State of the Hogs: Stewart earned international fame after title game

Duke’s Jeff Capel (5) looks to pass around the defense of Arkansas’ Corey Beck, right, and Dwight Stewart during the first half of the NCAA Final Four Championship Game in Charlotte, N.C., on Monday, April 4, 1994. (AP Photo/Ed Reinke)

— Scotty Thurman knows where everyone was standing, sitting or driving when he made the most famous shot in Arkansas basketball history on the night of April 4, 1994. Fans still want to tell him almost 25 years later.

“I get it,” said Dwight Stewart, who made the pass that led to Thurman's 3-pointer that gave Arkansas a 73-70 lead over Duke with 50.7 seconds remaining. “I have had people stop me all over Europe to tell me where they were when I made the pass.

“They recognized me as the man with the assist even across the pond when I was playing in Spain for over 13 seasons. It never got old. I loved it.”

Stewart said it’s still fun talking about the assist for Thurman’s rainbow three-pointer that broke the tie score in the final minute in the 76-72 victory over Duke in Charlotte Coliseum.

It could have been Stewart sinking the three. It was on his mind when Corey Beck penetrated the lane, was double teamed and looked to his old Memphis, Tenn., running buddy, Stewart, at the top of the key.

“I was going to shoot it,” Stewart said Friday, ahead of the festivities for the reunion of the ’94 title team. “But I didn’t have a good feel when I didn’t catch it clean.

“I was looking at the rim. I just didn’t handle it cleanly and when I fumbled it, I just kept it going to the wing for Scotty. Didn’t even think about it when I didn’t catch it clean.”

Stewart isn’t in the frame of the pictures of Thurman as Duke forward Antonio Lang charged to try to block the shot.

“I was backing up,” Stewart said. “I knew it was going to be good when he released it. I knew it.”

That was Stewart’s fourth assist of the game, tied with Beck for game high among Razorbacks. Those two combined for 19 rebounds, with Beck’s 10 leading the Hogs.

It’s the same thing those two did for three years for the Hogs - fill up the box score in almost every category. Some things they did in their three-year career didn’t show up in the box score like setting vicious screens or key defensive plays.

They were good at making the pass before the assist, too. Stewart led the Hogs with four steals in the title game, helping the Hogs force 23 Duke turnovers.

Stewart was camping at the high post in that possession, often the way the Hogs set up Corliss Williamson for single coverage on the block. When your power forward can hit threes like Stewart did, it’s hard to double team the low post. Thurman generally took up a spot on the right wing.

“I had never shot a three in high school or junior college,” Stewart said. “And, I didn’t start out shooting threes when I got to Arkansas.”

It took just a bit of convincing before Nolan Richardson saw Stewart as an outside shooter.

“I can remember the first practices at Barnhill when I got here, Coach (Richardson) told me to get on the block,” Stewart said. “He said, ‘You are a block guy.’ I’d pop out for us to swing it around the perimeter and I dropped a few shots, maybe my first threes.

“So as time went on, Coach Richardson said, ‘We can’t keep you on the block. Take that shot and it’s going to create matchup problems for Corliss.' To be honest, that did frustrate me at first because I kinda wanted to show my inside stuff every now and then.”

The beauty is that inside-out ability never left him and was the staple in a long pro career in Spain.

“I played over there 13-and-a-half seasons,” Stewart said. “I did exactly what the big men were doing in Europe then. The post players there were shooting threes. I ended up playing with a Slav that was inside-out, too. We’d take turns and wore people out.”

Stewart said he made “six figures” in his time in Spain, putting back enough to fund a real estate business with his wife, Tarsha, in Memphis. They buy houses, refurbish them and flip them. Their son, Kevion, is a 6-4 shooting guard at Chattanooga State Community College after transferring from Southern Illinois-Edwardsville.

“I don’t have any doubts I could have played in the NBA,” Stewart said. “There was a tryout in Miami that included a long discussion with Pat Riley. He told me I had a future in the NBA.”

The Heat didn’t draft Stewart. There was a brief fling in the CBA in San Diego. There were several points during his European career that it might lead to the NBA, but never did.

Stewart, nicknamed “Dog,” by his teammates, said he’s having a blast at reunion events this weekend.

