UT, LSU put on a scoring show

This year celebrates the centennial season of men's basketball at Tennessee. The News Sentinel continues its series looking into the players, teams and events that have molded an exciting history.

Thompson-Boling Arena has seen some shoot-outs over the years, but never anything like the game that was played there 19 years ago this week.

When the final horn sounded on Feb. 10, 1990, there were 232 points on the scoreboard and 170 shots had been launched.

And two of the great individual scorers in SEC history had put on a show.

LSU outgunned Tennessee 119-113 and the Tigers’ Chris Jackson scored 49 points to eclipse the 43 from UT’s Allan Houston.

“I think it was fun for both teams, doing what they do best — running,’’ said UT center Ian Lockhart.

Jackson’s 49 stood as the all-time Thompson-Boling Arena record until Kentucky's Jodie Meeks had 54 against the Vols there this past Jan. 13. Houston’s 43 is the UT record at TBA.

Jackson, an All-American in both of his two years at LSU, set a then-SEC record with 10 3-pointers. LSU’s 7-foot-1, 280-pound freshman center Shaquille O’Neal set an arena record with seven blocked shots.

Completely overshadowed was a sizzling 31-point effort by UT guard Greg Bell and strong 22-point showing from Lockhart.

A crowd of 20,128 watched the Vols launch an arena-record 91 shots. The score was 58-53, LSU, at the half.

Houston, a 6-foot-6 freshman guard, was 14-of-27 from the field in his career-high game.

“People in Louisville are probably wondering if they should have sent Denny Crum to Tennessee and kept Houston,’’ said LSU coach Dale Brown.

“What a player.’’

Brown was referring to the circumstances of how UT’s all-time scoring leader ended up in a Vol uniform.

In the spring of 1989 Tennessee made SEC history by hiring Wade Houston as the first black head coach in a major sport. Houston, a native of Alcoa, was an assistant coach at the University of Louisville, where his son, Allan, had signed a letter-of-intent the previous November.

Crum, the Louisville coach, eventually gave Allan Houston, a top-five national prospect, a release to follow his father to Tennessee.

It was a record-setting four years in Knoxville for Houston, although a bittersweet time as well.

Allan Houston, photographed in 1991.

The Vols never made the NCAA tournament in Houston’s career. He played on only two winning teams and his father was dismissed in 1994, while Allan was a rookie with the Detroit Pistons.

Houston scored 2,801 points, easily passing Ernie Grunfeld’s school record. Only the phenomenal Pete Maravich (3,667) scored more in SEC history. Houston’s career total ranks 14th on the NCAA career chart.

Houston joined Grunfeld as UT’s only four-time first-team All-SEC honoree.

He played more minutes (4,606), made more free throws (651) and was the most accurate (42.4 percent) 3-point shooter ever in a Tennessee uniform.

His 84.9 percent free-throw accuracy ties for second in UT annals. Sometimes unselfish to a fault under the circumstances, he ranks sixth all-time at UT in assists (460).

But Houston was best known as a prolific scorer. Possessing a textbook shooting form, he scored 30 or more points 23 times and averaged 21.9 for his career — despite being the focal point of every opponent’s defensive game plan.

His highest average (23.7) was his sophomore year in 1990-91, when his 806 points set a UT season record that still stands. That was the year he led the Vols to a surprise berth in the SEC Tournament championship game and was named tournament MVP.

Houston was the 11th pick of the 1993 NBA draft and enjoyed a strong career in Detroit and New York. He won a gold medal with the U.S. team at the 2000 Olympic Games, joining Grunfeld (1976) as the only Vols to gain that distinction.

Houston, 37, appears to be finally retired from the NBA. He has an administrative post with the New York Knicks and is an active philanthropist in New York, doing charitable work on a number of fronts. (See allanhouston.com for details).

A couple of years ago he created the Wade Allan Houston Scholarship at UT.