Arkansas Razorbacks Basketball

Bud Walton Arena had a sense of excitement and enthusiasm that had not been felt since the mid-90s when Nolan Richardson unleashed his forty minutes of hell on sheepish SEC foes. 

Teams would go into Bud Walton Arena confident and feeling good, while leaving concerned and scared.  But that is old, since Nolan Richardson was fired in 2002 there has been mediocrity and a sense of failure around the Arkansas program that once called itself National Champion.

Razorback fans now have a feeling of nostalgia as a former Kentucky Wildcat by the name of John Pelphrey has made his Hawgs play with the old school ways that get the fans buzzing.  Forty minutes of hell?  More like forty minutes of Pel.

The Razorbacks are flying high as the top ten tandem from the Big XII conference, Oklahoma and Texas, have come into Bud Walton Arena and left with their tails between their legs, poor Blake Griffin and Damion James

Word of advice to future opponents.  Don't come into Bud Walton ranked.  Arkansas is 6-0 against the past six ranked opponents at home.  If you are ranked and happen to find yourself in Fayetteville, just expect a loss.

What is funny is the Razorbacks were picked by the media and coaches to finish sixth in the SEC Western Division in the pre-season, I am sure many of the experts and pundits would like to vote again.

As great as the wins for the Arkansas program were, how serious should the nation take this Arkansas team?  Looking at the non-conference schedule for the Razorbacks they defeated Texas and Oklahoma as their resume highlighting victories.  They also defeated Stephen F. Austin, giving Arkansas three victories over RPI top 100. 

Outside of those victories, the Arkansas have faced mediocre to poor teams.  Arkansas' only blemish was on the road at a tough Missouri Valley arena to Missouri State.

Sure, Arkansas has defeated two good teams in Oklahoma and Texas.  However, but games were at home.  The Razorbacks really do not have a true road test outside of Missouri State.  It will be very interesting when John Pelphrey takes his team to Ole Miss and Florida in back to back games next week.

Now the Razorbacks are in the rest of country's  eye shot as a potential contender this March.  Yes, contender.  Pelphrey does have talent with freshman guard Courtney Fortson and junior forward Michael Washington.

The Hawgs must now look at themselves in the mirror and realize the SEC will be gunning for them.  They must fight through the pressure and keep up the good play, otherwise the wins over Oklahoma and Texas will be for nothing.

Bruce Pearl, I see that your Vols are ranked.  Be aware that you do go to Bud Walton Arena, the Razorbacks are ready to unleash some Pel on you.

Believe it or not, the North Texas game wasn’t televised in California. So, I asked my dad—Little Rock resident, Razorback fan, and former freshman sensation on the Vanderbilt University basketball team—to share his observations from having attended the tussle at Alltel. Here’s his report.

In their first game since the season-changing victory over fourth-ranked Oklahoma, the Hogs took on North Texas at Alltel Arena in Little Rock. This site has not seen stellar play by the Hogs of late, as they lost at Alltel last year to Appalachian State and to Bobby Knight’s Texas Tech Red Raiders the year before.

Fans outside were holding up fingers looking for tickets as we entered, and the inside of the arena was packed to the hilt. The Hogs seemed cocky as the game got underway, and they jumped out to an early 9-3 lead, but North Texas was calm and ran their patterns with patience. They always seemed to get open looks for their shots, most of which they hit. They were small, but athletic and disciplined.

Meanwhile, the Razorbacks looked sloppy and were forcing shots on offense, missing most of them. After playing all-world in the Oklahoma game, Courtney Fortson turned the ball over several times and missed all but one of his patented spinning off-balance shots in the paint in the first half. North Texas scored 15 unanswered points during this stretch to take a 35-27 lead, much to the dismay of the fans.

Coach Pelphrey and crew then turned up the defensive intensity a full notch with half-court traps and full-court pressing, and by halftime, the Hogs were only down 42-40. THE MAN for the Hogs in this half was Michael Washington, who had 20 points, many boards, and was hitting his charity stripe shots.

