Maybe glare can shift off Collen, Blair

FAYETTEVILLE — A personality bigger than the game has been outsized by the game itself.

Make no mistake, Gary Blair always will be a big part of the story surrounding any matchup between Arkansas and Texas A&M’s women’s basketball teams, simply because he coached Arkansas to the 1998 Final Four and coached A&M to the 2011 national championship, and because he has homespun more tales than Will Rogers.

But at least now the game won’t be just about Gary Blair.

The Razorbacks and Aggies made sure of that with their second-round game Monday night in the NCAA Tournament at Texas A&M’s Reed Arena.

The pregame hype naturally ballyhooed Blair’s impact on the game and his impact on Tom Collen, the quietly understated but successful Arkansas head coach who is a longtime friend of Blair and assisted him at Arkansas from 1993-97.

The game’s aftermath was underdog Arkansas rallying from 14 points down to take the lead late, with the Aggies coming back and dodging a last-shot bullet to win 61-59.

From that seed, a rivalry reborn from old Southwest Conference days ought to bloom with Texas A&M joining the SEC for the 2012-2013 academic year.

“Our hope is that story [Gary Blair vs. Tom Collen] is now dead and gone and the new story is we established a great rivalry with Texas A&M,” Collen said Thursday at Walton Arena. “Arkansas vs. Texas A&M, that’s the story now and it started a year early.”

Of course Collen and Blair, particularly Blair, a natural storyteller, remain part of the story.

“The history that I have with Gary and the history Gary has with Arkansas, and the fact he took Arkansas to a Final Four and took Texas A&M to a national championship, those are great things to talk about,” Collen said. “I am sure when we play Texas A&M the first time they visit Bud Walton Arena, we will be talking about it again.”

But that won’t be all that’s talked about.

Hall of Fame coaches Frank Broyles and Darrell Royal were always a focal point in the heydays of the Arkansas vs. Texas football matchups.

Yet even those coaching giants weren’t bigger than their game.

Now, because of underdog Arkansas taking the reigning national champions to the NCAA Tournament wire at their place, this reborn conference rivalry also becomes bigger than its coaches.

“It was a great game and an exciting game, and in many ways showed Arkansas has raised their program to a level that Texas A&M has accomplished in the last year,” Collen said. “I think that’s a pretty good starting point.”

Especially considering these 24-9 Razorbacks started 0-4 in the SEC before finishing a school-best 10-6, then appeared in their first NCAA Tournament and won their first NCAA Tournament game since Blair last coached Arkansas in 2003.

“The story lines that have been going on in the last month of the season are really incredible,” Collen said. “But coming within an eyelash against the defending national champions from making the Sweet Sixteen, I think, speaks for itself.”