25 years later, UNLV players still feel the heartbreak of losing to Duke

Thomas Hill can recall the exact moment when he knew Duke would achieve one of the biggest upsets in NCAA tournament history: it was during the pre-game lineup introductions.

“UNLV were so cool and nonchalant like, ‘Yeah, it’s going to be a cakewalk. Yeah, we’re about to go back-to-back and go undefeated,‘” Hill, Duke’s starting two guard, says today. “I looked over at Brian [Davis] and said, ‘We got these MF’s. We got these dudes because they are taking us lightly. They don’t think we can beat them.’”

UNLV had reason to be confident entering the 1991 national semifinal game. The Runnin’ Rebels were the defending national champions on a 45-game winning streak. In their quest to be the first undefeated men’s college basketball champion since the 1975-76 Indiana Hoosiers, UNLV, at 34-0, had obliterated the so-called competition: 32 of their 34 victories were by double digits. And their opponent in the Final Four was the same team they had defeated 103-73 in the previous year’s national championship.

But what was pegged a mismatch became one of the most compelling games in NCAA history, with the fallout ushering in a new era in college basketball. The 1991 Final Four birthed the Duke dynasty, giving Mike Krzyzewski the first of his five championships. The semifinal upset also ended the run of one of the most culturally influential college basketball teams ever. With their black sneakers, anti-establishment attitude and gold fronts, Jerry Tarkanian’s Rebels embodied youth and hip hop culture—2Pac rocked the school’s gear in the “Brenda’s Got a Baby” video—before the Fab Five even existed. But that wide-ranging influence was rooted first in UNLV’s dominance on the basketball court. Twenty-five years later the question is still asked: How did Duke pull it off?

Losing the most lopsided championship game in tournament history had battered Duke’s psyche. Some Duke players reportedly cried in the locker room after the 103-73 defeat and starting point guard Bobby Hurley later admitted that during the summer of 1990 he had recurring dreams of swimming with sharks. (Rebel coach Jerry Tarkanian’s nickname was Tark the Shark.) But with three new starters the 1990-91 Duke squad was a much different team both in roster and disposition. “We were a little more focused and more mature,” Thomas Hill says. “We were tougher and more defensive-minded. We definitely weren’t backing down from anyone.”

Duke had also added a freshman sensation. When asked over email to name the most significant change from the 1990 team, Hurley simply replied: “Grant Hill.”

Yet the risk of a mental hangover persisted. As motivation, Krzyzewski told his players in a brief aside that his 1985-86 team, which lost the national championship to Louisville, was the best collective he had coached. “We wanted to show him that we were his best team,” Grant Hill says. “We had something to prove.”

Bobby Hurley adds, “Coach K did a tremendous job instilling confidence in us in the week leading up to the rematch with UNLV.”

On the court Duke trained for UNLV’s length, athleticism and speed. To mimic the Runnin’ Rebels’ swarming defense -- which shifted between man-to-man and the Amoeba, a 1-1-3 zone that combined ball pressure and corner traps with man-to-man concepts -- Duke starters played 5-on-7 against the bench in practice.

Led by AP All-Americans Stacey Augmon and Larry Johnson, UNLV appeared unbeatable. The Runnin’ Rebs lived up to their nickname, sprinting on fast breaks off misses and turnovers, but they were also a juggernaut in the half court. Point guard Greg Anthony skillfully ran the offense often pounding the ball to Johnson, the college Player of the Year, or finding Anderson Hunt behind the three-point arc.

“I was a fan of theirs,” Grant Hill says. “I would watch their games. I still have the game when they played Arkansas at Arkansas -- when Larry Johnson swung on Todd Day and missed -- on tape. I should get it converted.”

Duke’s gameplan against UNLV mirrored every David’s game plan for Goliath: manage the game, be efficient on offense, no fast breaks, no turnovers, be aggressive and sprinkle in a hard foul every once in awhile. As for specific tactics, Duke sagged an extra defender, often center George Ackles’ man, on Johnson whenever he caught the ball down low.

Duke’s game plan worked from the opening tip, with the Blue Devils hitting their first five shots for a 13-5 lead. Running their offense above the three-point line created spacing for Hill, who befuddled Johnson with his quickness. Christian Laettner, a progenitor of the stretch big, further opened up the court with long jump shots. And Hurley controlled the tempo, knowing when to attack in transition and when to be patient. “I realized I had to play a near perfect game to beat that team,” he says.

Though UNLV led 43-41 at halftime, Duke remained confident.

“They had blown everyone out that year,” Grant Hill says. “Our attitude was that if we keep it close, the pressure is on them. We had been in close games. We won some. We lost some, but we had experience that they didn’t have. As the game wore on at timeouts, at halftime we were like, ‘Yo, we can win this.’”

Duke assurance grew with every break they caught in the second half: Ackles picked up his fourth foul minutes after halftime, an ankle injury hobbled his backup, Elmore Spencer. Anthony was icing his shooting hand during timeouts, Hunt was also banged up, UNLV was assessed a technical for protesting a hard foul by Bobby Hurley, countless 50/50 calls went Duke’s way including an egregious non-call on Laettner with 1:31 remaining.

The game turned when Anthony fouled out with 3:51 remaining. An Ackles tip-in on the ensuing possession pushed the lead to five, but UNLV was disjointed without their point guard and Duke went on a 6-0 run to pull ahead 77-76. Johnson then tied the game after hitting one of three free throws -- Thomas Hill was called for a lane violation.

Hill almost atoned for his mistake, missing a short pull-up, but Laettner grabbed the offensive rebound and was fouled. After a timeout, he calmly swished both free throws. Duke led 79-77 with 12.7 seconds left in the game.

Johnson brought the ball up for UNLV on their final possession, and, for a moment, it appeared he would attempt a potential game-winning three-pointer. But he picked up his dribble and passed to Hunt, who was about 30 feet from the basket. A contested desperation heave didn’t have a chance, clanging off the backboard. The perfect season was over, and so was the pressure that accompanies maintaining perfection.

“As great a team as that UNLV team was, we were a pretty darn good team too,” Grant Hill says. “In hindsight, I think it’s less of a surprise that we won that game than when it happened. We had three of the top college players of all time, but we didn’t know that then.”

“It still hurts. It still hurts,” Stacey Augmon says when reached a few days before the 25th anniversary of the game. “I still look at those games like, ‘Wow’ when I see the level we were playing. My hat off to Coach Tark for getting us to play together and play that hard all the time. We all loved him.” Tarkanian died in February 2015 at the age of 84.

Augmon would like to refute a few notions surrounding the upset. “I don’t think we were overconfident,” he says. “We knew we had a target on our back in every game and had to play our best.”

He also doesn’t put stock in the theory that UNLV did not execute down the stretch because of a lack of playing close games.

“Um, no. It was the lack of having our point guard out there. Greg was our leader.”

The Duke and UNLV programs went on wildly divergent paths following the game. With NCAA sanctions banning UNLV from postseason play, Tarkanian announced in June 1991 that he would resign after the upcoming season. The Runnin’ Rebels have one Sweet Sixteen appearance since 1991. Duke, meanwhile, won the first of five National Championships (1991, 1992, 2001, 2010, 2015) two nights later.

“Beating that UNLV team was a pivotal moment in Duke basketball history,” Grant Hill says. “It legitimized us as a serious program. We became a great program at that moment.”

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