In the second half, things remained tight for a while as the game progressed to 53-53, but then the Hogs caught on fire and the place became bedlam as the Razorbacks went on a run to take a 16-point lead. Again, Washington was the finisher and had scored 30 points just eight minutes into the second half. Fortson settled down and his assists were flowing, along with several incredible double-pumping drives for scores.

The play of the game: Courtney drove into the paint and spun 90 degrees in the air to his right. While looking at two Razorbacks on the right whom everyone thought one would receive the pass, he blindly flipped the ball backward over his shoulder to Washington on the left, who delivered a thunderous jam. The house came down, and the decibel level was as wild as during the Hogs’ heyday.

We coasted from there to the victory. Courtney missed a lot of free throws in this game...we’ll need those in games down the line when the competition gets bigger and tougher, especially since he’s the man who’ll be handling the ball. Stefan Welsh continued his accurate marksmanship from three-point land and from the free throw line as well.

Rotnei Clarke hit some nice treys and played hard-nosed hustling ball. Marcus Monk’s output wasn’t as amazing today as in the Oklahoma game, but he was solid and continues to hit his free throws. Michael Sanchez had a quiet game, getting outrebounded by the smaller but quicker opposition.

All in all, the Hogs are improving and doing way better than most of us thought they would at this stage. They’re playing hard, tough, and scrappy (though not always smart). Hog hoops is on the rise again!

Yesterday my esteemed Razorback Expats colleague J. Hawg 3 wrote an impassioned post about why this year’s Arkansas basketball team simply isn’t that good. They haven’t done anything yet, he argued, so don’t get excited.

It’s quite possible that he’s right, but I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t feel the same way. In fact, although I agree they haven’t done much yet, I feel like there are plenty of reasons to be excited about the state of the hoops team. So, in the spirit of a lively and vigorous debate, here are my observations from the game against Northwestern State.

First, the obvious: Courtney Fortson is the real deal. More than that, actually. As John Pelphrey himself said, "He’s special." He’s on a path to be one of the Razorback all-timers, and I don’t think I’m premature in saying that. Savor every game, because you’ll miss him when he’s gone.

Another note about Fortson: The kid is a born leader. He has presence. You can tell from the way he commands both the action and his teammates on the court. He probably popped out of his mom’s womb and started barking out plays to the hospital staff. We haven’t had a floor general like this on the team since Corey Beck. (Sorry, Kareem.)

Even though Rotnei Clarke’s shot was off against Northwestern State, I liked his style. To be honest, I was sort of expecting a generically stiff, white-guy three-point ace, but he has some flair to his game...he had a nice Iversonesque pass off the high dribble in the first half, and his (thwarted) alley-oop to Fortson was impressively audacious.

J. Hawg accused Stefan Welsh of being a ball hog, but the guy (Stefan, not J. Hawg) hit six of his eight three-point attempts. He was obviously feeling it, so I don’t see much room for complaint there. (And yes, I realize that 75 percent three-point shooting probably won’t be the norm for Welsh, but let’s at least savor the moment.)

I actually kind of agree with J. Hawg about Michael Washington. It was embarrassing how many times he got his shot blocked in the first half. But he’s had plenty of big games already this season, so I’ll be charitable and chalk it up to holiday rust. Still, he’ll need to get meaner for the Hogs to succeed in SEC play.

More than any one player or single play, though, I was impressed with the Razorbacks’ energy. Yeah, they were playing a crappy team, but that didn't matter; they brought it. They brought it from the opening tip through the end of a blowout, and that’s not something to take lightly.

How many times did a player from the previous era say something like, “I guess they just wanted it more than we did” after yet another frustrating conference loss? Even when this team loses, I doubt you’ll be hearing that quote again. (Give credit to Pelphrey and, perhaps even more so, Fortson for that.)

The bottom line for me is that this team is fun. They’re scrappy and spunky. They’re too young to know they’re not actually that great. They’re not going to win every game, and they may even lose a lot of games, but they’ll always play hard, and they’ll always try for the ballsy alley-oops.

No matter what their final record is (and I suspect it will be better than the preseason prognostications), this is a team I’ll enjoy rooting for.

