As Jim tells us today, in 1991, Coach K told his team that Vegas had not been in a tight game and they wouldn’t know how to handle it.
Well they were in a somewhat tight game against Georgetown, winning by just eight points in Arizona’s McKale Center.
The Hoyas were limited offensively as they so often were under John Thompson, but the defense was very good, especially inside with Alonzo Mourning and Dikembe Mutombo, both superb shotblockers.
In the end though, Vegas won. For the first time though you got a sense that this team, as great as it was, could still be vulnerable.
Duke was looming but before the Blue Devils, the Rebels would have to play Utah and Seton Hall. UNLV would win them with relative ease and people probably came to see the Georgetown game as an aberration rather than something we’d see again. But we would, and soon.