Another 'Nasty' welcome

Celebration rekindles bad memory for Missouri

Corliss Williamson is introduced during a halftime ceremony on Saturday, March 2, 2009, at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. (William Moore/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
Corliss Williamson is introduced during a halftime ceremony on Saturday, March 2, 2009, at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville. (William Moore/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

FAYETTEVILLE -- The last time Corliss Williamson was on the court in Walton Arena with Missouri Coach Kim Anderson on the visiting bench, the game couldn't have gone much better for the Razorbacks or any worse for the Tigers.

It was Dec. 2, 1993, and Missouri played No. 2 Arkansas in the dedication game for Walton Arena.

"We sure were on the wrong end of that one," Anderson, a Tigers assistant coach at the time, said at SEC media day before this season. "What a great game for Arkansas."

Williamson and his Arkansas teammates gave the sellout crowd of 20,212 plenty to cheer while routing Missouri 120-68. The 52-point loss was the worst ever for the Tigers.

"That was one the loudest crowds I've ever heard," Anderson said. "Just an unbelievable atmosphere."

Walton Arena figures to be rocking again with Williamson on hand when the No. 18 Razorbacks (20-5, 9-3 SEC) play the Tigers (7-18, 1-11) at 8 tonight in an SEC Network telecast.

Williamson will be back on the court, but this time it will be when he's honored at halftime, not to wreak havoc on Missouri. He is taking a brief break from his job as a Sacramento Kings assistant coach to return to Walton Arena for a ceremony in which a banner with a No. 34 Arkansas jersey will be unveiled in the Walton Arena rafters.

"It's a banner night for Corliss," said Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson, an assistant when Williamson played for the Razorbacks. "Hopefully it will be a packed house and a special evening where our fans can honor a true legend in Arkansas basketball history.

"For me, personally, to have a chance to be the head coach here while this takes place, that's real special."

Williamson, a power forward from Russellville, averaged 19.0 points and 7.1 rebounds per game during his three-year Arkansas career from the 1992-1993 through 1994-1995 seasons. He ranks eighth on the Razorbacks' career lists for points (1,728) and 10th for rebounds (647). He was rated the nation's top player his senior season at Russellville.

"He didn't look like the typical high school player," Mike Anderson said. "His body was probably college ready at that particular time.

"Everybody talked about his power, how he broke backboards in junior high, but I was more impressed with how skilled he was as a big man."

The Razorbacks were 85-19 in Williamson's three seasons, winning the 1994 national title and a 1995 runner-up finish, before he entered the NBA Draft and was a first-round pick by Sacramento.

"Corliss is excited about this honor and I think he's very humbled by it," said Scotty Thurman, Williamson's close friend and Arkansas teammate who is now the Razorbacks' radio analyst and director of student-athlete development. "He's happy to come back and have a chance to watch a game and embrace the festivities.

"For him to have grown up in this state and have such a great career as a Razorback, then have the opportunity to go play professionally and now to have his name in the rafters, I think is going to be huge not only for himself but for his kids and their offspring.

"It's like a monument that can never be replaced."

Thurman led the Razorbacks with 18 points and Williamson scored 14 in Arkansas' 120-68 victory over Missouri 21 seasons ago.

"That was probably the most incredible night I ever witnessed as a coach on any level," former Arkansas Coach Nolan Richardson said in 2009 during a 15-year anniversary of the 1994 national championship team. "We could have drop-kicked it into the goal."

The Razorbacks hit 16 of 25 three-point attempts, including Thurman going 4 of 5, Clint McDaniel going 3 of 3, Al Dillard going 3 of 7 and Dwight Stewart and Davor Rimac each going 2 of 2. Nine Arkansas players scored seven or more points, and 12 scored at least one basket.

"I just remember everybody was scoring and everybody was pumped up on the bench the whole game," Thurman said. "We were all excited about being in the new arena and wanted to show people we were one of the better teams in the country.

"Our team was hungry. We were out to prove something."

Arkansas used a 16-2 run to take a 27-11 lead in the first half, was ahead 45-22 at halftime and outscored Missouri 75-46 in the second half.

"We just picked up steam the entire night and never really stopped until the final horn went off," Thurman said. "I remember our big guys pressuring their ball-handers and forcing turnover after turnover. They just couldn't seem to get anything going, and meanwhile we were hitting on all cylinders."

Richardson said after the game Missouri would become a good team, and the Tigers proved him right by going 14-0 in the Big Eight and earning a No. 1 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Missouri finished 28-4, and if the Tigers had beaten Arizona in the West Regional final -- the Wildcats won 92-72 -- they would have earned a rematch with Arkansas at the Final Four in Charlotte, N.C.

"It just goes to show you can get better as the season goes on," Kim Anderson said. "We came a long way from that Arkansas game."

Norm Stewart, Missouri's coach at the time, was asked at the 1994 Final Four before the Arkansas-Arizona semifinal game to analyze the matchup.

"It's hard for me to evaluate how good Arkansas is," Stewart said. "Because the night we played them, our players were in Little Rock, but the game was in Fayetteville."

The Arkansas-Missouri game was a national telecast on ESPN at a time when far fewer games were shown on the network than is the case now.

"It was one of those nights our guys were champing at the bit to play in front of our fans and a national audience," Mike Anderson said. "Everything clicked just clicked.

"We made shots, we defended. We could have beat a lot of teams that night. It just so happened we played Missouri."

Arkansas sophomore guard Manuale Watkins said the players are excited about Williamson attending tonight's game.

"They won a national championship," Watkins said of Williamson's Razorbacks. "They reached the height of all college basketball, so that's fun he's coming back to see us play."

Sports on 02/18/2015

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