Richardson played for coach Don Haskins at Texas Western (now UTEP), graduating two years before the Miners won the national championship in 1966 with an all-black starting lineup. That's the word Richardson used to describe what he tried to instill in his players as a first-time head coach at Bowie High School in El Paso, Texas in 1968. 'That's to give up yourself and put the team first.'īut those lessons Richardson taught at Arkansas didn't begin in Fayetteville. 'The fact that he had the wherewithal to not force a shot and pass the ball showed all the things Coach Richardson had been preaching to us all along,' Thurman said. It all culminated when Stewart bobbled the pass and dished to Thurman. Arkansas is the only other men's basketball team in the conference that can claim a title, won with a furious full-court style of play that had a seal of approval from President Bill Clinton, yet still sought validation for its coach from critics who couldn't look past the billowing shorts that stretched past his players' knees.Ĭoach Nolan Richardson, his unselfish cast of players - and yes, Clinton - made that unique story possible in the 1993-94 season. Florida cut down the nets in 2006 and '07. Kentucky has eight national championship teams. That unselfish answer explains how the 1993-94 Arkansas team became the most fun Southeastern Conference men's basketball champion of all time - even if it didn't always feel that way for the Razorbacks at that time. 'I get the accolades and the recognition of making the shot, but had he not bobbled the ball he probably would have taken it.

'Dwight Stewart made the most unselfish play in our program's history,' Thurman told Sporting News. MORE: Sporting News' 2018-19 All-Americansīut Thurman sees that shot through a different lens. In a little less than 10 seconds, '40 Minutes of Hell' became immortalized in NCAA Tournament lore. With that shot, Thurman broke a 70-70 tie, spurring the Razorbacks to a 76-72 victory and their first national championship. The defining sequence of Arkansas' 1994 national championship run came in the final game of its season, fittingly, with '1:00' left on the clock against Duke.Ĭlint McDaniel passed to Corey Beck, who took two dribbles to the right baseline star forward Corliss Williamson was too close, so Beck flipped a pass back to Dwight Stewart, a 6-9 center with a smooth touch he bobbled Beck's pass, but gathered control of the ball and flipped it to Scotty Thurman in the wing Thurman splashed a rainbow 3 with just a second remaining on the shot clock and 50.7 seconds left in the game.

Michigan basketball roster in 1994