The "plus-sized" center for Arkansas who got shut down by Alex Holcombe when BU upset the #3 ranked Hogs in 1990 for the first marquee win ever at the Ferrell Center. Only time I ever stormed the court after a win.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/former-nba-big-man-oliver-miller-dead-54


Another lasting memory from that game was the group of SAEs seated behind the Arkansas bench, one of whom brought a fishing pole, baited the hook with a hot dog, and cast it into the Arkansas huddle toward Miller during a timeout.

Way too early. Saw him inducted into the SWC HOF last year when BU teammate Alfed Anderson went in.

I was at that game in '90. As I remember David Wesley had a big game.

I think the randomness of cancer will elude the human mind until the end of time.

Self Made Bear said:

---

I was at that game in '90. As I remember David Wesley had a big game.

---

I was there too. David Wesley hit a ton of free throws down the stretch.

Miller's HC at arky, Nolan Richardson, hated BU's HC at the time, Gene Iba, for whatever reason(s). I recall a game during that period at Fayetteville when Richardson played Miller at point guard at the end of a blowout win for the razorbacks just to show up Iba. The massive Miller went one on one with whatever guard we had trying to defend him and made it to the rim for either a layup or a dunk as I recall. Credit to him for being enough of an athlete to do that at that size, but it was really a classless move by his HC who I always regarded as a total jerk.

RIP Big OM, John Feinstein and Jr Bridgeman.....

- el KKM

{ sipping coffee }

Johnny Bear said:

---

Miller's HC at arky, Nolan Richardson, hated BU's HC at the time, Gene Iba, for whatever reason(s). I recall a game during that period at Fayetteville when Richardson played Miller at point guard at the end of a blowout win for the razorbacks just to show up Iba. The massive Miller went one on one with whatever guard we had trying to defend him and made it to the rim for either a layup or a dunk as I recall. Credit to him for being enough of an athlete to do that at that size, but it was really a classless move by his HC who I always regarded as a total jerk.

---

Was Iba Baylor's best basketball coach prior to Drew?

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

Johnny Bear said:

---

Miller's HC at arky, Nolan Richardson, hated BU's HC at the time, Gene Iba, for whatever reason(s). I recall a game during that period at Fayetteville when Richardson played Miller at point guard at the end of a blowout win for the razorbacks just to show up Iba. The massive Miller went one on one with whatever guard we had trying to defend him and made it to the rim for either a layup or a dunk as I recall. Credit to him for being enough of an athlete to do that at that size, but it was really a classless move by his HC who I always regarded as a total jerk.

---

Was Iba Baylor's best basketball coach prior to Drew?

---

You have to go way back, but Bill Henderson won some SWC championships and went to a couple of Final Fours in the late 40's and early 50's.

Johnny Bear said:

---

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

Johnny Bear said:

---

Miller's HC at arky, Nolan Richardson, hated BU's HC at the time, Gene Iba, for whatever reason(s). I recall a game during that period at Fayetteville when Richardson played Miller at point guard at the end of a blowout win for the razorbacks just to show up Iba. The massive Miller went one on one with whatever guard we had trying to defend him and made it to the rim for either a layup or a dunk as I recall. Credit to him for being enough of an athlete to do that at that size, but it was really a classless move by his HC who I always regarded as a total jerk.

---

Was Iba Baylor's best basketball coach prior to Drew?

---

You have to go way back, but Bill Henderson won some SWC championships and went to a couple of Final Fours in the late 40's and early 50's.

---

And behind Mr. Bill, Bill Menefee had a couple of second place conference finishes in the late 60s/early 70s. But in those days only the conference champion went to the NCAAs.

Iba gets credit for breaking the NCAAs drought in 1988, but that's about it.

whitetrash said:

---

Johnny Bear said:

---

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

Johnny Bear said:

---

Miller's HC at arky, Nolan Richardson, hated BU's HC at the time, Gene Iba, for whatever reason(s). I recall a game during that period at Fayetteville when Richardson played Miller at point guard at the end of a blowout win for the razorbacks just to show up Iba. The massive Miller went one on one with whatever guard we had trying to defend him and made it to the rim for either a layup or a dunk as I recall. Credit to him for being enough of an athlete to do that at that size, but it was really a classless move by his HC who I always regarded as a total jerk.

---

Was Iba Baylor's best basketball coach prior to Drew?

---

You have to go way back, but Bill Henderson won some SWC championships and went to a couple of Final Fours in the late 40's and early 50's.

---

And behind Mr. Bill, Bill Menefee had a couple of second place conference finishes in the late 60s/early 70s. But in those days only the conference champion went to the NCAAs.

Iba gets credit for breaking the NCAAs drought in 1988, but that's about it.

---

As I recall one of Iba's teams just had to win a home game against Rice at the end of the conference season to at least be SWC co-champs (with I think SMU) and failed to get it done.

Yep ...SMU beat us a few days before (RIP John Shumate who died recently) in a huge home game with conference championship implications and Iba and Shumate got into a bumping/finger pointing shouting match in handshake line.

So this Iba dude had a issues with the Arkansas coach and the SMU coach? Was he a hot head or something?

SMU only had one good year under Shumate which was 92-93. They won it, but Rice was the challenger. Bears were nowhere close.

Big12Bear said:

---

SMU only had one good year under Shumate which was 92-93. They won it, but Rice was the challenger. Bears were nowhere close.

---

And we beat Rice in Waco that year. Almost 10K in the Ferrell Center for that one. Iba was canned after the 92 season so Darrell Johnson was the coach that year.

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

So this Iba dude had a issues with the Arkansas coach and the SMU coach? Was he a hot head or something?