In the aftermath of last Saturday’s spirited win over Stephen F. Austin, a pleased John Pelphrey told the media that he doesn’t need any Christmas gifts under his tree on Thursday morning. “I just got [my present],” he said, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

I don’t know how many of you will agree with my sentiments, but I feel that Pelphrey has given Hog hoops fans a nice Christmas present: at long last, the Razorbacks are again fun to watch.

Are they good? Well, we’ll should get an answer over the next month or so. But even if this team turns in a decidedly ho-hum record, I get the feeling they will still be enjoyable to watch and will provide some memorable moments along the way.

From the dazzling all-around game of Courtney Fortson, to the eye-popping improvement of Michael Washington and the sharpshooting skills of Rotnei Clarke, for starters, this is an absorbing group of players. Toss in the fact that one of my favorite all-time football players is now lacing up his hightops, and the team becomes even more interesting.

It’s been a good while since I was this interested in a Hogs team. Even when Stan Heath was leading his last two squads to late-season surges and appearances in the NCAA Tournament, there was a noticeable blandness that surrounded the team. Things started to brighten a little last year, but even then, following the Hogs sometimes felt more like homework than a hobby.

Now, with more of Pelphrey’s recruits in Fayetteville, it just feels like good times are definitely on the horizon. And that’s a nice gift indeed.

Well, we’ve come to the end of our Q&A with former Razorback forward Scotty Thurman, one of the heroes of the 1994 national championship squad. However, our celebration of the 15th anniversary of that championship is just starting and will be underway all winter and spring. So, check the site frequently.

In today’s fifth and final installment—here’s part one, part two, part three, and part four—Scotty gives his take on Coach Pelphrey, talks some trash about Pat Bradley, and gives props to former Hog sharpshooter Al Dillard. Many thanks to Scotty for his time, and many thanks to everyone who’s taken the time to read the Q&A. Now, on with the show.

Do you follow the current team much?

I do from time to time. I went and watched a couple of games last year. I’ll probably go watch a couple this year. I like Pelphrey. I think he’s going to do a good job if he stays. I’m sure if he’s offered the job at Kentucky, he may head out. There’s always speculation on that job.

If we can keep him, and they can start to recruit the state of Arkansas—you take Kentucky: Kentucky gets the best of the best in Kentucky, and then they go other places and get other people.

Pelphrey and his staff have to figure out a way to get the best players in Arkansas so they don’t leave. And then you go somewhere else and get the rest.

I coached an eighth-grade team. They’re ninth-graders now. Just having seen a lot of basketball as of late, Arkansas is not spending enough time at the high-school, junior-high level, developing the talent that we have right here, so that when they grow up—we may not get every kid that we helped get better, but we’ll get some of ‘em.

Look at Coach K—he doesn’t have to recruit North Carolina very hard. He gets who he wants (laughs). Anybody he wants, he can get. That’s the way it should be here. Anybody Pelphrey wants, he should be able to get. Until he gets that, and the kids get better here—you don’t have a pipeline. You’ve got to have kids in programs getting better. We don’t really have that here in Arkansas for the most part.

We did a Q&A with Pat Bradley last spring, and he said that he could beat you in a three-point shooting contest, so we wanted to give you the opportunity to agree or disagree with that statement.

(Laughs) I’ll put it like this: I think Pat was a decent shooter in his day. I’ve got to give him that. He shot the ball well. But Pat could not outshoot me on his best day, and he definitely could not outshoot me now. So, it’s not even really possible. I can’t even imagine that, that he could beat me in a three-point shootout.

I like Pat. Pat’s a good guy. I give him a hard time all the time: It’s easy to make shots when they don’t really matter. When they don’t matter, anybody can throw one up, and it may bank off the glass.

But when it matters, and you’ve got people looking at you, looking at you and staring at you, a lot of people—they didn’t play in front of a lot of people when he was there because they really didn’t win much.

When you play in front of a lot of people, it matters a little more.

Was there anybody on that championship team or during your time in Fayetteville that could have beaten you in a three-point contest?

Probably Alex Dillard. Alex Dillard was the best three-point shooter I’ve ever seen in my life. Ever. And that’s including guys in the NBA.

