Sonny Vaccaro interview on The Herd - "Air" film

[Alaskan_Assassin_21]

Starts slow
go to @ 6 mins



Clip ends but Sonny praises his good friends Tarkanian and John Thompson, as his favorite/best coaches because in my words their ability to connect culturally to their roster. Buy in.

Herd's last comment is being in the media room after UNLV blew our Blue Devils off the court. And he quotes Coach K praising Tarkanian i'm paraphrasing "Everyone talks of their talent but I've never seen a team buy in more to their coach. They are scary defensively. I wish my team was this way...". He concludes that Jerry was in the same room listening and became emotional to hear Coach K say those words. Sonny nodded in agreement.

 

[Neue Regel]

View embedded media

Starts slow
go to @ 6 mins



Clip ends but Sonny praises his good friends Tarkanian and John Thompson, as his favorite/best coaches because in my words their ability to connect culturally to their roster. Buy in.

Herd's last comment is being in the media room after UNLV blew our Blue Devils off the court. And he quotes Coach K praising Tarkanian i'm paraphrasing "Everyone talks of their talent but I've never seen a team buy in more to their coach. They are scary defensively. I wish my team was this way...". He concludes that Jerry was in the same room listening and became emotional to hear Coach K say those words. Sonny nodded in agreement.

Wow, very interesting tidbit. That 1990 team had ups and downs, K was very frustrated with that team at times. He was very down after that second Unc game because Duke was the better team. That was Dean's worst team in 20+ years yet they took it to Duke that year. Then the infamous Phil Henderson post-game comments after the ACC Tournament semi-final loss to Georgia Tech (and their "lethal weapon 3") about there being "a bunch of F'ing babies on this team", Duke had swept GT in the regular season in two close games. That was also the same season K confronted the Chronicle staff and he was recorded blasting them in the locker room for an article grading the players. That team finished 15th in the AP Poll but they banded together in the end and made a run to the National Championship game.

Another tidbit we've found out over these years through a couple books and a documentary on those Vegas teams is that Tarkanian was very concerned about the 1991 rematch with Duke. He knew they were better than the prior year and that Vegas had no one who could guard Laettner.

 

[bleediteveryday30]

One of my earliest memories of Duke as a kid is watching them get trounced by UNLV in that title game. I pestered my mom all day to let me stay up to watch and then cried myself to sleep, haha Thanks for posting, AA!

 

[Neue Regel]

One of my earliest memories of Duke as a kid is watching them get trounced by UNLV in that title game. I pestered my mom all day to let me stay up to watch and then cried myself to sleep, haha Thanks for posting, AA!

Only one of 2-3 games in my life that I had to walk away from without finishing. Vegas just turned into a massacre and it was too soul wrenching to sit through it. The other was the 1991 ACC Championship game with unc-Chapel hill branch, Duke swept them in the regular season but those group of seniors curlina had were of single minded purpose to get revenge and they started red hot and really got into the heads of some of the younger Duke players. Laettner kind of melted down a little bit as did some others as they were sniping at each other some as the heels kept pouring it on. I just turned it off and left the house during the second when the spanking was fully en force.

Praise to K though who told them after the game they were going to win it all. That took some guts, after some hangover sluggishness early in the NCAA opener when K lit into them, Duke really started rolling in that Regional. They really regrouped after the ACC Title debacle.

 

[bleediteveryday30]

Only one of 2-3 games in my life that I had to walk away from without finishing. Vegas just turned into a massacre and it was too soul wrenching to sit through it. The other was the 1991 ACC Championship game with unc-Chapel hill branch, Duke swept them in the regular season but those group of seniors curlina had were of single minded purpose to get revenge and they started red hot and really got into the heads of some of the younger Duke players. Laettner kind of melted down a little bit as did some others as they were sniping at each other some as the heels kept pouring it on. I just turned it off and left the house during the second when the spanking was fully en force.

Praise to K though who told them after the game they were going to win it all. That took some guts, after some hangover sluggishness early in the NCAA opener when K lit into them, Duke really started rolling in that Regional. They really regrouped after the ACC Title debacle.

That game also made me cry, 😂 thank God for 3 weeks later!

 

[christophero]

The only thing I remember about the first UNLV championship game is them repeatedly dunking on us and Hurley repeatedly running to the bathroom.