TMC 40th Part 5 Adversity Bonds Runnin’ Rebels to First UNLV NCAA Basketball Championship

Entering?the 1989-90 season, Tark had won over 400 games at UNLV with two Final Four appearances.??

The 1988-89 season laid the groundwork for the championship season. Greg Anthony had a strong debut, scoring 28 points against DePaul in the Maui Classic. Following the game, Tark offered his congratulations to him. “Greg, that was one of the best performances I’ve ever seen, but don’t do it again. We can’t be a good team if you’re scoring.”? Since Danny Tarkanian quarterbacked the 1983-84 team, the point guard first looks to pass.?

Greg Anthony was a?tough?kid. He didn't back down from a challenge. When he broke his jaw against Fresno State, instead of sitting out until it healed, he got fitted for a face muzzle. He played no differently, 34 minutes a game, earning the respect of a team that was gelling. The defense led by Stacey?Augmon’s?athleticism, wingspan and tenacity were shutting down teams.?

UNLV fans did not like Arizona. There were many stories about Arizona bad-mouthing UNLV on the recruiting trail. UNLV?ending up?in the Wildcat's locker room during the 1991 NCAA Basketball Tournament didn't help. There used to be a big, sacred basketball at the locker room exit. On their way to the court, Arizona players would slap the ball. That day, a UNLV player left his autograph on the basketball.

No. 1 ranked Arizona beat the Rebels in the regular season in Tucson.? In the first round of the sweet sixteen, they were heavily favored for the rematch. That win is in my top five. Rebels won, 68-67, but lost to Seton Hall in the Elite 8.?What or who could put UNLV over the top?

?Now, my ninth year as a Rebel fan, I could feel the momentum growing and stars aligning. In the summer of 1988,? Stacey Augmon and UNLV recruit, 6’9” Larry Johnson, roomed together while playing on the USA Basketball team. The bond they?formed?gave Johnson the last piece of incentive he needed to become a Rebel.

Had?UNLV finally found the missing part of their puzzle?

The NCAA did everything they could to rattle the team.?Before the season started, ?the NCAA suspended Moses Scurry and David Butler for class incompletes. Anderson-Hunt was?also ruled ineligible. He took out a?student loan to go to school.? Augmon and Chris Jeter were suspended for making long-distance calls during a road trip. The clincher...Travis Bice received a one-game suspension for taking a bag of peanuts from his mini bar.

What’s Bronny James NIL? $4.9 million?

The pieces were there, but it would require players to hone individual skills and better define roles. The 1988-89 team was known for their athleticism and gritty style. Anthony’s muzzled performances hardened the Rebels.? The litany of absurd NCAA penalties didn’t deter the team…it pissed them off!??

There was a deeper meaning to the second half of the season beyond winning.

The regular season ended as it started, with more drama.The past fifteen years had been a challenge for the team and UNLV. Early in the season,?UNLV beat Utah State badly, but Chris Jeter's headbutt during the game set off a brawl during the obligatory handshake?where Moses Scurry also punched Head Coach, Kohn Smith. ?Ouch!

Moses had a good excuse:

?“I didn’t hit the coach. I didn’t hit anyone with a tie on. If the coach has a tie on, I would never have hit him.”

-Moses Scurry

With their stifling defense, UNLV ranked first in field goal percentage nationwide. “We didn’t have great shooters, but we got good shots off turnovers,” said Tark.??

In the 1988-89 regular season, the Rebels suffered five losses, all of them on the road, three against top 15 teams,?

? THE MISSION CONTINUED

The Rebels easily won their first two round?NCAA Tournament?games and were feeling?good?about the Regional after Ball State's upset victory over Louisville, but had all it could do to force a turnover at?end of game to?squeak out a 69-67 win.?

The UNLV - Loyola-Marymount matchup in the Regional final generated a lot of hype. At LMU, both Bo Kimble and Hank Gathers played basketball. Before the tournament Gathers died, on court of a heart attack. LMU, like the Rebels, had found a purpose. On the way to the games, the bus was always silent.?Anthony, breaking the silence, spoke up as the Rebels passed the LMU host hotel adorned with their battle cry "Living the Dream".

“We’re going to wake Loyola up tonight."