Believe it or not, I’d do a little bet right now, and I’m not a gambling man. But I’d be willing to bet right now that Alex Dillard could beat anybody today. Because this guy lives in the gym. If he’s shooting regular three-pointers, then he’s definitely not going to miss many. Regular college three-pointers, those are like free throws to him.

Today, we present the penultimate installment of our Q&A with Razorback great Scotty Thurman, conducted in late September (here’s part one, part two, and part three). Below, Scotty discusses the difficulties of trying to repeat as national championships, the extent to which the defeat to UCLA in the ‘95 title game lingers, and his take on Nolan Richardson’s firing.

Our next question is about the season after the national championship. It seemed like it was a more difficult season. You lost more games, and you had a lot more close games. Was that mainly because teams were more up for playing you guys, or do you feel like the team experienced any loss of focus or enthusiasm as kind of a natural coming-down effect after winning the championship?

I think it was a combination of a couple of things. One of the things was, like you said, we were getting teams’ best shot every night. You can’t really prepare for that, because they have an edge that you don’t have any longer. Now, instead of hunting, being in the group of hunting the champ, now you’re being hunted. You just can’t prepare for that, really.

But I think it was also having experienced the championship and being on an all-time high—and being on an all-time high for a long time. Because until you get beat, you’re still the champ. For 12 months, basically, you’re having to deal with not only taking people’s best shot, but being a college athlete and having different people pulling at you because you’re the number one team in the country.

It’s probably only human nature for us to have gotten a little bit comfortable. I think we got somewhat comfortable.

That 1995 NCAA Tournament had so many memorable, crazy games. There was the game against Syracuse. There was the game against Memphis, where you mounted the comeback. Out of that tournament, which one of those games is the most special memory or the best memory to you?

The year the lost the championship, probably the most memorable game—it would probably be the Syracuse game. For the most part, we felt like we were the better team. We felt like we should be able to run them out of the gym, but they were able to sit back in a 2-3 zone all night and basically get us to play at their pace. I think that slowed us down.

And then we finally get into a crazy, back-and-forth scoring match, and we’re down one, and Lawrence Moten calls a timeout. Well, Lawrence Moten called a timeout because everybody on the bench was screaming, “Timeout!”

That was probably our most memorable because had the timeout never happened, we probably—would have for sure—lost the game. That gave us a break. But, the game before that against Texas Southern, if Dwight Stewart doesn’t go 7-for-10 from the three-point line, we lose that game.

We read an article recently in which Jay Bilas—the ESPN analyst whose 1986 Duke team made it to the championship game in 1986 against Louisville and lost—said that even now, he still thinks about that loss almost every single day. At this point, how often do you think about the game against UCLA, or the game against Duke?

Only when people talk about it. When it’s something that you do every day—you know, you play basketball every day—then people don’t have to talk about it because you’re actually living in it. But when you’re a father and you get up and go to work every day and don’t play basketball for the most part except for fun, then you really don’t think about it that much.

Sometimes if I’m working out, I may think about it. If it’s March, I may, because of the tournament. But for the most part, I don’t really think about it. When I do think about it, I think about ways in the UCLA game that we could have won the game. I don’t really think about the overall game—I just think about some adjustments that we probably could have made to maybe have won the game. But what can you do now?

What was your take on how Coach Richardson’s time in Fayetteville ended?

I think it was sad that you have two older gentlemen that can’t actually sit in a room and actually talk it out and get it worked out, so that it never gets to that point. I just think it was pretty sad that it had to end that way.

But at the same time, if put myself in Coach Richardson’s shoes, if any person gets frustrated with the way he’s being treated, no matter how much money he’s making or what type of status he has gained from being who he is, anybody can lose it. And I think he just kind of lost it.

But I also think, you know, at the same time, had he not made those comments on national TV, I think he probably still today would have been Arkansas’ basketball coach—if he and Frank had ever just sat down and talked it out as men, not as guys that don’t like one another but as men.

They may not have liked one another at the end of the day, but college basketball is about business. It’s not about me liking somebody and not liking somebody. It’s about business.

The program probably never would have dropped off—although I think Coach Richardson was kind of like us in a sense in that he got comfortable, and that’s what led to those statements. You just can’t make those kind of statements and expect to not have to face the consequences.