“I have not been back much,” he said. “I came back about two years ago and hung out with Scotty. But we are busy and I don’t get here enough. This trip is a lot of fun, seeing all the guys.”

Stewart said his time in Europe was fun, too. The majority of his stops were in Spain, but he also played in Iceland, Yugoslavia, Macedonia and Poland. There were also some stops in Venezuela, Puerto Rico and Uruguay.

During his early years as a pro there were some NBA tryouts. He thought Cleveland was on the verge of signing him just two years after his Razorback career.

“My agent told me they were going to pick me up at one point and then another player came into the picture,” Stewart said. “I was told who it was. Man, that guy wasn’t near the player.

“If you remember, I came out of college in 1995, the year of the NBA lockout. So nothing was happening. It was just bad timing for me.”

Stewart was probably always undervalued during his Arkansas time. At 6-9, 260 pounds, he was skillful and useful as a ball handler against pressure defenses. He could rebound, set screens and pass. And, his shooting skills were wonderful. His hands were wonderful.

Brad Dunn, a former Arkansas assistant coach, mentioned all of that, but said the bottom line when describing both Stewart and Beck centered on toughness.

“They both had a very high basketball IQ and low ego,” Dunn said. “They both could screen and rebound and would make the extra pass.

“But it’s the toughness that made them special. They’d both fight you at the drop of a hat and they’d be throwing off the hat.

“If it was a dark alley, I’d want them with me and Dwight always would have your back.”

Dunn reminded that Williamson shot 62.7 percent while averaging 20.4 points in the 1993-94 season. The old coach delighted in drawing the mental picture on how much of it happened.

“Dwight was the quintessential (power forward),” Dunn said. “He’d play the high post, extend it to the 3-point line and you couldn’t guard him. Corliss would be down low. Who you going to leave to help off? Scotty? I don’t think so.

“How many times did Dog dump it down to Big Nasty? Over and over. Dog would get it high and they would front Corliss. Dog would lob it to the corner of the back board and Corliss would lay it in. They were layups or dunks and that’s how you shoot 62 percent.”

The toughness description is spot on for both Stewart and Beck. Stewart smiled as the subject came up.

“I’ve heard that before,” he said. “I do think that’s how you describe Corey.”

The two of them have been lumped together since they began to play hoops as fifth graders in an inner-city Memphis park.

“Like brothers ever since,” Stewart said, noting they were rarely apart. "He'd give me the shirt off his back."

They even had a fling at football together.

“We played football and basketball in middle school and junior high and were trying to play football as sophomores in high school,” Stewart said. “Corey played quarterback. I was tight end and defensive end. We were pretty good. Corey could throw it.”

No doubt, that was true. But that came to a halt when Memphis Fairley High School got a new basketball coach.

“Sylvester Ford came to Fairley and told us we were basketball players,” Stewart said. “It was clear, very clear. That concluded our football careers. It was the right decision.”

Both played with a physical, football-like attitude.

“Corey is one of those guys who had a big heart, a caring person,” Stewart said. “But that was off the court. He was so tough on the court.”

Stories about Beck punching Williamson in the chest before games are legend.

“He did that,” Stewart said. “Corey and I had our battles, too. We never played against each other except in pick-up games. They could be rough.”

It was a pick-up game at Barnhill soon after Thurman arrived on campus when Stewart realized what kind of shooter had joined the Razorbacks.

“Coach told us he could shoot, but you don’t really think too much about it until you see it,” Stewart said. “We were playing in Barnhill and I think Scotty made nine straight.

“The thing about it, we had a lot of guys who could shoot threes. Al Dillard and Davor Rimac came off the bench shooting threes. That’s what made our team so tough. We were 10 deep, and everyone could shoot. It was about halfway through the '94 season when I realized we were 10 deep that we could win the national title.”

The shooting depth was obvious to Beck, once a gunner. He began to concentrate on the other areas of his game.

“Corey scored in high school and junior college, but he quit shooting at Arkansas,” Stewart said. “I can remember talking to our high school coach. He asked, ‘Why won’t Corey shoot?’ He just didn’t have to do that for our team here.

“Corey just wanted to win. You look back at what he did, from middle school on, he was always on winning teams.”

You could say that about Stewart, too. They were side by side and he’s the guy who made the assist recognized around the world.