Arkansas’ national championship may have been born in disappointment in East Rutherford, New Jersey.

It was there that the Razorbacks’ 1992-93 season ended with an 80-74 loss to North Carolina. The Tar Heels went on to win the national championship, while Arkansas stewed and began building for the 1993-94 season.

Almost everyone I talked to the past couple weeks in preparation for this weekend have talked about that loss. When asked when they thought they could win the national title, they pointed to the North Carolina loss.

“Our kids felt like we were the better team that night and we should’ve gone on,” Wayne Stehlik said. “But there was a sense that night, almost an unfinished business approach they took from that locker room through spring ball, summer workouts. They never said that, but that was the mindset that I took from that. We didn’t finish our business here. So in a very methodical way we went about our business the next year.”

It’s clear it was the turning point for the team for a variety of reasons. One, it told a young team led by freshmen Corliss Williamson and Scotty Thurman they were among the nation’s best. Two, they knew they needed some more size after being pushed around in the post by Carolina’s bigger team. Arkansas took care of that by signing big men Darnell Robinson and Lee Wilson.

“When we lost to North Carolina our freshman year, Corliss and myself we all started talking about it at that point we just felt like we were so close we just didn’t have a lot of size to match up with a guy like Eric Montross,” Thurman said. “We felt like we were just a couple players away and we go out that summer and sign the two big guys.

“That just gave us all the confidence that we felt we needed. It solidified us as a team having those big guys, big bodies where Corliss didn’t have to bang against those top centers every single night. He could do it some nights, but he was a power forward and had to play center most of the time our first year. So I think that changed the whole concept of our team.”