Are you in touch with him today?

I don’t talk to Coach Richardson very much. I’ve seen him probably once in the last couple of years. I used to see him when he would come to Little Rock and play in different charity golf events, but no, I don’t really see Coach much. He’s normally in either northwest Arkansas or traveling home to El Paso, and I’m in Little Rock. Not that it’s far away, but the only time we seem to connect is when we’re involved in some kind of event or something.

In the final installment tomorrow, Scotty talks about what Coach Pelphrey needs to do to be successful at Arkansas.

Our Scotty Thurman Q&A rolls on today with part 3 of our interview (here’s part one; here’s part two). In today’s installment, Scotty discusses his favorite season in Fayetteville, the mentorship of Darrell Hawkins, and the locker-room dynamics of that championship era.

You won the national championship your sophomore year, so you may consider that year the most enjoyable, but out of your three seasons in Fayetteville, which one did you consider the most fun?

Probably my freshman year because, not to take away from the national championship–I mean, that’s probably my greatest team accomplishment and that was my most memorable moment–but the most memorable season was probably my freshman year.

Coming in from Ruston, LA, I was a young freshman. I enrolled at Arkansas at 17 and had a lot of people tell me that maybe I should redshirt because of maturity and all of that kind of stuff.

Coming in and leading the team in scoring—I think at one point I was averaging like 20 a game—and we went from being ranked 45th in the country to at Christmas break, we were in the Top 12.

Going back home to Ruston, LA, it was just an amazing thing to be like, “Man, look at what I did. Look at what I was able to do.” Turning 18 that year, there weren’t a lot of expectations for me, I don’t think, coming in.

I think that was probably my most fun time. You go from being a big fish in a small pond in Ruston to—not that Fayetteville was New York City or anything—being a big fish in a big pond. That was probably my most memorable time just individually.

During your freshman year at Fayetteville, was there anybody on that team that took you under his wing and kind of showed you the ropes?

Darrell Hawkins was huge in that regard. I graduated high school on May 18, and I was in Fayetteville May 29 with a summer job, involved in the strength and conditioning program.

Corliss was there. Corliss and I had known each other from AAU basketball. He’s a year older than me, and he had already been in the spotlight for most of his career. It was a combination of Corliss and mainly Darrell Hawkins.

Hawkins was that one senior guy that knew the ropes, knew how to prepare for big games, knew how to carry himself well, knew how to be respectable as far as not just being an athlete, not just being out and everybody knows you play ball and that’s all people know you for.

They don’t know that you go to class and carry yourself with respect and that you know how to treat people.

Give us some insight into the locker room dynamics of that team. Who were the cut-ups and who was perhaps more serious and took on more of a leadership role?

I think that was everybody. We all played, but when it was time for business, we knew how to shut it off. Even when we were working hard and Coach was running us, we’d all still find a way to laugh and joke about it afterwards.

While you’re doing it, it’s tough, but when you get done, you’ve got to enjoy yourself. We would have been crazy not to. You’re at the best time of your life—you’re in college, you’re playing ball.

Elmer Martin was the comedian of the team. Myself—I laughed and talked a lot. Corliss—he played pranks from time to time. Corey Beck was always a clown. It was probably the whole group of guys—everybody had their own little deal that would make everybody laugh. I’d probably say everybody.

Even from watching you guys on TV, watching the bench, it seemed like you were a pretty close-knit group. Is that accurate?

That’s accurate. While we were in school, we were pretty much inseparable for the most part. We just shared such a bond from day one because it was like everybody got a chance to compete for playing time.

Everybody got a chance to actually play, so that was something that Clint [McDaniel] and some of the other guys had never experienced. And we were coming from high school, and we’re getting an opportunity to play. It was like the best of both worlds for everybody.

Now Todd’s gone, Lee’s gone, Big O’s gone, so there were minutes to go around for guys who had never really had a chance to play.

I think that’s what made us close. There was really no egos involved. Everybody wanted to see everybody do well. If a guy came out, even if he was having a bad game and another guy picked him up, it was never just, “OK, this group of guys is going to eat here, and this group is going to be somewhere else.”

