Armen Gilliam, who died this week, did a lot to provide Iowa with one of its most painful basketball losses ever

His name was spelled "Armon" when his UNLV team played Iowa in Seattle in the 1987 NCAA tournament West Regional final.

"Most people pronounced it Ar-MON," Gilliam said when he made the name-change late in his NBA career. "I've been correcting people so long that I got tired of it. I just thought that if I put the 'e' in there, it would make it a lot easier to pronounce. I'm not Muslim. It's not religious or anything like that."

Gilliam died Tuesday night in a Pennsylvania fitness gym, playing basketball. Oh, if only he'd played for someone other than UNLV in '87, eh, Hawkeye fans?

Iowa led by 17 points with 16:29 left. But the Runnin' Rebels ran off a 22-4 run, and went on to an 84-81 victory. The story was reversed so often in Iowa's 30-5 season, its first and best under Tom Davis, when the Hawkeyes erased many a double-digit deficit to go on a scoring spree and go on to a victory.

UNLV took a 37-1 record to New Orleans, where it was upset by Indiana in the national semifinals. The Hoosiers, with a shooting guard named Steve Alford, then beat Syracuse for the national-title.

Gilliam was named the Most Outstanding Player of the West Regional. He had 27 points and 10 rebounds against Iowa. He scored 998 points his senior season, still the school record.

Gilliam went on to a 13-year NBA career. He died Tuesday at age 47.