The UNLV Runnin' Rebels were favored to win back-to-back NCAA men's basketball titles in 1991 and become college basketball's first repeat champs since the Indiana Hoosiers in 1975-76.
UNLV was the No.1 ranked team in college basketball the entire season. They entered their Final Four showdown with Duke with a 34-0 record on the season and with all but one of their wins coming by double digits.
Overall, the Rebels had a 45-game winning streak heading to that game. But in one of the biggest upsets in March Madness history, their title hopes went down the drain.
Former Charlotte Hornets and New York Knicks star Larry Johnson, who was the best player on that UNLV team, took the blame for the defeat.
"I say this all the time, I lost the game," said LJ recently on the All the Smoke Podcast. "Now I say this to Greg, he go bullsh**, in the eyes of everybody go bullsh** 'Nah, we did this, we did that.' But being the number one player in college that year, everyone here, All the Smoke, I lost the game. I didn't play hard. I was out there lollygagging on 70, 80 percent, thinking we playing somebody we just beat by 30 the year before."
One of the best teams in NCAA history
The 1991 UNLV men's basketball team was arguably one of the best in college basketball history not to win a championship. Four of its starters - LJ, Stacey Augmon, Greg Anthony, and George Ackles were drafted into the NBA, with Johnson, Augmon, and Anthony as first-round picks.
They however won the NCAA title the previous year. And interestingly, they beat the same Duke squad 103-73 in one of the most lopsided March Madness title games of all time. As LJ said, perhaps they became overconfident because of that win. Personally however, as the best player in the nation that year, he let his team down.
"But it was close the whole game, and it wasn't with me," added Johnson. "We up four, we up five, then they'll tie it up. We go on that little run again. But I was lollygaggin'. I was thinking about the league. I said this before: I'm not snitching. I always say I lost that game. And at the end, should I shoot the ball? Absolutely, I should've shot the ball. I choked."
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LJ was held to just 13 points in the title game
Down to their last possession, after Christian Laettner gave Duke a 79-77 lead, Johnson brought the ball up and looked like he was going to take a three-pointer on the wing. But he decided to pass the ball to Anderson Hunt, who ended up taking the possible game-winner and missed it.
LJ scored only 13 points on ten shots while playing 39 minutes. He was outscored by Hunt, who had 29, and Anthony, who added 19. That season, Johnson averaged 22.7 points per game on 13.3 field goal attempts per game. So you can't fault him for blaming himself for that loss.
It was a sorry loss for the Runnin' Rebels, whose starters could have turned pro a year earlier but decided to return for their senior season to win back-to-back titles. In a consolation of sorts, LJ, Augmon, and Anthony ended up as lottery picks, with Ackles going 29th overall.
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