surprised it was that easy. But we were a team on a mission. We had so much trust in each other and in our coaches. We were really ready to play that night.”

Moses Scurry, a backup forward who was a major contributor to UNLV’s success, said: “The thing that still sticks with me is I was really surprised how easily we won.”

UNLV shot an astounding 61 percent from the floor and 57 percent on 3-pointers while holding the Blue Devils to 43 percent from the floor and 1-for-11 on 3s. Hunt scored 29 points and was voted the Most Outstanding Player, and power forward Larry Johnson dominated inside, compiling 22 points, 11 rebounds and four steals.

“I couldn’t miss at McNichols,” Hunt said from his native Detroit. “I don’t even remember hitting the rim. I just felt good shooting in that building.”

Hunt shot 12 of 16 from the floor and 4 of 7 on 3-pointers. He said the coaches deserve credit for having the team ready.

“We were always prepared, and we always played hard,” Hunt said. “That’s why we were so successful.”

Brad Rothermel was UNLV’s athletic director. It had been a tumultuous season, with the NCAA investigating the program and suspending players for things such as unpaid hotel minibar tabs and phone bills. It would fall to Rothermel to have to tell Tarkanian — sometimes on game day — that a player could not play.

“The thing of it is, our coaches had our athletes ready to play despite all the distractions,” said Rothermel, a special adviser to current UNLV athletic director Tina Kunzer-Murphy. “It’s a tribute to Tark, the staff and the players for being focused.”

Larry Chin, the team’s equipment manager, saw how everyone in the program had closed ranks and kept a tight cocoon within the team.

“It really was an us-against-the-world mentality,” said Chin, now equipment manager for the Lady Rebels basketball team. “This team had to battle through so much just to get to the Final Four. And to me, the most satisfying thing was after we won, to see the joy on the players’ faces, to see Tark smiling and happy. I’m so lucky to have been there at that time and that place.”

Augmon said the team learned a valuable lesson in 1989 when UNLV was eliminated by Seton Hall 84-61 in the regional final at McNichols.

“We understood how to make the big play at the right time,” Augmon said. “We didn’t do that when we played Seton Hall. But the next year, we got the (defensive) stop when we needed it, and it all came back to practicing hard and being mentally tough. We always felt like the games were a breather compared to practice.”

From the outset, the Rebels appeared ready. Duke point guard Bobby Hurley was playing with a stomach virus and was far from 100 percent. UNLV jumped to a 25-15 lead 10 minutes in. By halftime, the Rebels led 47-35, but there was no celebrating in the locker room.

“We all thought Duke was going to come out strong in the second half and make a run,” said Dave Rice, the Rebels’ current head coach and a reserve on the 1990 team. “I remember Coach Tark telling everyone not to let up, keep going hard. He was very worried.”

But the Duke run never materialized. Whether it was the Colorado altitude, Hurley’s illness or UNLV’s hot shooting, there was nothing coach Mike Krzyzewski could do to turn the game in his team’s favor.

As the second half progressed, UNLV turned up the heat. The pace quickened. The defense intensified. Duke’s mistakes multiplied (the Blue Devils finished with 23 turnovers). Hunt kept hitting shots.

The knockout blow — an 18-0 run in a 3:07 span — pushed the UNLV lead to 75-47.

“I knew we had it when I saw Alaa Abdelnaby and Christian Laettner at midcourt unable to get back on defense during that run,” Hunt said. “That’s when I knew it was over.”

But Tarkanian couldn’t relax. It wasn’t until about a minute remained when he finally put his hands over his head and leaned back in his chair, an acknowledgment that victory indeed was at hand. His team would finish atop the college basketball mountain with a 35-5 record and the national championship.

“The rap on Tark was he couldn’t win the big one,” Rothermel said. “After that night, you never heard that again.”

Tarkanian, who died Feb. 11 at age 84, always said winning the title was important not only for the players and coaches but Las Vegas and Nevada as well.

“That was such a great feeling, seeing Coach Tark able to enjoy the moment,” Scurry said.

Jerry Koloskie, the team’s trainer, said with each passing year, the accomplishment takes on greater personal meaning.

“When you’re in the moment, you don’t appreciate it at the time,” said Koloskie, now deputy athletic director at the University of Albany. “But looking back on it now, 25 years later, what happened in that second half was so surreal. You’re sitting on the bench with the players and the coaches, and you’re asking yourself, ‘When are they going to make their run?’ But it never happened. It was so amazing.”

In the joyous locker room, Chin recalls a brief speech by assistant coach Tim Grgurich, who put loyalty to the program above anything else.

“Gerg said it best: ‘The ghosts of Rebels past were flying around the arena, and for all the guys who ever put on the (UNLV) uniform, all the coaches who coached (at UNLV), this is for them,’ ” Chin said. “To see everything go your way and it happens in the championship game, it doesn’t get better than that.”

Augmon said Grgurich’s speech resonates more now that he’s back at UNLV as an assistant coach than at the time.

“That was a very powerful speech now that I look back on it,” he said. “There were so many guys who came before us and paved the way for us. So when we won, we won for those guys as well as for ourselves. Absolutely.

“I remember going back to the hotel and celebrating with all the alumni that were there rooting for us and sharing the win with them. That’s always one of my favorite memories from that game.”

For Hunt, his favorite memory of April 2, 1990, was the team’s overall performance.

“The fact we did it and the stage we did it on,” he said. “I don’t think anyone will win a championship game by 30 again.”

Scurry remembers climbing the ladder and snipping off a piece of the net as his favorite memory. Afterward, someone gave him the entire net.

“I still have it,” said Scurry, who lives in Las Vegas and works setting up trade shows.

For Rice, it was the victory parade that started down Fremont Street, went down the Strip and ultimately culminated with a rally at the Thomas & Mack Center.

“To be a 21-year-old junior and be in one of those convertibles riding along the parade and seeing thousands of people to come out and cheer for you, that’s something I’ll always cherish,” Rice said.

It remains arguably the greatest moment in Las Vegas sports history. An entire city came together as one for a basketball team that wanted to win as much for its embattled coach as it did for itself.

A game for the ages.

“There was no rhyme or reason in what happened,” Rothermel said. “But I doubt the community had an activity that bonded it like that national championship team.”

Contact reporter Steve Carp at scarp@reviewjournal.com or 702-387-2913. Follow him on Twitter: @stevecarprj.