It was pretty much everybody was always together.

In the '93-'94 season, at what point did you guys really start to feel like this could be your year and you guys were probably the best team in the country and it was your championship to win.

Believe it or not, it was our second regular-season game, against Missouri. They came in, and they had the big kid, Jevon Crudup. That same team, people forget, went within one shot of making the Final Four.

That was a complete annihilation. (Editor’s note: The Hogs won by a score of 120-68.)

We didn’t come into the game expecting that. I think I only played like—looking back, Corliss and I were upset after the game because we wanted to really play to prove to people that we had gotten better as players. And we wound up not playing as much because it was a blowout.

We just sat over there and watched the game for the most part (laughs). We blew them out. It was like, “Man, we didn’t expect this.” And then all of a sudden, we were just like, “If we’re beating one of the best teams in the country like that, nobody else should be able to play with us.”

It just kind of went on from there, and we took it and ran with it.

Tomorrow: Scotty talks about the difficulties of defending the national championship.

Be sure to read more of our Q&A’s by clicking here.

Here now is the second part of our Q&A with Razorback great Scotty Thurman (here’s Part One). In this installment, Scotty discusses the Hogs’ celebrated rivalry with the Kentucky Wildcats, the first game of his Arkansas career, and which members of the 1994 national championship team were the most underrated.

The interview is the part of our celebration of the 15th anniversary of the ‘94 season, an occasion that we will be commemorating in various ways during the next few months, so check the site frequently. On with the show:

One of the things that we wanted to talk with you about was the rivalry that you guys had with Kentucky back in the mid-'90s. The two teams staged some pretty epic, classic games. We were curious if there was a particular Wildcat player that you flat-out didn’t like or that you just found irritating.

On the flip side, which Kentucky player did you most admire? Did you think I’d really like to have him on our team?

Jamal Mashburn. He was a 6’8”, 240-pound guy that could play, at that time in college, all five positions pretty much, and he did for that team. He was one of those guys that we just used to say, “Man, he would really fit in with what we do.” Being able to get out and press—they played the same type of style, although their press was a little different—but Jamal Mashburn was one of those guys that I admired.

Now, a guy who I felt like was a pest was Travis Ford, now the coach at Oklahoma State. He was a real pest, man, but he was a dead-eye three-point shooter, and he would just always find a way to bury a dagger at some point, and he played real well with that team.

For some reason, as a fan, Travis Ford really annoyed a lot of Arkansas fans, too. He used to drive us crazy for some reason.

Being a little small guy and being able to shoot the ball as well as he could and have the confidence—I think he went to another school before he transferred to that university. He was at Missouri. He was a little bit more mature than a lot of guys, and I think he fed off it. That was confidence for him, because he shot lights out most of the time.

Would you say that Kentucky was the team that you guys got the most psyched to play? Or was there another team that you guys felt were bigger rivals or as big?

When we came to Arkansas, our whole deal was—Todd and that crew had just left, Todd Day and Lee Mayberry—and we just felt like nobody respected us. So, we just fed off of that no matter who we played.

It was just one of those deals were we felt like we didn’t get any respect. Those guys finished in the Top 10 that year when they lost out of the tournament to Memphis State. We wound up coming into [the 1992-93 season] ranked 45th in the country or something. I’m like, “Whoa!”

To go from those guys being ranked one or two to that—even though we’ve got new guys, it’s still the same school—we were thinking we should have still been in the Top 25, and we weren’t. So, we just kind of fed off of that our whole career for the most part.

Your very first game against Memphis State—when you guys came back from 20 points down or whatever it was—was a pretty great victory. You were playing a highly touted team that was ranked No. 8 in the country at the time.

As you’ve said, you guys weren’t in the Top 25. Did the team feel that chip on its shoulder coming in, and did you feel like you were going to win it? Or was there a lot of nervousness?

I think it was a combination of both. We had guys on our team that were from Memphis. A lot of them had played high school and AAU with and against those guys. We knew that was a big deal. And then, of course, we still had the main factor that drove us, which was that the fact that we are all still under-recruited—I mean for the most part. We wanted to prove that as well.

