Most fans of modern-day college basketball would not know the team UNLV Runnin’ Rebels once was. The team defeated the Duke Blue Devils by 30 points in the championship game in 1990. A major credit for which goes to 20+ points by both Larry Johnson and Anderson Hunt. But then what happened to the Rebels’ squad in the 1991 matchup against Duke in the Final Four stage? A loss from which UNLV hasn’t seemed to recover in the last 34 years.

Well, the credit for the loss in 1991, like the win in 1990, also goes to Johnson. And we’re not the ones to say this but something the former Charlotte Hornets star himself admitted. “I say this all the time. I lost the game… Now I say this to Greg [Anthony] and he go bullsh**ting Eisen. Everybody go bullsh*t. No, we did this, we did that. But being the number one player in college that year… I lost the game. I didn’t play hard…” Johnson recently said on All The Smoke podcast. Well, one thing Johnson isn’t lying about is being the number-one player that year.

Averaging 22.7 points, 10.9 rebounds, and 1 block per game through the 1990-91 NCAA season, he earned multiple accolades. Thus becoming Consensus Player of the Year. Among the multiple awards he earned that season, the Wooden Award, Naismith Award, and USBWA Player of the Year are worth mentioning. Now, some may wonder how a player like that did not play to his potential in the 1991 NCAA Final Four.

Larry Johnson did not try to hide the fact that it was his own shortcoming. “… Was out there, lollygagging on 70-80 percent. Thinking we playing somebody we just beat about 30 the year before,” he said. And it wasn’t as if UNLV had an edge over Duke which they lost in crucial moments. As per Johnson, the game was also neck to neck. “And at the end, should I have shot the ball? Absolutely. I should have shot the ball. I choked,” he added.

The fact that the game was 43-41 in the Rebels’ favor at half-time and then 77-77 with even less than a minute left shows how close the battle was. As for Larry Johnson, he did not exactly miss the 3-point shot but the opportunity to take the shot as he passed the ball to his teammate. However, he did miss back-to-back free throws, only to make one in the third attempt upon another foul from the Blue Devils.

What would UNLV’s victory over Duke Blue Devils have meant?

A victory by UNLV over the Duke Blue Devils would have solidified their place in basketball history. Malcolm Moran, former New York Times sportswriter and later the director of IUPUI’s Sports Capital Journalism Program, highlighted the stakes for the UNLV team back then.

He emphasized that winning back-to-back championships, a feat last accomplished by UCLA between 1967 and 1973 at the time, would’ve elevated UNLV’s legacy. Such a triumph, especially if achieved with a double-digit margin, would have positioned them as one of the most dominant teams in modern college basketball.

In fact, Duke won back-to-back titles in 1991 and 1992 instead. That elevated the program and they’ve won three more since. This game wasn’t just about winning—it was about cementing UNLV’s status as potentially the best of its generation. No wonder Larry Johnson regrets not giving his best in the Final Four to this day.