Very few people know this about me... but prior to being accepted to attend UVA, I had a #1 and a #1a college basketball team. Virginia was the #1a. The #1 was Arkansas. The Corliss Williamson / Scotty Thurman / Corey Beck / Clint McDaniel / Dwight Stewart / Alex Dillard Razorbacks team that won the national championship in 1994 was (is) probably my favorite college basketball team of all time. Once those players cycled off the roster and Nolan Richardson melted down with his accusations of racism in the Arkansas administration, 40 Minutes of Hell seemed to have been lost forever.
News broke yesterday that Mike Anderson (Richardson's former lead assistant) accepted the offer to leave Missouri and head to Arkansas and attempt to restore the 40 Minutes of Hell.
And while Virginia will now always have the top spot in my heart, I once again have a #2 team to pull for in college hoops. No system is more exciting and fun to watch. And while I'm highly invested in Virginia Basketball, and Tony Bennett's slow it down and grind it out philosophies... I'm downright giddy to watch Arkansas again, with the intense fullcourt pressure and transition offense.
Welcome back, 40 Minutes of Hell. College basketball really missed you.
(And for the record, when Arkansas and Virginia played in the 1995 Elite Eight, I was pulling for Virginia... but only because like two months earlier I had been accepted to attend UVA.)
No comments:
Post a Comment