On computer, UNLV comes out on top

Ron Kantowski, Las Vegas Sun

Saturday, Nov. 18, 2006 | 7:20 a.m.

Although it would have been impossible for the '83 Houston and '91 UNLV teams to meet in real life, anything is possible in cyberspace. Using Dave Koch's Action PC basketball, a statistical computer basketball simulation that makes it possible to match teams from different eras, we lined up the old Cougars against the old Rebels to see what might have happened had Dick Vitale ever gone back to the future.

It turns out Greg Anthony was right - the Rebels would have won.

But just barely.

In our simulation, Larry Johnson hit a basket with 43 seconds to play and Anthony sank the front end of a free throw with 24 seconds remaining to cap a second-half comeback, lifting the Rebels to an 85-83 victory.

With Anthony saddled on the bench with fouls, the Cougars took early control of the game and built a 50-42 lead at halftime. But the Rebels rallied just as Anthony predicted they would - by turning up the pressure on defense.

Both teams made 50 percent of their field-goal attempts, but Houston was charged with 24 turnovers to UNLV's 16.

Johnson scored 23 points to lead the cyber Rebels, followed by Stacey Augmon with 21, Anderson Hunt with 14 and Anthony with 12. Michael Young led Houston with 21 points while Larry Micheaux had 20, Clyde Drexler 18 and Akeem Olajuwon 13.

Drexler has said that if Houston and North Carolina State, the team it lost to "on the dunk," as Billy Packer called it on TV, met 20 times, the Cougars would have won 19.

So just for the heck of it, I ran '83 Houston and '91 UNLV through the laptop 10 times. The Rebels won the series, 7-3.

I'm not sure who covered the most.