1990 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament

1990 NCAA Division I
men's basketball tournament
Season1989–90
Teams64
Finals siteMcNichols Sports Arena
Denver, Colorado
ChampionsUNLV Runnin' Rebels (1st title, 1st title game,
3rd Final Four)
Runner-upDuke Blue Devils (4th title game,
8th Final Four)
Semifinalists
Winning coachJerry Tarkanian (1st title)
MOPAnderson Hunt (UNLV)
Attendance537,138
Top scorerDennis Scott (Georgia Tech)
(153 points)
NCAA Division I men's tournaments
«1989 1991»

The 1990 NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament involved 64 schools playing in a single-elimination tournament to determine the NCAA Division I men's basketball national champion for the 1989-1990 season. It began on March 15, 1990, and ended with the championship game on April 2 in Denver, Colorado. A total of 63 games were played.

UNLV won the national title with a 103–73 victory in the final game over Duke. In doing so, UNLV set the NCAA Division I men's basketball tournament record for largest margin of victory in a championship game. UNLV's championship win marks the last time a school from a non-power conference has won the tournament. Anderson Hunt of UNLV was named the tournament's Most Outstanding Player.

This tournament is also remembered for an emotional run by the Loyola Marymount Lions (LMU) in the West region. In the quarterfinals of the West Coast Conference tournament against the Portland Pilots, Lions star forward Hank Gathers collapsed and died due to a heart condition.[1] The WCC tournament was immediately suspended and LMU, the regular-season champion, was given the conference's automatic bid to the tournament. The team defeated New Mexico State, then laid a 34-point thrashing on defending national champion Michigan, and defeated Alabama in the Sweet Sixteen (the only game in which LMU did not score 100 or more points in the tournament) before running into eventual champion UNLV in the regional final. Gathers' childhood friend, Bo Kimble, the team's undisputed floor leader in the wake of the tragedy, paid tribute to his friend by attempting his first free throw in each game left-handed despite being right-handed (Gathers was right-handed, but struggled so much with free throws that he tried shooting them left-handed for a time.)[2] Kimble made all of his left-handed attempts in the tournament.

The tournament employed a new timing system borrowed from FIBA & the NBA: when the game was played in an NBA arena, the final minute of the period is measured in tenths-seconds, rather than whole seconds as in previous years.

  1. ^ Nehus Saxon, Lisa (6 March 1990). "Winning and losing: Players, friends believed Gathers was invincible". The Vindicator. p. 11. Retrieved 16 January 2025.
  2. ^ "This Bo knows heartache, happiness". The Argus-Press. 19 March 1990. Retrieved 16 January 2025.

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