NCAA Basketball: Ranking the last 25 NCAA Tournament champions

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Nolan Richardson, Corliss Williamson, Arkansas Razorbacks

3 APR 1995: ARKANSAS COACH NOLAN RICHARDSON, RIGHT, HAS A WORD WITH FORWARD CORLISS WILLIAMSON ON THE BENCH DURING THE FINAL SECONDS OF THEIR 89-78 LOSS TO UCLA IN THE NCAA MEN”S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP TONIGHT AT THE KINGDOME IN SEATTLE, WASHINGTON. /

12) 1994 Arkansas Razorbacks

Record: 31-3, 14-2 in SEC

“40 Minutes of Hell” did wonders for the Arkansas Razorbacks basketball program. In head coach Nolan Richardson’s ninth season, it culminated in the Razorbacks winning the national championship.

Their only regular-season losses came on the road to the Alabama Crimson Tide and the Mississippi State Bulldogs. Then, they fell to a top-10 Kentucky Wildcats team in the SEC Tournament. Those certainly aren’t bad losses, and the Razorbacks seemed to use that loss to the Wildcats as fuel for their tournament run.

Arkansas cruised into the national title game, winning their first five games in the Big Dance by at least eight points before beating the Duke Blue Devils by six to win the national championship. That victory denied Duke their third championship in four seasons and further proved that this Arkansas team was no fluke.

This run also provided some vindication to Richardson’s coaching style in the national consciousness. Seen as unrefined and gimmicky by many basketball purists, the up-and-down, pressing style of play employed by Arkansas could no longer be ignored. It was also a style that no team wanted to go up against. It wasn’t made easier by the fact that other teams rarely saw that style of defense.

This Arkansas team did not have a ton of elite talent. Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman were All-SEC performers, but Williamson was the only first-round draft pick on the roster. Still, their personnel fit that “40 Minutes of Hell” style perfectly, which is an ode to Richardson and his ability to get this team playing at a high level.

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