Minutes after eliminating No. 1 Arizona and putting an end to Sean Elliott’s college basketball career at the 1989 Sweet 16, UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian delivered the four most inflammatory words in UA basketball history.
“We sent Luther home.”
You could hear Tark’s raspy cackle all the way from Denver to Fort Lowell Road.
It went beyond any provocation UA basketball fans had felt for UTEP’s Don Haskins, UCLA’s Walt Hazzard and Reggie Miller.
It stood the test of time, outlasting the general contempt for Oregon’s Ernie Kent, Cal’s Lou Campanelli, UCLA’s Don MacLean and anyone representing the Sun Devils.
Four words. They torched an incendiary relationship between Arizona and UNLV that boiled over and became estranged a year later in Las Vegas.
It was a Big Boy feud.
A few weeks ago, Colorado coach Tad Boyle used but two key words when asked if beating Arizona carried any extra satisfaction, you know, because of an FBI investigation and whispered recruiting irregularities.
“Hell yes,” said Boyle.
Boom. Public Enemy No. 1 in Tucson.
On Saturday, after the Buffaloes lost to Washington, Boyle began to understand what his “hell yes” has done.
“Arizona is going to be loaded for bear and ready to beat us by 50,” he said.
Sean Miller didn’t bite Monday when asked about Boyle. “My focus is just on coaching our team” on Thursday night, he said.
This is the same Sean Miller who seethed quietly for two weeks last season, infuriated that UCLA coach Steve Alford called a rub-it-in timeout in the final seconds of a victory at McKale Center. It is the same Sean Miller who, upon beating the Bruins in the Pac-12 championship semifinals, called his own rub-it-in timeout to square the books.
Now Tad Boyle has become a villain by intimating that beating Arizona (and USC) carried a you-got-what-you-deserved message.
Bad timing.
Two weeks ago, USC pounded Colorado 70-58 in Los Angeles and with 21 seconds remaining, Trojans coach Andy Enfeld called a message-sending timeout as Boyle stewed.
“I’m not going to forget about it and neither will our players,” said Boyle.
Don’t you just love it? Don’t you wish Miller had said “our goal is to beat them by 50?”
Pac-12 basketball can use a good feud or two. It has become sanitized and far too friendly the last 25 years. Oregon’s skilled Dana Altman is a fidgety, quirky guy on game day, but otherwise stirs neither fear nor loathing.
ASU’s addition of Bobby Hurley is the first time in forever the Sun Devils have inflamed McKale Center fans, but that’s mostly because they remember him wearing Duke Blue Devil gear.
Utah’s Larry Krystkowiak comes off as a guy you’d like to see running your son’s Boy Scout troop. Stanford’s Jerod Haase has that Stanford bearing, a gentleman and a scholar. Neither of the Los Angeles coaches has that Henry Bibby stomp and scowl.
Washington State’s Ernie Kent, recycled after so many fierce Arizona-Oregon showdowns, doesn’t bring it with the same authority any more.
In a 2004 game at smokin’ Mac Court, Kent and Lute Olson matched technical fouls with each other and then went nose-to-nose in front of the scorer’s table as the ancient arena literally shook on its foundation.
“Get him off the court!” Kent shouted.
“I need to protect my guys,” Lute responded.
After scoring 42 points in a 100-87 loss to the Wildcats, Oregon’s Luke Jackson said, “I think any other coach in our conference would have gotten thrown out.”
And now you just call a late, in-your-face timeout?
Weak.
After UCLA won the inaugural Pac-10 tournament at Pauley Pavilion, 1987, Bruins coach Walt Hazzard was told 18-11 Arizona not only was granted a berth in the NCAA Tournament, but was scheduled to play the first two games at McKale Center.
“Well, his athletic director is on the selection committee,” said Hazzard, who further argued that Olson “politicked” to make sure UCLA’s Reggie Miller was not voted Pac-10 Player of the Year.
“I don’t trust Lute because of that,” Hazzard said.
A year later, the bill came due. Hazzard’s Bruins were stunned in the first-round of the Pac-10 tournament at McKale Center by lowly Washington State. Fans booed Hazzard from start to finish. A day later, citing, among other things, that a UCLA coach should never be so unpopular, in Tucson or anyplace, UCLA chancellor Charles Young fired Hazzard.
That was just a preliminary to the Arizona-UNLV rivalry, one that peaked in February 1990 when the soon-to-be national champion Rebels held off Arizona 95-87 in a game for the ages in Las Vegas.
At one point, UNLV guard Anderson Hunt fell into the UA bench while chasing a loose ball. He said UA coaches called him names. UA coaches said it was Hunt who did the name-calling.
Afterward, Olson said, “This won’t be a series that will be continued.”
And so it wasn’t. Arizona didn’t play UNLV again until Olson’s final season, 2006-07, at which time Tark was 76 years old and had been out of basketball for seven years.
By then Olson and Tark had moved on, putting the Saints vs. Sinners series behind them, exhibiting mutual respect for their respective Hall of Fame careers.
Now comes Sean Miller vs. Tad Boyle.
If “hell yes” is all it takes to put some spice into the Pac-12 season, bring it on.
