Arkansas Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors on 5-0 start for third time, importance of playing stretch of games against in-state opponents with 81-67 win over UCA on Monday night at Bud Walton Arena.
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00:00 Think of tonight you had all five of your starters scoring double figures.
00:03 What'd you just think of, I guess the ball was really moving well out there.
00:06 >> Yeah, I thought we had some lineups where it was.
00:08 We had some where it didn't.
00:09 And we'll have some film of that.
00:11 But with that group, really, really pleased with how we managed it,
00:16 how we attacked.
00:17 The balance is when we're at our best, obviously.
00:20 I know that we've got that.
00:22 But it's good to see it on display in one of these kind of the first five.
00:26 We kind of broke the season up into five.
00:28 So to see a balance scoring that was really good.
00:31 >> Sam talked about it some about how just other teams have to pick their poison
00:35 with the three fast guards.
00:36 And then Coach Kemper just said the same thing.
00:39 Just what do you think of tonight kind of it being Sam's turn to really build up?
00:42 >> And I think that's what our kids are learning.
00:45 They're trying to teach Talia as a freshman that you look at a five game
00:49 stretch, and a 10 game stretch, and a 15 game stretch.
00:52 And they've been here long enough to know that that all equals out.
00:56 People, because how she played at Arkansas State,
00:59 they're gonna make sure she can't probably get to the mid range.
01:01 So that means somebody else does it.
01:04 Just the luxury of being able to on the fly, them make the change or
01:08 us make the call from the bench to move them around a little bit.
01:12 I'm sure it would be very hard to guard.
01:15 Likewise, we had some matchup issues with that.
01:19 So I thought he did a good job of exploiting those times when we didn't have
01:23 those kids on the right kids.
01:26 And I thought between Fisher and Upshaw, they really got going there at
01:31 the end of that second quarter and really changed the momentum of
01:36 the game going into halftime.
01:38 >> Did you kind of have a substitution plan before the game and went with that?
01:43 It looked like a lot more wholesale in the first half than the second half.
01:46 >> Yeah, when we broke the schedule up, we had it scripted and
01:51 we stuck to the script the entire first half.
01:54 And without any additions or changes so
01:57 that we know what we have going down to this next five game stretch.
02:04 Which if you look with Wisconsin Marquette, UCLA, Florida State,
02:08 you got a lot of ranked teams and their teams bubbling around getting votes.
02:13 So I felt like we needed to have on film enough usable film to teach
02:19 to the kids who are in those rotations, but
02:23 also to give our kids the confidence when we do need more depth.
02:30 Emory coming back has really helped us a lot, continuing to give Jenna and
02:36 Christina and Carly valuable minutes in there I think is really important to us.
02:42 And I think it's important to them, they're very coachable and
02:44 they've been eating this film up.
02:46 So good pickup, but yeah, it was on a card and we followed it.
02:53 [BLANK_AUDIO]
02:56 Go.
02:58 >> Yeah, obviously your schedule takes a little bit of a step up as you said.
03:02 Talk about what you feel like you've got accomplished during I guess the two
03:05 scrimmages and in these five games as you head into at least heavily.
03:09 >> I think our roles are pretty clear.
03:12 I mean, I think now they're defined, now we gotta accept them and
03:16 play to them, play to our strengths.
03:18 But I do think we got that accomplished.
03:21 And knowing that how it lays out the two back to back to start and
03:25 then the trip back to Florida, turn right back around and go down there.
03:30 And then you come back and you got a team I think moved up to number three in
03:33 the car to in the country.
03:35 Yeah, okay.
03:37 But that's, first of all, the five that we scheduled for
03:41 these people when we schedule them didn't have these rosters.
03:45 Tony wasn't and I'm not saying anything about coach rushing or
03:48 anything that's happened in the past, but
03:51 this is a completely different Central Arkansas team y'all seen it long enough to
03:55 know they shoot it, they've got good pieces, he's doing a great they're playing
03:59 really, really hard for him.
04:01 So I think when if you'd asked me before the season started,
04:05 I wouldn't have thought we would be as far along because we've been tested.
04:10 And I'm glad that we have because like you said,
04:13 Wisconsin is really good but I think we've played teams that are similar to them.
04:19 So I think we'll be prepared going down there and I look around the country,
04:23 I promise you one time a night.
04:26 And Rita sat back there and she watches more games than I do, believe it or not.
04:29 And maybe she'll get an amen out of this, but there's one game a night I have to
04:33 double check the actual box score.
04:36 Like I look at and go, there was one the other night and I won't say it but
04:40 I looked at and I went well, that can't be right.
04:42 And then I looked at the box score and I was still didn't think it was right.
04:45 I was like, that can't be right.
04:46 And then I looked at both the box scores before I was finally going to convince
04:50 myself and it's happening.
04:51 And I think that's a good sign for
04:53 women's basketball that that can happen in the non-conference.
04:56 So I'm glad it hasn't happened to us.
04:59 I do think this group has learned to play through wins.
05:04 Sometimes you have to lose to learn and so far this team's been really good.
05:07 Their talk has been amazing.
05:09 I think that's credit to Mac and Sam and Sailor in the way that they've been going
05:14 about helping Maryam into a new role and helping Talia just to just being
05:18 a freshman in college, as well as everybody that we're bringing off the bench.
05:21 All new rows, welcome Sasha back.
05:24 She continues to impact us in lots of ways that don't always show up in
05:28 the stat sheet, not that I did a little bit.
05:30 But I think we do know our roles and
05:32 I'm pleased with where we're headed in this next five game set.
05:35 >> Absolutely, we should have covered a lot of games here.
05:37 A lot of them seem the same, but this one was unique in that you were in honor.
