For Duke fans, 1990 and 1991 were huge years. In 1990, UNLV just eviscerated Duke in the National Championship game. Afterwards, Duke coach Mike Krzyzewski said that he wasn’t sure that people understood how good UNLV had been and then he clarified that: “they were great.”
The 1991 game was obviously quite different. UNLV came into the game undefeated and looked for all the world like a team for the ages.
But it was a different team.
Vegas had lost a couple of role players who gave them a certain level of toughness and despite being undefeated, they were vulnerable, as Coach K told his team.