Minutes after eliminating No. 1 Arizona and putting an end to Sean Elliottโs college basketball career at the 1989 Sweet 16, UNLV coach Jerry Tarkanian delivered the four most inflammatory words in UA basketball history.
โWe sent Luther home.โ
You could hear Tarkโs raspy cackle all the way from Denver to Fort Lowell Road.
It went beyond any provocation UA basketball fans had felt for UTEPโs Don Haskins, UCLAโs Walt Hazzard and Reggie Miller.
It stood the test of time, outlasting the general contempt for Oregonโs Ernie Kent, Calโs Lou Campanelli, UCLAโs 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.
โHell yes,โ said Boyle.
Boom. Public Enemy No. 1 in Tucson.
On Saturday, after the Buffaloes lost to Washington, Boyle began to understand what his โhell yesโ has done.
โArizona is going to be loaded for bear and ready to beat us by 50,โ he said.
Sean Miller didnโt bite Monday when asked about Boyle. โMy focus is just on coaching our teamโ 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.
โIโm not going to forget about it and neither will our players,โ said Boyle.
Donโt you just love it? Donโt you wish Miller had said โour goal is to beat them by 50?โ
Pac-12 basketball can use a good feud or two. It has become sanitized and far too friendly the last 25 years. Oregonโs skilled Dana Altman is a fidgety, quirky guy on game day, but otherwise stirs neither fear nor loathing.
ASUโs addition of Bobby Hurley is the first time in forever the Sun Devils have inflamed McKale Center fans, but thatโs mostly because they remember him wearing Duke Blue Devil gear.
Utahโs Larry Krystkowiak comes off as a guy youโd like to see running your sonโs Boy Scout troop. Stanfordโs 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 Stateโs Ernie Kent, recycled after so many fierce Arizona-Oregon showdowns, doesnโt bring it with the same authority any more.
In a 2004 game at smokinโ Mac Court, Kent and Lute Olson matched technical fouls with each other and then went nose-to-nose in front of the scorerโs table as the ancient arena literally shook on its foundation.
โGet him off the court!โ Kent shouted.
โI need to protect my guys,โ Lute responded.
After scoring 42 points in a 100-87 loss to the Wildcats, Oregonโs Luke Jackson said, โI think any other coach in our conference would have gotten thrown out.โ
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.
โWell, his athletic director is on the selection committee,โ said Hazzard, who further argued that Olson โpolitickedโ to make sure UCLAโs Reggie Miller was not voted Pac-10 Player of the Year.
โI donโt trust Lute because of that,โ Hazzard said.
A year later, the bill came due. Hazzardโs 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, โThis wonโt be a series that will be continued.โ
And so it wasnโt. Arizona didnโt play UNLV again until Olsonโs 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 โhell yesโ is all it takes to put some spice into the Pac-12 season, bring it on.
