1. Home
2. Idioms
3. forty minutes of hell

forty minutes of hell

---

---

forty minutes of hell

In collegiate basketball, the entire duration (40 minutes) of a game played in a suffocatingly aggressive manner. The phrase was reportedly coined by Nolan Richardson while coaching the Arkansas Razorbacks in the mid-1990s. Primarily heard in US, South Africa. OK, everyone, go out there and give them forty minutes of hell—don't even give them a chance to breathe!

See also: forty, hell, minute, of