It was several minutes before the University of Arkansas would take on a tough Tulsa team in Dallas’ old Reunion Arena, aptly dubbed Barnhill South, in the NCAA Tournament’s Sweet 16.
The date was March 25, 1994, and the crowd got more excited when President Bill Clinton strolled down the steps, shaking hands and greeting people.
Tubby Smith coached the Hurricane, and they were the only close nonconference game the Razorbacks had all season, losing 93-91 in overtime in Tulsa. Arkansas had outscored its 10 nonconference opponents by 356 points.
Tulsa was good, having beat UCLA and Oklahoma State to get to the Sweet 16.
A short sidebar here, your trusty scribe was already in his seat on press row when the cell phone rang. It was John Robert Starr, my boss. He didn’t ask, he ordered me to get an interview with President Clinton, who was surrounded by secret service agents, which didn’t matter to Starr.
Slowly, yours truly approached the president and about 20 feet away was stopped by two agents. My heart was pounding, but suddenly Billy recognized me and said it was OK. A quick interview was done, story filed for page 1A and was still settled in before the opening tip.
Arkansas won 103-84, and the most asked question in the press room by media from all over the country after the game was, “You know the President of the United States personally?”
Against Michigan, by then the Fab Four, Nolan Richardson went big to combat Juwan Howard, starting Darnell Robinson instead of Clint McDaniel. Then he put McDaniel back in the game and turned his press into a pressure cooker forcing 16 Wolverine turnovers. It was a ploy he used several times that season.
Arkansas led by nine at the half and won 76-68, and it was on to Charlotte to face Arizona. Duke, which had won two of the last three national championships, was taking on Florida.
It was a tough Final Four. Arkansas was the only No. 1 seed to survive, because No. 2 seed Duke beat No 1 Purdue and No. 2 Arizona beat No. 1 Missouri. No. 1 North Carolina went out in its second game at the hands of Boston College, which was eventually eliminated by No. 3 seed Florida.
The Razorbacks weren’t playing with the same confidence as they had all season until Richardson called for his full-court press, and the Hogs went on a 11-0 run in the first half and the game was tied 41-41 at the half.
In the second half they used a 11-1 run to take a lead and not look back in their 91-82 win. Duke beat Florida and the talk began about smart teams beating less smart teams. A Detroit columnist started it be predicting the smartest team would win, but he was smart enough not to name a team.
On that Monday night there would be no debate about rocket thrust to the moon. It was all about basketball and Mike Krzyzewski, who is the winningest Division I coach in history with 1,124 victories and now owns five national championship rings, and Richardson matched wits the entire game.
The game was tied at 70-70 when Dwight Stewart bobbled a pass but recovered quickly and sent the ball to Scotty Thurman who nailed a deep high three with 50.7 seconds left, and a sigh went down the Duke bench.
The Hogs would make three free throws to clinch their first NCAA basketball championship, 76-72.
Starting today and highlighting with tomorrow’s noon game against Ole Miss the 1993-1994 Razorbacks coaches and players will be honored for what they accomplished a quarter of a century ago. Something for Razorbacks fans to celebrate.