forty minutes of hell

In collegiate basketball, the entire duration (40 minutes) of a game played in a suffocating and aggressive manner against one's opponents. The phrase was reportedly coined by Nolan Richardson while coaching the Arkansas Razorbacks in the mid-1990s. Primarily heard in US. OK, everyone, go out there and give them forty minutes of hell—don't even give them a chance to breathe! Yikes, both teams look pretty lethargic out there. It's a far cry from the forty minutes of hell I thought we'd see. If they impose their will on us, it'll be forty minutes of hell. We cannot let that happen!