Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, April 3, 1990 TAG: 9004030430
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Bill Brill
DATELINE: DENVER LENGTH: Medium
Nevada-Las Vegas has a combination of junior college transfers, Proposition 48 casualties, politically active Greg Anthony and a sad-faced coach who, even after his greatest triumph, was worrying about a basketball video he was scheduled to make today in Tulsa, Okla.
That's how much confidence Jerry Tarkanian had months ago, when he scheduled the business deal, that he would be sitting on basketball's throne Monday night.
The team Tark put on the floor against Duke, the rabbits (Anthony, Anderson Hunt and Stacey Augmon) and the bulls (Larry Johnson and Moses Scurry), put on the most impressive performance ever in the NCAA Tournament.
Surely, the greatest rout ever, 103-73, supports that.
Since all Tark's superstars return - or have said they'll be back - it may be that the only people standing between UNLV and a repeat championship are the enforcers.
NCAA enforcers, that is.
The Rebels surely will start next season ranked No. 1, as they were this season. The only question is: Will they be eligible for the NCAA Tournament?
The longstanding investigation, primarily into the recruitment of Lloyd Daniels four years ago, should be resolved in the spring.
Unless all the rumors are untrue - or unproven - the Rebels may be doing their running in the jailhouse. Their toughest opponent may well be the NCAA.
That's the way it has been for the past 13 years, ever since the NCAA placed UNLV on probation and demanded that Tarkanian be suspended.
He got an injunction, remained as coach, and produced the best record in the nation while reaching two previous Final Fours without winning a title.
But this team, given the inside game it needed by 250-pound Johnson, was his finest.
Astonishingly, UNLV might have lost in the regionals if a backup guard from Ball State hadn't frozen at the trigger with a wide-open 3-point attempt and his team down two as the clock ran out.
Given that reprieve, the killer Sharks demolished Loyola Marymount by 30, came from seven down at the half to stomp Georgia Tech, and then made Duke look like an intramural team.
This was no ordinary team. This was a team that dominated as nobody has since John Wooden's UCLA teams ended their run 15 years ago.
So how come the Rebels weren't celebrating?
They were calm, gracious and subdued. Perhaps it was, as Anthony suggested, that they were waiting until they arrived home, where they are truly loved.
"I don't feel anything, to tell you the truth," Anthony said.
He is the team spokesman, the leader who played through a broken jaw. He's tough and bright and observant, and, like the rest, has grown weary of the outlaw image that won't go away.
"Maybe it will sink in when we get home," he said.
That is where the Rebels feel comfortable. Within the confines of their gambling town, where they can hide behind the bright lights, away from the national attention.
They have picked up fans with their style of play, among them former NFL great Walter Payton, who asked Tarkanian on Monday if he could talk to the team.
"He gave an inspiring speech," Tark said. "It was so beautiful that after it was over, all the players hugged him."
But not everybody loves Vegas. Tark knows, and if he can't forget, he tries to forgive.
As for the players, Johnson said, "You can call us bad. You can call us thugs. You can call us hoodlums. But at the end of that, please, call us national champions, too."
You can call us bad guys, you can call us thugs. And you can call us national champions."
Assuredly.
by CNB