Playing those guys, it was just a huge deal playing in Barnhill, seeing it packed out for the first time, because that was my first time actually seeing it just packed out and loud like that.

But then, we come out, and we go down 20, so, you know, it was anxiety as well. That was probably my worst game as a college player, because I was out to maybe prove a little too much and got caught up in the game. We wound up coming back and winning, and it was a great feeling afterwards.

When people think about that championship team, the first three players that come to people’s minds are probably you, Corliss, and Corey Beck. Outside of those three, who do you consider the most underrated member of that team or an unsung key to your success?

The year we won it, I would say Clint McDaniel, because he was just a pest on the defensive end.

Darnell Robinson, although he probably in most people’s eyes never lived up to his potential and probably didn’t live up to his own expectations. But he averaged like seven or eight rebounds that year coming off the bench as a freshman.

He got booed a lot, I think, because he was a McDonald’s All-American and scored the most points in California history at the time. There were a lot of expectations that came in with him. But he was a catalyst.

And then, I’d probably say Roger Crawford [editor’s note: Crawford broke his foot in the Hogs’ second-round game of the ‘94 NCAA Tournament and was out the rest of the season]. We just felt like we owed it to him, so maybe he was a part of that “we’re out to shock the world” because he didn’t get a chance to experience it and that was his senior year, so he was a catalyst.

He was a real, real talented player that many people didn’t get a chance to see play up to his potential because he was hurt a lot.

Tomorrow: Scotty discusses which of his three seasons in Fayetteville was the most enjoyable.

Wanna read more of our Q&As? Visit our archive here.

If you need indisputable proof that time is moving much too fast, consider the following: This April will mark the 15th anniversary of the Razorbacks’ first and only basketball national championship.

The university will mark the occasion with a late February/early March shindig, but we here at RazorbackExpats, are ready to get our party started. We’ll be celebrating in various and sundry ways all winter and spring, so check the site frequently.

We start the festivities with a q&a with Scotty Thurman, last-second hero of the ‘94 championship game and perhaps the most clutch player in Razorback history. During his three-year Arkansas career, the 6'6″ native of Ruston, LA, scored 1,650 points and currently ranks 10th on the school’s all-time scoring list.

These days, Thurman lives in Little Rock and is the director of real estate at Cypress Properties. We interviewed Scotty in late September, and he was gracious enough to speak with us at considerable length. We can’t thank him enough.

We will present a different part of the q&a each day of this week. In today’s installment, Scotty discusses the championship game-day shootaround that wasn’t, the sting of not being selected for the McDonald’s All-Star Game, and which former teammates he keeps in touch with.

It’s hard to believe that we are approaching the 15th anniversary of the national championship. Does it seem like 15 years to you, or does it seem like it happened just yesterday?

Well, it doesn’t seem like it happened just yesterday, but it does not feel like it happened 15 years ago, either. Time kind of flew by, and I appreciate you for reminding me of my age (laughs).

It seems like it was a few years ago, but it doesn’t seem like 15.

Everybody is so familiar with how the championship game played out, but we were curious about your recollections of the day itself, the buildup to the game. Did it seem like an endless wait? Do you remember feeling particularly nervous or anxious or just ready to get the game going?

Believe it or not, I was nervous before every game that I ever played, but once the ball got thrown up for the jump ball, it went away.

That day was a little bit different because, a lot of people don’t know, but the NCAA allows each team time for shootaround time. Somehow, our time got thrown off, and when we got there, we had only maybe three minutes to shoot. By the time I got to the floor, it was maybe a minute.

You used to get 45 minutes, and that’s all you got. We wanted our 45 minutes. Well, it turns out, they didn’t give us any more time. So, we wound up winning the championship anyway, and we didn’t even get a chance to really shoot around.

That’s my most memorable moment. I remember how Coach Richardson was very, very upset and very, very frustrated by us not being able to get to shoot around.

We felt like Duke already being in Charlotte, already we’re starting to get home cooking, so we took it as a slap in the face and used it to add fuel to the fire.

That seemed like a pretty effective mindset for you guys. You guys seemed to have sort of an “us against the world” mentality throughout that season.

