No. Indiana State reached the final undefeated in 1979. By joining Slate Plus you support our work and get exclusive content. Vegas had a Final Four-record 16 steals and ultimately did what so few do: created a legacy around a team that wound up winning just one title. I’m like the apocryphal veteran of the 1972 Miami Dolphins team who busts out the Champagne when the last unbeaten NFL team loses each season: If the Runnin’ Rebels didn’t go down in history with an undefeated record, I don’t want anyone else to. Pittsburgh Coach Jeff Capel’s Perspective on One-and-Dones, No Team is Unstoppable, Not Even Zion and Duke, March Sadness: Coping with Michigan’s Brutal Defeat, NCAA Tournament Teams Dance to Predictable Rhythm So Far, LSU Breaks Through Maryland’s Zone Defense to Reach Sweet 16, 2007 Florida Gators March to Victory Over Ohio, LSU’s 1990 Dynamic Duo, Shaq & Chris Jackson. * = Conference game • @ = Road game • vs. = Neutral site/off-campus game All rankings are from Associated Press polls. This Larry Johnson highlight reel is just a glimpse at how freewheeling the offense was: UNLV was also a better team than the Wildcats—or at least a more dominant one. Perhaps most important, UNLV had given us the gift of the most humiliating defeat Duke ever suffered the year before in the NCAA title game. The best NCAA tournament ever, from start to finish. The Runnin' Rebels, coached by Jerry Tarkanian, entered the season as defending national champions and entered the 1991 NCAA tournament unbeaten, but lost in the national semifinal to eventual champions Duke when Anderson Hunt's desperation three in the final seconds bounced off the backboard and into the hands of a Duke player, Bobby Hurley, ending a 45-game winning streak that dated back to the previous season. No. my 9-year-old self asked. He boxed them, and he won. No. 11 Loyola Marymount 111, No. Question, Comment, Feedback, or Correction? 15 Northeast Louisiana 63, West Slate relies on advertising to support our journalism. This isn’t the NBA where you need to be consistent in a best of seven series. No. 8 North Carolina 83, No. The nickname "Runnin' Rebels" is unique to men's basketball at UNLV. In the Final Four, the unthinkable happened. I’m not ruling it out. Two of the all-time buzzer-beating moments in tourney history happened in 1990. Texas 73, Purdue 72, West No. 12 Brigham Young 47 I was a rebellious teenager; they were the Runnin’ Rebels. 10 Texas 100, No. No. The Rebels breezed through the regular season—handily defeating No. 1. 1 UNLV 102, No. 8 Ohio State 84, No. Copyright © 2000-2020 Sports Reference LLC. roster A list or plan showing turns of duty or leave… Michigan State 75, Murray State 71 ends up being the only 1-16 game to ever go to overtime; Northern Iowa sinks a 3 with two seconds to go to upset No. Do you have a blog? Find out more. UNLV was scheduled to play at Virginia Commonwealth on Dec. 2. 1 Oklahoma 77, No. 4 La Salle 79, No. You likely know this one. In Dream Team, acclaimed sports journalist Jack McCallum delivers the untold story of the greatest team ever assembled: the 1992 U.S. Olympic Men’s Basketball Team that captivated the world, kindled the hoop dreams of countless children around the planet, and remade the NBA into a global sensation. 2 Kansas 79, No. 2 Purdue 75, No. Our reasoning for presenting offensive logos. You’ve run out of free articles. The team played its home games in the Thomas & Mack Center, and was a member of the Big West Conference; it would join the Western Athletic Conference in 1996 and become a charter member of its current conference, the Mountain West Conference, in 1999. Both spent the entire regular season at No. Elmore Spencer was on his third college when he got to UNLV. Three players from the Runnin’ Rebels were drafted in the top 12 after that season; Kentucky should match or exceed that total in this year’s NBA draft. most humiliating defeat Duke ever suffered, year’s absurdly dominant women’s Huskies team, so slow that the president is endorsing rule changes. 7 Georgia 88 14 Richmond 46 Texas 102, Xavier 89. If it had been possible to include audio clips in research papers back then, I would have cued up “One Shining Moment.” It was predestined. The first from UConn’s Tate George, who hit a game-winner in the Sweet 16 against Clemson. They were the last team to enter the NCAA tournament unbeaten until Wichita State did it in 2014 and Kentucky in 2015. 4 Arkansas 68, No. Join our linker program. 3 Iowa in the first round. No. Won West Regional Semifinal (83-66) versus #4 Utah Subscribe to our Free Newsletter, This Month in Sports ReferenceFind out when we add a feature or make a change. Come tournament time, UNLV looked poised to make history, and I was ready for it. University of Rhode Island head coach David Cox recently announced several additions to his staff, among them Kevin Sutton, a well-respected coach and terrific... YurView uses cookies to improve your experience. Coach Jerry Tarkanian, who was mourned and celebrated in the most Vegas way possible after his death earlier this year, recruited players who were as exciting on the court as they were considered eligibility risks off it, and he thumbed his nose at the NCAA while doing so. UNLV 131, Loyola Marymount 101 East Duke 79, Connecticut 78 (OT) Midwest Arkansas 88, Texas 85 NATIONAL SEMIFINALS: UNLV 90, Georgia Tech 81 Duke 97, Arkansas 83 NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP: UNLV …