“I knew all we had to do was break their press and we would wipe them out,” said Tark about beating LMU. Shooting at a 62% clip in the first half, they dominated with a 131-101 victory. The Final Four was in Denver, but over 8,000 Rebel fans gathered in the Thomas and Mack Center to watch the Semi Final game against Georgia Tech. Despite being behind at halftime, the Rebels came out and defensively smothered them en route to a 80-71 victory.

After Duke beat Arkansas, Tech fans?started chanting?ACC-ACC-ACC! ?Rebellious fans returned their own mantra?Big West, Big West, Big West! with a note of an indignant resignation.?

The NCAA semi-final game played out like a script written by Vince McMahon.

“Good v. Evil. East v. West. Tobacco Road v. Las Vegas Strip. Grit v. Glitz. Book worms v. Croupiers. Blue v. Red for God’s sake.”

“UNLV turned a morality play into an astonishing theater for the absurd.”

-Sports Illustrated

Anderson Hunt and Greg Anthony, UNLV's underrated backcourt, provided a punishing defense on the perimeter. “We couldn’t get the ball past half court,” exclaimed forward, Christian Laettner. With?sixteen minutes remaining, the Rebels were?leading 57-47, but In the next three minutes,?they applied an 18-point knockout punch.?

They went undefeated?in?the regular season, winning by an average 31.6 points a game.?

UNLV won its first NCAA Basketball Championship.? The banner raised at the start of the 1990-91 season did not say NCAA Champions. It read “National Champions,”?

Defiant to the end!

The NCAA carried on with their actions. They tried to suspend Tark for infractions effecting the 1977 season. ?Tark sued and won. Since the NCAA couldn't punish Tark, they tried to penalize the 1991 team by banning them from the 1990-91 post season. Tark proposed he sit out the season, but the fiercely loyal team threatened to sit too.?

The theater of the absurd.?

The media accused the NCAA of penalizing UNLV to settle a personal vendetta against Tark. In September, the NCAA stayed the sentence until the following season.?

The drama served as additional motivation for the Rebels. They went undefeated the regular season, winning by an average 31.6 points a game.?

The NCAA did not do UNLV any favors with their seed. Their second-round matchup was against Georgetown, who boasted the formidable duo of Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo. After their win, the Rebels went on to beat both Utah and Seton Hall.

Vince McMahon was back with a rematch!

Duke had a year to contemplate their final game. Hurley and Laettner, both a year older, were joined by freshmen Grant Hill, a future Hall of Famer.?The Rebels wouldn’t surprise Duke this year.

It would have been a great game for a Rebel fan to watch if we had not dismantled them last year and destroyed everyone this year.? But each possession was painstaking to watch, with the Rebels taking a two-point lead into half time. But with 3:41, Greg Anthony fouled out and Rebels lost 79-77.

For ten years, I watched the Rebels build a program that was now ready to join the elite. ?Tark's player approach attracted the attention of blue-chip players, who eagerly lined up to commit. But the controversy surrounding the Rebels and the subsequent post-season probation of 1991-92 marked the beginning of the dismantling of UNLV's basketball program.

With previous NCAA violations and potential future threats to consider, the city was split?over?whether to keep Tark. ?The NCAA's warning was a?"Death Penalty,"?comparable to the "Three Strikes Law" in several states. The NCAA gave SMU the "Death Penalty" and the university never recovered.

Instead of resolving it,?the effort to smear Tark?persisted for two years. The SUN and Review Journal took opposing sides.

The campaign reached a climax when a photo of Hunt, Butler, and Scurry sitting in a hot tub with Richard Perry, known as "the fixer," appeared on the front page of the RJ.

Tark’s team in his last season was 26-2.?

UNLV Rebel fans, who supported Tark's teams, were part of a journey for the "Holy Grail," only to face the aftermath that divided the city for decades. UNLV basketball still languishes in mediocrity.??

I was a part of over 400 Rebel home basketball games until 2001 when I joined Las Vegas Events. From therein, my wife (Vicki), her parents and I went as fans.

For those that were there for this era, I hope you enjoyed my fan story. For those that weren’t, you now know what you missed.

Next Week: I will introduce you to Daren Libonati, the third Director of Thomas and Mack Center

You will learn why, the editor of my book,?Rock Vegas,?coined the phrase "Event Edison,” for Daren.

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