Right. That’s kind of what we fed on. We had a lot of guys that felt like they were under-recruited in high school and felt like a lot of schools overlooked them.

Coach hit on that at times to make everybody remember that some of us were overlooked by other schools.

We were all recruited pretty heavily. Any time you get recruited by SEC schools, Big East schools, you’re being recruited heavily, but we did have some guys that weren’t recruited as heavily as they thought they should have been.

That was just another notch on the belt because we used that as well.

Did you feel under-recruited coming to Arkansas?

I didn’t feel under-recruited. I felt like it was a slap in the face that I didn’t get a chance to play in the McDonald’s game. That was my thing. I always set goals for myself, even at that age. I didn’t get a chance to play in the McDonald’s All-American Game.

I just felt like that was something that was not fair to me, because I played in Louisiana, where a lot of the sportswriters at the time didn’t go see guys play, especially in small parts of Louisiana. So for me, that was my fuel.

But, I was still recruited by a lot of the schools that I looked up to as far as being schools that I wanted to play at. So, I wouldn’t say that I was under-recruited.

Looking back on that championship team, do you still keep in touch with many of your ex-teammates?

I still keep in touch with a few. Not all. I’ve talked to all recently, within maybe the last year, with the exception of one or two guys. But there are a couple of guys that I still remain in contact with pretty much on a daily, if not weekly, basis.

Who all do you see regularly or hear from regularly?

The only person that I see regularly is Corliss, because we live in the same town. Dwight Stewart, who is two hours away, I spend a little time with him from time to time. He’s in Memphis.

What is he doing now?

Dwight is an entrepreneur. He’s involved in real estate and the mortgage business. I don’t know if that’s the right business to be involved in right now, but that’s what he’s involved in.

Who else?

Ray Biggers. He’s a guy that didn’t play much for us, but was a pretty talented athlete. He’s in Houston, Texas. He’s in the mortgage business also.

(Tomorrow: Scotty looks back on the Razorbacks’ rivalry with Kentucky.)

Here now is part two of our basketball Q&A with ArkansasSports360.com reporter Chris Bahn. (Click here for part one and here for Chris’s recent cover story on this year’s team.)

Many thanks to Chris for his time. If reading ArkansasSports360.com isn’t a part of your daily routine, it needs to be.

Now, on with the show:

What’s your prediction for how the Hogs will do this year?

Sixth in the West seems low to me. Arkansas plays in a down division, seems to have some talent, and I like Pelphrey. I’m going to say 16-13 at the end of the regular season with a good shot at making the NIT.

Even if they stink, I feel confident they’ll be more exciting to watch than they have been in past years. There were times Stan Heath’s teams won and it felt like a loss. I could see this team losing and it feel like a victory…if that makes sense.

What’s the latest on the possibility of Marcus Monk joining the team this season? Do you think he could be a significant contributor?

It looks like Monk could be with the team in time for its Dec. 10 game against North Carolina Central.

I have no idea what Monk will be able to contribute statistically. I do know he’s a smart kid with a short learning curve, so it shouldn’t take him long to understand Pelphrey’s system.

He’s also a tremendous leader and a guy that the players will listen to (at least that was the case with football). Arkansas has no seniors on this team, so a guy like Monk who understands hard work, etc. should benefit a bunch of young guys trying to find their way. He’ll be an example-setter, which is something this team probably needs.

Has anyone emerged as a locker-room leader on the team? If not, who’s the most likely to do so at some point this year?

By virtue of their status as the oldest members on the team Michael Washington and Stefan Welsh are the first names that come to mind. Both did some things in the offseason that would suggest they’re at least attempting to embrace that role.

Washington packed on a ton of muscle and improved his conditioning. Welsh stuck around Fayetteville instead of going home to Virginia. Both hosted get-togethers for teammates and organized pick-up games in an effort to earn trust and respect. And they’re saying and doing all the right things so far.

From what I’m told, there’s a good chance Fortson will be the emotional leader of the team, filling the void left by Patrick Beverley. He might not always make the best decisions—on or off the court—but he’ll be the guy to get in teammates’ faces to challenge them. He’ll not be intimidated on the court, which should rub off on his teammates, hopefully for the better.