Why did Marty Clark ruin your life in 94? I'm not sure why you expected anything different out of him lol. To me that game was lost 30 seconds in when Grant Hill busted his tailbone and was undercut going up for the lob. His explosiveness was gone after that, that Duke was even in the game was surprising to me considering how much Hill had to do with Duke's success that year. Although Collins and Lang were serviceable, it was pretty much Hill moving to PG that carried the team. Ahh man, how close was Lang to blocking that Thurman shot, damn.
Anyway, you're spot on about the 1990 team. I distinctly remember a conversation with my dad and how we expected 91 to be a down year comparatively. Of course some of that was because of how thorough the beating was in the Finals, but also losing three senior starters, you just couldn't at that time see a team 'getting better.' Of course we didn't know how good Hill could be (and it turns out he didn't know how good he could be until he was a senior.) The difference in the game between 90 and 91 though was Bobby Hurley (and of course Laettner's progression to a dominant player.) Turns out if your PG doesn't shit the bed (Hurley literally had diarrhea and was shown on national tv running to the locker room during the game lol) you have a shot to win.
When it's one game you never know, and that's exactly why MSU fans should believe they have a shot. Hell, if you watched the UConn and Louisville games and didn't know anything about either team you'd think MSU was the heavy favorites. They can do it one more time.