05:41 >> Yeah. >> Talk about that a little bit now,
05:43 that's a little different.
05:44 >> Lacey did an amazing job last year of reaching out and starting this and
05:49 then to become the actual in seven game this year.
05:52 It takes a lot of work, a lot of preparation and
05:55 obviously having Carly on our team, our roster right now.
05:59 We had people come in and do story storytelling in the last two days.
06:04 We used every bit of shoot around the day to listen to stories.
06:07 We had India Lewis's family come in as well.
06:09 Brandy and Macy came in with their kids and talked about India's history here and
06:15 how much she loved being a Razorback, it was very moving.
06:19 So I think we all learned a lot from it.
06:22 It's not something that we're just gonna, I think Max summed it up better.
06:26 She said, you can't just wear the jerseys.
06:29 This group went and spent an entire day in Oklahoma over in Tahlequah,
06:34 doing community service.
06:35 I'm not talking about a couple hours, I'm talking about full day,
06:39 painting, working, scraping paint.
06:41 So I think that's the really, really cool things.
06:45 There were so many people that came in, again, 4,200,
06:48 that's a great job by our marketing staff getting that out.
06:51 We've had unbelievable home crowds, so the color just pops.
06:59 I've had 10 people already ask me, hey, where can I get that jersey?
07:01 Where can I get that jersey?
07:02 Where can I get that jersey?
07:03 So I'm glad that it brings attention to what it does, and
07:07 our kids learned a lot the last two days for sure.
07:10 >> One last one, obviously, what does Thanksgiving look like for
07:12 y'all while you're on the road?
07:13 And then off of that, you've got a decent couple of games down there.
07:19 >> Yeah, you rotate it kinda every other year.
07:21 You try to be home for Christmas or home for Thanksgiving.
07:24 One of those two, this year it's Christmas, so we'll be as a team down there.
07:27 We'll practice here on Wednesday.
07:29 We're off tomorrow because of the way the week's laid out.
07:33 We'll travel on practice here at home on Wednesday and
07:35 travel down there and get a practice and a big meal on Thursday.
07:39 Early meal so that we can get it out of our system for the Wisconsin game.
07:43 I think it's a two, yeah, two Eastern time.
07:46 So I love the two game tournaments cuz it gets you ready for
07:51 partially for the SEC tournament, back to back games.
07:54 We tried to simulate that last week.
07:56 I got after them really hard before the Arkansas State game in practice.
08:00 We spent a lot of time on the practice floor to kinda try to simulate back to
08:05 back games.
08:06 Then as a result that we had turn around go on this game with a one day prep.
08:10 And that was, but we try to lay that whole week out.
08:14 We'll get down there. We'll have some fun.
08:15 We'll be in Florida.
08:16 I'm not one of those coaches that takes a team to Florida and
08:19 then puts a sun restriction on them.
08:21 We'll get out and we'll enjoy the area.
08:23 It's obviously close to home for Sam and Talia.
08:26 So even though we're gonna be back down there numerous times throughout
08:30 the season, this will be a fun one to have around the holidays.
08:33 >> Hey coach, coming into this game, you guys were hoping around 25%,
08:38 three point shooting wise tonight up near 40%.
08:41 Miriam obviously hit a few.
08:43 >> Yeah. >> How much does it help you guys when
08:45 you can space the floor effectively like that?
08:47 >> Well, I think we can still continue to shoot it better.
08:49 We've started defining our shots before they go in.
08:54 Like when they leave their hand, is it a good shot or not?
08:57 So we're calling them neithers.
08:59 So if y'all hear us talking about if the ball is neither touch the paint and
09:03 come back out or the ball has neither been thrown up the street in transition.
09:08 That's when our percentages go down.
09:10 So our shot selection has been a lot better I think these last two games.
09:14 I think Miriam is now six for her last 12.
09:17 I think she went three for six the other night as well.
09:20 And Saylor starts to, we all know how well she shoots it in practice.
09:24 It's good to see that happen in a game.
09:25 And I think we can still shoot it better.
09:30 But when I look down there and see 27 free throw attempts,
09:32 that's always a good thing for us.
09:34 Getting to the foul line.
09:35 81, 82, we've scored like 81, 82, 81, like four of our five games, I think.
09:42 And then 77 against, so it's kind of that number.
09:45 If we get to it, it's a good number for us.
09:47 But if we can continue to shoot the three good shots,
09:52 I think we'll continue to see our percentages go up.
09:55 >> Talked about breaking the season kind of up into five game sets.
09:58 In this first five game set,
10:00 what area would you say you've seen this team grow the most?
10:03 >> Well, we're taking better care of the ball.
10:05 And they're really talking to each other about shots.
10:09 Used to, there's been times with our team where we get in evaluation mode during
10:14 a live ball on our shots.
10:17 I think now we're at least doing that in dead balls or in the film room.
10:21 That's improvement, that's progress.
10:24 Last year it took us probably ten games before we got there, so
10:28 to get there in five, I think we can continue to do that.
10:31 Our bad possessions are really ugly, I know that, okay?
10:36 Be patient with us, we're playing through.
10:39 Rather than try to take over, I want us to learn to play through when
10:43 the possessions end up getting a little choppy.
10:45 I think we're seeing fewer and fewer of those.
10:49 But we'll continue to put them in positions to, I've always heard,
10:53 I think it was Warren Buffett or somebody said,
10:55 if people are afraid to make mistakes, they'll never make great decisions.
11:01 So we're trying to do a lot of teaching through film,
11:04 a lot of teaching through experience.
11:07 And I think as long as we can continue to do that through wins,
11:10 it'll help us continue to progress through this next five game set.
11:15 heading into, um, you know, the two tournaments.