---

I'll let you draw your own conclusion based upon this incident:

It must have been 1990, because that was the last time BU lost to TCU in Ft Worth during Iba's tenure. We were pretty good (went to the NIT) and TCU was awful. We put forth an uninspired performance and lost. Team had taken the bus up from Waco, and had ordered postgame dinners to pick up at a McDonald's in south Fort Worth for the ride home. IIRC, Iba ordered the entire team directly on the bus as soon as the game was over (no showers), had the driver go straight to the Ferrell Center without picking up dinner, then ran them through a practice (or had them run the stands) at 11:30pm. I seem to recall they may have even left Frank Fallon and John Morris behind in Ft. Worth as they were wrapping up the postgame show.

whitetrash said:

---

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

So this Iba dude had a issues with the Arkansas coach and the SMU coach? Was he a hot head or something?

---

I'll let you draw your own conclusion based upon this incident:

It must have been 1990, because that was the last time BU lost to TCU in Ft Worth during Iba's tenure. We were pretty good (went to the NIT) and TCU was awful. We put forth an uninspired performance and lost. Team had taken the bus up from Waco, and had ordered postgame dinners to pick up at a McDonald's in south Fort Worth for the ride home. IIRC, Iba ordered the entire team directly on the bus as soon as the game was over (no showers), had the driver go straight to the Ferrell Center without picking up dinner, then ran them through a practice (or had them run the stands) at 11:30pm. I seem to recall they may have even left Frank Fallon and John Morris behind in Ft. Worth as they were wrapping up the postgame show.

---

Pretty much how I remember the episode.

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

So this Iba dude had a issues with the Arkansas coach and the SMU coach? Was he a hot head or something?

---

Just from observation never got the impression that Iba was a "hot head" at least compared to any other average college coach. Wasn't aware there was something between him and Shumate. I do recall a handshake line incident between him and Nolan Richardson (not sure if it was the same game where Richardson had Miller playing point guard during trash time) where Richardson said something that set Iba off as Iba turned and appeared to be angrily screaming at Richardson who just kept walking with a smirk on his face. Richardson also didn't like Iba's brother, Moe at TCU again for whatever reason. Richardson was obviously a successful coach that won a Natty at Arky in the 90's (after they made the move to the SEC) but I always thought he was an arrogant asshat as a human being.

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

So this Iba dude had a issues with the Arkansas coach and the SMU coach? Was he a hot head or something?

---

They didn't call him Mean Gene for nothing.

Back then.. every coach hated each other..you had Nolan...Penders at UT... Shelby at A&M...Pat Foster at UH was an ass..

I worked in athletic department my last 2 years in school and Iba was cool off the court .

My favorite Iba memory is after that upset of Arkansas in 90 when they were about become #1 because UNLV lost.we played them again in 2nd round SWC tournament at Reunion..

Arkansas got out to a 17-2 lead by mauling us with pressure from the tip.... after another turnover Iba ran out on the court almost taking a charge from Todd Day as he ripped into an official.

whitetrash said:

---

Big12Bear said:

---

SMU only had one good year under Shumate which was 92-93. They won it, but Rice was the challenger. Bears were nowhere close.

---

And we beat Rice in Waco that year. Almost 10K in the Ferrell Center for that one. Iba was canned after the 92 season so Darrell Johnson was the coach that year.

---

DJ's teams had decent results but played a far more entertaining brand of basketball, to put it nicely,.

whitetrash said:

---

Big12Fan2024 said:

---

So this Iba dude had a issues with the Arkansas coach and the SMU coach? Was he a hot head or something?

---

I'll let you draw your own conclusion based upon this incident:

It must have been 1990, because that was the last time BU lost to TCU in Ft Worth during Iba's tenure. We were pretty good (went to the NIT) and TCU was awful. We put forth an uninspired performance and lost. Team had taken the bus up from Waco, and had ordered postgame dinners to pick up at a McDonald's in south Fort Worth for the ride home. IIRC, Iba ordered the entire team directly on the bus as soon as the game was over (no showers), had the driver go straight to the Ferrell Center without picking up dinner, then ran them through a practice (or had them run the stands) at 11:30pm. I seem to recall they may have even left Frank Fallon and John Morris behind in Ft. Worth as they were wrapping up the postgame show.

---

So they left John Morris and Frank Fallon behind?

Man that's cold.

That led to half the team quitting and having to have open tryouts.

His accomplishments look small now, but man we had sucked so bad for so long and he actually accomplished a few things.

Besides that tourney team that lost to Memphis (then Memphis State), he had an NIT team that got absolutely jobbed at Arkansas Little Rock. Hometown clock keeper had his finger on the buzzer.

RIP Fort Worth Legend

Fun fact Gene iba has more wins than Scott drew

Fre3dombear said:

---

Fun fact Gene iba has more wins than Scott drew

---

31 years as head coach vs. 23; and that should change no later than the 4th or 5th game of next season.

whitetrash said:

---

Fre3dombear said:

---

Fun fact Gene iba has more wins than Scott drew

---

31 years as head coach vs. 23; and that should change no later than the 4th or 5th game of next season.

---

No dispute there. Just didn't know he'd coached that long or had that many wins even if the results were often not so great. That's why it's a fun fact

whitetrash said:

---

The "plus-sized" center for Arkansas who got shut down by Alex Holcombe when BU upset the #3 ranked Hogs in 1990 for the first marquee win ever at the Ferrell Center. Only time I ever stormed the court after a win.

https://www.foxnews.com/sports/former-nba-big-man-oliver-miller-dead-54


Another lasting memory from that game was the group of SAEs seated behind the Arkansas bench, one of whom brought a fishing pole, baited the hook with a hot dog, and cast it into the Arkansas huddle toward Miller during a timeout.

---

I was at that game. Had had some "monkey" on my back. (Rum Vodka and OJ)