There are 28 games remaining in the Southwest Conference basketball race -- including four tonight -- and they will likely provide their share of entertainment. But the most anticipated game of all is not even on the schedule.
The contest that SWC basketball fans would probably enjoy seeing the most, no matter who they ordinarily cheer for, is one more meeting between the Texas Longhorns and Arkansas Razorbacks.
That could only come in the SWC post-season tournament, but if it does, Dallas' Reunion Arena might we turned into a war zone.
Arkansas' 62-55 overtime win over Texas in Fayetteville last Saturday night produced much more than the usual amount of bad blood that normally exists between the two schools.
The punch thrown by Arkansas' Darrell Walker at Texas' Ray Harper, which Walker said was simply a self-defense strike and for which he was kicked out of the contest, along with the post-game incident involving Longhorns' players and Hogs' fans, made up the most volatile evening of the SWC season.
All of those doings in Fayetteville last Saturday night spoiled an otherwise excellent night of basketball -- one which allowed Arkansas to open a full game lead over Texas A&M in the race for the SWC crown.
Going into this week's play Arkansas is 7-2 while Texas A&M is 6-3. Texas and TCU are next with 6-4 marks followed by a trio of 5-5 clubs: Houston, Texas Tech and Baylor.
Things resume tonight with Arkansas at home against TCU, Texas Tech hosting Texas A&M, Houston traveling to Texas and Baylor going to last-place SMU. The key games of the week will be Arkansas' road trip which will bring about meetings with Baylor on Thursday night and Houston on Saturday afternoon.
Texas A&M, meanwhile, hopes to make a move this week. The Aggies have had some time off to rest and, after what will probably be a tough trip to Lubbock tonight they have two home games later in the week against the league's bottom two teams -- Rice and SMU.
The incidents of Saturday evening in Barnhill Arena will likely be discussed at length in the conference's inner sanctum this week because, according to those in the midst of it, there was reason to be concerned for the safety of those trying to leave the court after the game.
With 18 seconds to go in overtime, and with Arkansas having clinched the game, the Razorbacks' Scott Hastings went up for a dunk shot. But he was fouled hard by Virdell Howland.
Those two players pushed each other, but did nothing more. Suddenly, in full view of the game officials, Walker slugged Harper in the head.
Walker was ejected from the game and Texas coach Abe Lemons demanded that more be done.
'If the league doesn't suspend him, they have no guts,' said Lemons.
'I don't understand it,' said Texas guard Jack Worthington. 'It was out of the blue. He (Walker) just went crazy. Something was going on between Virdell and Hastings and all of a sudden, Walker laid one on Ray.'
Walker said he was simply retaliating.
'If I came at you with my fist balled up, what would you do?' said Walker. 'I hit him before he took a swing at me. Scott and Howland were about to get into it. Harper came at me. Harper is always doing things to me that no one sees. I hit him once, just to get him off of me.'
That was all bad enough, but when the game was over a collection of Arkansas fans had gathered in the tunnel that leads to the dressing rooms. Lemons said soft drinks were thrown on him and his players and that they were spit upon.
'Win or lose, you've got to run the gauntlet to the locker room,' he said. 'They've got to clean this place up.'
In the midst of the pushing and shoving in the tunnel, Texas assistant publicist Doug Smith tried to intervene between Lemons and an Arkansas fan.
'I got an elbow in the sternum,' Smith said. 'It knocked the wind out of me for a second. But it wasn't as though someone squared off and swung at me.'
Lemons usually conducts a post-game interview on the station that carries the Texas basketball broadcasts, but he skipped it Saturday night.
'I'm not going back out there,' Lemons said.
