Neighbors’ different style working for Hogs, producing wins in March

By choosing Tennessee over Arkansas for the women’s NCAA Tournament, we now know that committee is fully capable of being as wacky as the men’s side of things.

“We were so close,” Mike Neighbors said Tuesday about the selection. “I’ve been told by many people that we were the last team talked about.”

The Razorbacks open play in the Women’s NIT on Thursday night at 7 p.m. against Houston in Bud Walton Arena.

Despite what you may hear, there are no seeds in the NIT on the women’s side. The Hogs aren’t a No. 1 seed, despite being the first team out of the NCAA.

“And I can guarantee you Houston isn’t a No. 16,” Neighbors said Wednesday afternoon after his team went through a practice where they were on the floor just 42 minutes.

The Lady Vols got in probably on their body of work over the last 35 years or so … regardless of what the selection committee wants to say publicly.

“I look at it head-to-head,” Neighbors said. “Everything else was about even. They might have had more top 50 wins than we did, but we had more top 25 wins.”

Ignoring the Hogs’ 80-79 win is something you get the idea kinda irritated Neighbors.

“When it gets down to a tie, every place that I’ve ever played whether it was the backyard growing up in Greenwood or in the SEC, when things are that even you look at what happened head-to-head,” he said Tuesday. “And we won in Knoxville.”

For a coach that is as good as anybody at the UA in juggling the mental aspects of things, it’s another tidbit Neighbors will keep in the bag.

“It’s 95 percent mental at this point,” he said Wednesday. “If above the shoulders is not locked in it at this point, it doesn’t matter how good or bad you’re feeling.”

This time of the year is what Neighbors has in mind back starting in the summer and builds in a very specific method when they play the first game.

“We try to cut practice by five minutes a week from the time we tip off in October,” Neighbors said. “We were on the floor for 42 minutes today. At this time of the year, we’re stripping things away rather than adding a lot.”

Neighbors has been that way for awhile now.

“I don’t know if seven years ago we stumbled onto something by accident or just a consequence,” he said, “but it seems to work.”

He cuts back practices. He gives his players more days off than anybody else … despite warnings from former bosses Gary Blair and Vic Schaefer.

“They both told me I was going to get myself fired doing that,” Neighbors said Wednesday. “They said once people found out I was doing it they were going to use it against me, but I just believe in it.”

The reason he believes in it is because he is producing winners.

“We did it even with our best team in Washington,” he said. “We were allotted an hour and 45 minutes or something for practice at the Final Four and we practiced for 25 minutes, then stood around looking at the big screens and stuff.”

Long workouts at this point in time, he feels, don’t work out too well.

“I don’t want to get in their way,” he said. “They know what to do. In an hour and 45 minutes, you’re trying to cram, making stuff up and doing things counter-productive.”

Narrowly missing out on the NCAA has made this Arkansas team one of the teams one of the favorites in the WNIT … for better or worse.

You get the idea, though, it’s given this team something to prove.

“You can’t go into this thing with regrets or looking back or being frustrated,” Neighbors said Tuesday. “The kids are ready and so are the coaches.

“After we vented to whoever we vent to.”

Now they’ll play against Houston in a game where both teams know what the other wants to do. Neighbors and Cougars’ coach Ronald Hughey told each other earlier this week what their game plan is.

“We’re focused and looking forward to playing Thursday night,” Neighbors said.

If you haven’t been to one of the women’s games, here’s your chance. Tickets are just $5, parking is free and athletics director Hunter Yurachek is giving away free tickets to the first 300 kids (and it’s just $3 for youngsters 17 and under if you can’t get there early).

On top of that, you’ll get to see one of the best teams in women’s college basketball. Just because the NCAA chose tradition over quality doesn’t really change that.

The Hogs are one of the hottest teams in the country.

And playing postseason basketball in Fayetteville.