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Published Thursday, April 1, 2010 | 2:06 p.m.
Updated Thursday, April 1, 2010 | 3:12 p.m.
Everyone thinks UNLV has a heated rivalry with Duke and that I have hard feelings toward their program because of the Final Four loss in 1991.
But I have a great respect for the Duke program and coach Mike Krzyzewski. We have a great relationship. I love Mike.
He used to come on my radio show every year and say great things about the kids I coached at UNLV. He would marvel about their athletic ability and tell me what great people those kids were. That shows how classy he is.
His Duke teams play a lot like my teams at UNLV in that they play tough halfcourt defense and they over-play the passing lane.
But I won't be pulling for Duke on Saturday against West Virginia. I will be rooting for my friend Bob Huggins' team.
Bob is one of my closest friends in coaching. It's hard to pull for one team or another, but I am pulling for Huggins because he has never been to a championship game.
West Virginia has a team that can beat Duke. They play physical defense and shoot the ball well. It's going to be a great game. If I had to pick, it would be West Virginia because of its defense. Huggins always tells me how his players physically beat-up whoever they match-up against.
In the other semifinal, I love this Butler team.
I have never met their coach, but I would really like to meet him. I'm going to send him a note anyway and let him know what a good job he is doing.
I love how they play defense. Every time I watch them, I like them more. I picked UTEP against them in the first round, thinking the No. 5 seed was too high. But they are for real.
I think they will beat Michigan State. This is not a typical Michigan State team — they should have lost all four games they've played in the tournament.
They should have lost the first game to New Mexico State, and New Mexico State isn't a very good team. That lane violation call that cost New Mexico State was one of the worst calls I've seen in the tournament. That was a brutal call. You hate to see a team lose that way.
The Final Four is one of the greatest events of all time. We went three of my last five years at UNLV and it was the most exciting time of my career.
I remember each one of those Final Four games like it was yesterday.
Our first trip was in 1977 and we lost by one point to North Carolina. We were up 12 points in the second half and our big man, Larry Moffett, was causing all kind of trouble on the inside.
But he broke his nose when he was accidentally elbowed by Glen Gondrezick. He missed about 10 minutes of game time, and when he came back, the game was tied.
It took us 10 years to get back in 1987 and we lost to Indiana, 97-93, in a game that went back and forth. Gerald Paddio had a 3-pointer go halfway down that would have won the game for us with a few seconds to play. We were forced to foul and they won by four.
We were back in 1990, the year we won it. Our motto that entire year was to not let the game go down to the last whistle. We told our guys we had to win convincingly.
Duke was a very good team, but it was one of those games where everything went perfect for us. If we would have played Duke the next night, the game would have went down to the wire — that's what happened in 1991 when they beat us.
If DUKE wins, I'm gonna be sick.
same here anybody but Puke please
My favorite team will always be the Rebels.
My 2nd favorite team will always be who is playing Duke!
Duke continues to get the best seeds, the best calls, and all kinds of other favors.
Duke sucks!
Couldn't have said it better myself lcr.
Duke wears blue,
Reno wears blue,
BYU wears blue,
And I can't stand any of them!
I hate Duke as well, though I do respect coach K. Like Tark says, he is always very respectful of the opposing team, always has nice things to say, and is one of the most classy coaches around.
That being said, I can't stand the Duke program, and hope WV knocks their socks off. Butler all the way!
Re: NativeReb -- Nice observation. I concur, all three teams make me wanna puke. As I always say, "A Rebel fan in blue is a traitorous fool." Okay, I don't really always say that, but it's true!
Today I saw a SUV in a parking lot with both Duke and BYU stickers on the back.
I just happened to have a pocketknife with me...
True lcr, just look at the early round draws for Duke this year. It's almost like the committee wanted Duke in the Final Four. Oh wait they probably did.
Coach K is so overrated. Gets all the calls and still screams and whines like a baby on the bench..sorry I can't stand him.
A real insult to Coach K is the nit wit Tark acting like he is in any position to have his opinion respected about anything or anybody.Like them or not Duke has a quality program with quality student athletes,coached by a man with an untarnished record and credentials. These are things that can never be said about the towel eating Tark.
Now here comes all of the eighteen to twent- two year olds who have no idea what Tark and his tarnished career all really all about.
youngrebelfan40 Spoken like the thug element that supports this junior college on Maryland Parkway. I would have liked to have wittnessed your juvenile act of vandalism. One less knife and one broken arm on a loser.
Homer-It was a joke.
The real loser is the old man who feels its necessary to spit his vitriolic opinions about a man who is long gone out of the spotlight. Its been 20 years buddy, calm down.
The real loser is the geezer who trolls on a FAN website, trying to gather a reaction to boost his low self-esteem. Here's hoping you die in peace old man. Maybe you can forgive Tark before the end.
And if there's one thing about hate, its that when you die you can't take it with you.
Homer is a left wing nut job who's head is located where the sun don't shine.