30 years ago, Arkansas basketball was about to embark on a dream season

It started a little later back then, but 30 years ago in November, Bud Walton Arena had just opened its doors and the No. 2 ranked Arkansas Razorbacks were about to journey towards a national championship.

This year on Razorbacks Wire we will look back week-to-week at how the ’94 Razorbacks eventually got to their 31-3 record that culminated in a 76-72 victory over Duke in Charlotte Coliseum to win the program’s first and only title.

Like this year’s Arkansas team, the ’93-94 unit was coming off losing in the Sweet 16 the year prior to the eventual national champion–North Carolina–with an extremely young team.

Scotty Thurman and Corliss Williamson were freshmen, while point guard Corey Beck and center Dwight Stewart were both JUCO sophomores who hadn’t ever played Division 1 basketball.

Other contributors included JUCO transfer Roger Crawford and sophomores Clint McDaniel and Elmer Martin, along with Davor Rimac.

Coming into 1993-94, Arkansas returned everyone but seniors Robert Shepherd, Darrell Hawkins and Warren Linn.

Nolan Richardson went and found sharp-shooter Al Dillard from the JUCO ranks and signed two freshman All-American centers, Darnell ‘Tank’ Robinson and Lee Wilson.

It wasn’t the transfer portal, but like Eric Musselman, Richardson was ahead of his time at finding diamonds in the rough that no one else wanted and getting the most out of them.

Story originally appeared on Razorbacks Wire