Neighbors hoping early SEC adversity leads to rewards down easier path for Arkansas

BY DUDLEY E. DAWSON

FAYETTEVILLE – Arkansas was picked last in the 16-team SEC women’s basketball preseason poll in October for valid reasons.

The Razorbacks top five scorers transferred or exhausted eligibility and voters didn’t see enough talent added to the roster to compete in arguably the nation’s best conference.

Fast forward to late January and Arkansas finds itself regulated to a three-way tie in the league basement with Missouri and Georgia.

Arkansas (8-14, 1-6) travels to Texas A&M (10-9, 3-4) on Thursday for a 6 p.m. contest that will be televised by SEC Network + with the Aggies’ best player Aicha Coulibaly out with a season-ending injury.

That precedes a Monday night 6 p.m. home game against Florida (10-9, 2-5) on the SEC Network and is the second in a stretch of playing five unranked foes after playing five of six ranked ones.

“We will see if we are polished up or been ground down,” Neighbors said. “I don’t think that this one particular game is going to determined that, but I do think this next run will determined whose kind of feel about the year.

“…Some of those days we are still going to be prohibitive underdog, but they don’t have the ranking out there beside their number.

“…We want to go through these last nine games with a better record than we have the first seven.

In addition to a tough non-conference slate, Arkansas’ early SEC schedule had games against No. 5 Texas, No. 6 LSU, No. 11 Kentucky, No. 16 Tennessee and No. 19 Alabama.

“We’ve talked about it,” Neighbors said. “…That is absolutely ridiculous. Everybody we play, it’s 20 wins, 17 wins, 19 wins. We have played two teams that have been number 1, two teams that have been number 2, three that have been number 4.

“…I think more importantly it’s where we are at mentally. The fatigue it can cause your body when you feel like you are improving, but there is really no way to prove it and we are a sport that has a scoreboard.”

Neighbors was asked how he is handling mid-season adversity that is basically uncharted for him in his college coaching career.

“It’s a great question and it is uncharted collegiately,” Neighbors said. “…So the way I have done it is to live even more in reality world and tell kids that this is the context of it and this is the perspective of it. You have to do that.”

Neighbors had Razorbacks Communications staffer Fuller Birch add up opponents wins for all of the SEC teams to see just how tough Arkansas’ slate has been.

Defending national champion and current No. 2 South Carolina’s foes lead the way while having won 303 games while Arkansas opponents are next at 298.

“That’s why I had Fuller do the project that he did to show – ‘hey look we could be this record and this record,’ Neighbors said. “There is no question we could have bought out the (home) game against (nonconference foe) Fairfield.

“…But I don’t think that is the way you do it. I think you go through the hard times and it is going to teach these kids for later in life. They’ll be able to draw back on it.

“So we live even more in reality world than ever and hopefully there are no visible signs to outside that could question that we are working as hard as we ever have. That is an unequivocal yes.”

Neighbors, who led Washington to the 1999 Final Four with now WNBA star Kelsey Plum, insists he and his staff are coaching the Razorbacks with full gusto.

“Anybody that has been around us for eight years that has been through here can say ‘I have never seen this group coached this hard, I have never seen them be this detailed. They have not one second let up because of the score, ’” Neighbors said.

“We are over there trying to win the fourth quarter the other night (in a 88-68 loss at Kentucky) into the last media timeout. And again I have had people send me direct messages how bush league that is that your are trying to win the fourth quarter in a 20-point game.

“Again, I would offer up that those people have never been on a competitive team.

“Our kids were into it that we won two quarters (even) if that means jack nothing to anybody else but us. But I think it carries us. So you find ways.”

He is a big fan of former Major League Baseball manager Joe Maddon, who led the 2016 Chicago Cubs to their first world championship in 108 years.

“I go back to my Joe Maddon book right here all the time,” Neighbors said. “There is not a better guy in the world than Joe Maddon about celebrating the small victories and finding ways that comes back around to you.

“There is not one single person in our orbit – and there are 59 of us… that doesn’t live with it every day. Nutritionist, strength coaches, equipment manager. There are 59 of us and I don’t want even one of those people to every look back and determine a difference between this team and a team that was gonna go to the NCAA Tournament.

This is not Neighbors’ worst futility in his coaching career as he harkens back to first season as the girls high school head coach at Bentonville.

“I can always draw back on that 1-25 year at Bentonville and I have done it a lot,” Neighbors said. “To the point that I have even reached out to a couple of those players and said ‘hey, what were some of the things that got us to that state finals two years later.

“And a couple of feedbacks were just that we never stopped coaching. We never stopped practicing. We never let the score and the record determine our worth.

“It’s hard because it is a little bit more publicized the(a)n that our Bentonville High School day were. It’s a bigger picture now that you are bringing social media and all that stuff into it.”

Texas A&M has notched home wins over No. 11 Kentucky (61-55) and No. 25 Ole Miss (60-58) and currently is ninth in the SEC standings.

Couliably was averaging 12.8 points before suffering a knee injury on Monday in a 64-51 loss to LSU.

“They (the Aggies) are playing really well with a sudden blow that lost a really talented good player that has been dominant in our league, but I know they will rally around her,” Neighbors said. “We always hate to hear about an injury to anybody and I am sure (head coach) Joni (Taylor) and her staff – they played great in the second half – will rally around Aicha.

“I am sure they are looking at this as opportunity to continue moving up in the pack. We have always had close games with them. It is always a defensive struggle because they are so good defensively.”

Texas A&M beat visiting Arkansas 73-67 last season on Feb. 22 – the first defeat of what turned into a six-game losing streak to end the season.

“I think we held them to 20 points in a half and then lost a close one at the buzzer and it kind of spiraled our season,” Neighbors said. “It ended our win streak and we didn’t win another game the rest of the year.”

Photo by John D. James