Hogs-'Horns Up Next But Can't Match Showdowns of the Past

Arkansas, Texas were loaded with shooting stars with Final Four berth at stake

SEC scoring leader Tre Johnson (20), a Texas Longhorns guard, brings the ball up court against the LSU Tigers on Saturday at the Pete Maravich Assembly Center in Baton Rouge, La. Texas whipped LSU 89-58 and outscored the Tigers by 25 in the second half. | Stephen Lew-Imagn Images

As longtime rivals in the defunct Southwest Conference, Arkansas and Texas have squared off in sports for more than a century. In the last 50 years, there was often bad blood between the schools and their teams.

That was certainly evident in 1990 when the Razorback and Longhorn basketball teams played three times, all high scoring tense affairs. The third showdown came in the NCAA Tournament in Dallas, with a berth in the Final Four on the line.

It was Nolan Richardson's fifth season at Arkansas and his program was quickly gaining momentum. After an initial drop-off in his first couple of seasons, the Razorbacks were definitely "Rollin' with Nolan" as he restored Arkansas' status as a national power.

Down in Austin, Texas, the hoops team was also on the rise. The Longhorns hired a new coach in 1989 and Tom Penders brought his own up-tempo approach to the SWC, which was dubbed "Runnin' 'Horns."

In his first three seasons at Texas, Penders led the Longhorns to records of 25-9, 24-9 and 23-9. He rekindled the excitement Austin had for the program under coach Abe Lemons, who won at a .636 clip from 1977-82. But his successor, Bob Weltlich, had little success (.440).

Penders spent 10 season at Texas, with the program slipping a bit toward the end of his tenure although he won 65% of his games while in Austin. He was replaced by Rick Barnes -- now the Tennessee coach -- who improved the 'Horns again and won 69% of the time.

Penders and Richardson were friendly rivals -- Nolan called him "Sweet Tom" -- who shared a mutual respect and fought for the league title. Arkansas was SWC champ in the 1990 season with a 14-2 record, followed by Houston at 13-3 and Texas with a 12-4 mark. Arkansas also won the SWC Tournament in Dallas.

Texas boasted the SWC Player of the Year in '90: shooting guard Travis Mays. As a junior in the 1988-89 season -- Penders' first at UT -- Mays led the league in scoring at 21.9 and improved to 24. 1 in '90. Texas' Lance Blanks was third at 20.3, just ahead of Arkansas' Todd Day at 19.5 Lee Mayberry was 11th at 14.5, two spots in front of Hogs' senior Lenzie Howell at 13.9.

Richardson's team boasted three sensational sophomores in Day, Mayberry and Oliver Miller. Howell headed a strong group of upperclassmen that included Mario Credit, Ron Huery and Arlyn Bowers. They were as much the heart and soul of that Hogs team as the highly publicized trio which became NBA first-round picks two years later.

Richardson's Razorbacks won the SWC title with a 14-2 mark in '90 and went 15-1 to win it again in '91. Then came the move to the Southeastern Conference and the Hogs won the regular-season championship with a 13-3 mark in their first year in the league, beating out Kentucky and LSU, who were both 12-4. LSU had the player of the Year in junior Shaquille O'Neal, an eventual Hall of Famer.

Texas was talented, too, with Joey Wright and Locksley Collie adding size and more scoring punch. The Longhorns were unranked when they met Arkansas in the Elite Eight while the Razorbacks were No. 7 in the polls. In the March Madness bracket, Arkansas was a four seed and Texas a 10 seed.

The Longhorns beat seven seed Georgia, upset two seed Purdue by a point, and got past six seed Xavier. The Hogs topped Princeton by four, Dayton by two, and North Carolina by 17 before a huge Arkansas crowd in Dallas' Reunion Arena.

The Razorbacks also enjoyed an advantage against Texas in their second game in Dallas. Back then during the SWC Tournament, Reunion Arena was called "Barnhill South" because Arkansas enjoyed such a huge advantage as Hog fans snatched up most of the tickets. Arkansas' Barnhill Arena, of course, was the toughest arena for visiting teams in the SWC and one of the country's most difficult.

How big of an advantage did the Hogs have in Reunion Arena for the SWC tournaments? Huge! Check out the video of Arkansas band director Jim Robken running around the arena -- as he would do at Barnhill -- to further excite the crowd and gets Razorback fans on their feet and cheering. The top-seeded Hogs were finishing off a 120-89 rout of No. 2 seed Texas in the 1991 SWC tourney when this video was captured.

When the Hogs and 'Horns met the first time in 1990, the high-octane Arkansas offense rolled to a 109-100 win. When they squared off in Austin a few weeks later, Richardson walked out of the arena with 16 seconds left in protest of an intentional foul call. But a Mayberry 3-pointer forced overtime, Richardson returned to the bench and the visitors dominated the extra five minutes to win 103-96.

Texas was ripe for revenge in the Elite Eight. The 'Horns made 9-of-17 shots from beyond the 3-point arc and got 20 points each from Wright and Mays while rallying from a seven-point halftime deficit.

Arkansas was led by Howell with 21 points and Mayberry with 18 but it came down to the final seconds. Huery, who was Richardson's first recruit with the Razorbacks, appropriately sealed the Arkansas win with a pair of free throws for an 88-85 win.

Getting Huery to come to Arkansas opened up the Memphis pipeline that led to Day signing with Richardson. Then came guard Corey Beck and forward Dwight Stewart, starters for the Hogs' 1994 national championship team.

Arkansas' opponent at the Final Four in Denver was Duke, led by legendary college players Christian Laettner and Bobby Hurley. The Blue Devils whipped the Hogs 97-83 and advanced to the finals against UNLV. Vegas trounced Duke 103-73, still the record deficit for a championship game margin.

Duke got its revenge the next year and beat UNLV -- then being cast as one of the greatest college teams ever -- by a bucket in the Final Four semifinals. The 1991 Razorbacks were beaten by 12 in the Elite Eight by Kansas, who lost by six to Duke in the title game.

When Arkansas and Texas meet twice in the regular season this year, the teams will have a lot to live up to if they're to match the excitement of the 1990 games. The first showdown is Wednesday in Austin at 8 p.m. on ESPN2. Game two will be Feb. 26 in Fayetteville.

Both teams, especially Arkansas, will have to get hot to earn an NCAA Tournament berth. Texas (15-7 overall, 4-5 in the SEC) has a legitimate shot to reach March Madness. Arkansas (13-8, 2-6) seems to have little chance but if the Hogs play like they did Saturday in winning by 10 at No. 12 Kentucky, it's conceivable they could win six or seven of their final 10 games.

If both somehow reach the 68-team NCAA tourney, it'd be interesting if they somehow got a third matchup like they did in 1990. Still doubtful it would matter as much as that Elite Eight showdown 35 years ago.

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