1989-90 Rebels earned a spot in history books

Steve Addy

Friday, June 22, 2001 | 10:24 a.m.

With all due respect, UNLV's 1989-90 NCAA championship basketball team wasn't the most talented in school history.

Even coach Jerry Tarkanian will tell you that.

"The '91 team was by far my best one," Tarkanian said this week. "That team didn't have a close game all year. I have had coaches tell me it might have been the best defensive team ever in college basketball. After 34 wins, it was a shame we lost to Duke in the semifinals."

But therein lies the big difference between the '90 Rebels (35-5) and Tarkanian's other Final Four teams (1977, 1987, 1991). The others all lost in the semis.

The 1989-90 team, on a roll unlike few in NCAA postseason history, advanced to the championship game at Denver's McNichols Arena and hammered Duke 103-73 on April 2, 1990, setting records that haven't been broken.

In the process, the Rebels galvanized a city and became legends of college basketball -- Tark, Larry Johnson, Greg Anthony, Stacey Augmon, Anderson Hunt and the whole crew.

Tonight at Cox Pavilion, the '90 Rebels will be inducted into the Southern Nevada Sports Hall of Fame, joining their 1977 brethren (1998 inductees) as the only clubs in the Hall.

Tarkanian, also a 1998 inductee, will present the team, and several players are expected to attend.

"It's going to be a fun night," Tarkanian said from his office at Fresno State, where he has coached since 1995, three years after his fantastic 19-year run at UNLV. "That team played so great down the stretch. It became something special."

"It was a driven team," said Dave Rice, a reserve junior guard in 1990 and longtime Rebels assistant coach.

Former athletic director Dr. Brad Rothermel, also an inductee tonight, said, "It might've been the least strong of our Final Four teams, but it was a team that rose to the occasion.

"They didn't have their 'A' game every night, but they had it when they needed it. That's what you need in a one-and-out tournament situation."

That toughness was infused in the team, Rice says, when point guard Anthony broke his jaw against Fresno State in mid-February. Not only did the Rebels have two crucial games that week -- New Mexico State and Arizona -- but it was feared Anthony would miss the rest of the season.

Instead, he showed up at practice the next day wearing a hockey helmet, ready to go, and played the rest of the season with his jaw wired.

"After that, it was all business," Rice said. "The team hadn't been as together as we needed to win a championship. But Greg's injury really brought the team together. The way he came back gave him clout to be the leader and it did something for our chemistry. Any petty nonsense among the players was gone."

On the court, the Rebels hit their stride in February and didn't stop until they held the NCAA championship trophy in their hands and CBS was playing, "One Shining Moment." They won 21 of their last 22 games, an eight-point loss at UC-Santa Barbara their only blot.

It wasn't unexpected that UNLV was a contender in 1990. The Rebels returned five starters from a 29-8 team that lost to Seton Hall in the 1989 West Regional final. Plus, they had added Johnson, a prized power forward from Odessa JC in Texas.

The Rebels' ability to blend Johnson into a pat lineup was crucial. He was an immediate star, leading them in scoring with a 20.6 average and 822 points, the third-most in team history. His 457 rebounds remain the most in any UNLV season.

"There was no question that Larry was our best player. Everybody knew it," Tarkanian said. "But Larry was so unselfish. All he did was praise his teammates. He's one of the best team players I've ever been associated with."

Rice said, "All of the guys accepted Larry. It would have been easy for guys to say, 'Hey, I'm still the man here.' On media day, all the attention was on Larry. But everyone was able to raise their level of play, yet still be somewhat deferential to Larry's talent."

Finishing the regular season No. 2 in the polls behind Oklahoma, UNLV drew the No. 1 seed in the West Regional and quickly disposed of No. 16 Arkansas Little-Rock (102-72) and No. 8 Ohio State (76-65) in the opening rounds at Salt Lake City.

Then they moved on to Oakland, Calif., and survived their biggest scare of the tournament, a 69-67 victory over No. 12 Ball State.

"It seems like most teams that win the championship have one close game when it almost slips away," Rice said.

The Rebels got to the Final Four by pounding No. 11 Loyola Marymount 131-101, ending the Lions' emotional tournament run after the death of teammate Hank Gathers.

After UNLV's 90-81 comeback win over Georgia Tech and Kenny Anderson in the semifinals, sparked by Augmon's 22 points and Hunt's 20, the championship rout of Duke was an anticlimax, even if it was UNLV's first national title in any sport.

The Rebels were so dominant, the Christian Laettner-led Blue Devils were no match. An 18-0 run early in the second half turned it into the biggest walkover in Final Four history. The Rebels set final-game records for most points (103), most assists (24), most steals (16), most field goals (41) and victory margin (30), and all of the records still stand.

"A few minutes into the second half, it was apparent we were going to win," Rice admitted. "We were playing with such confidence. It was the perfect time for us to peak."

Hunt was named Final Four MVP after scoring 29 points against Duke, including 12 in the 18-0 spurt. Johnson (22 points, 11 rebounds) and Augmon (12 points, 7 assists) also made the all-Final Four team.

The team members were: Anthony, Augmon, Hunt, Johnson, Rice, David Butler, Moses Scurry, Travis Bice, James Jones, Barry Young, Stacey Cvijanovich, Chris Jeter, Bryan Emerzian, Byron Wesley, Sean Watkins and Dan Bisek. The coaches were: Tarkanian, Tim Grgurich, Cleveland Edwards, Ron Ganulin and Denny Hovanec.