Arkansas Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors' complete press conference ahead of Saturday's matchup in North Little Rock, Ark., against Samford plus importance of Makayla Daniels and Tahlia Scott's development.
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00:00 Yeah, I'm just curious. I mean, since the loss on Sunday to Pine Bluff, just how
00:04 practice has been, I guess, from a team morale standpoint.
00:09 Ethan, the one thing about kids these days is they're resilient.
00:13 I mean, I think they were disappointed in it being a loss period, regardless of opponent.
00:19 They don't like to lose, but they do move on pretty fast.
00:22 In this case, they specifically had to because we had finals start on Monday.
00:27 So we've only had one practice. It was yesterday. They were great.
00:31 I think they're very relieved. You know, finals are about to be over.
00:34 This is the absolute best time of the year to be a college athlete because it's the closest
00:39 you're going to get to feeling like a pro before you are a pro because you don't have class.
00:43 You can focus on your sport. We had two good film sessions, too.
00:46 Some individual film sessions. It was really easy to identify,
00:50 you know, some things that could have helped us win that game on Sunday.
00:55 So I think we learned from them, carried them over to yesterday.
00:59 We'll see a little bit more today and how we do these next four games.
01:02 But, you know, one of the things we talked about, there's in all of life,
01:06 there's always two kinds of pains, one that hurts and one that changes you.
01:10 That one kind of hurt both ways. It hurt us and I think it'll change us.
01:14 So for the better. And it's why we challenge the kids with
01:17 all those in-state opponents and everybody get up for it and challenge them
01:21 by putting it right before finals. You know, all of those things are strategic
01:25 to test us to see how we're going to respond to adversity.
01:29 We don't ever shy away from creating adversity for our kids.
01:34 And we had some. So I'm anxious to see, just like everybody else, how we respond next time we play.
01:39 But I know they're ready to get off the court. They are all saying they wish we would have had
01:42 a game a little sooner. So they could have moved on a little faster.
01:45 But, you know, we'll get that chance on Saturday.
01:49 Yeah. Then just asking a little bit about Samford, I know they last played Alabama,
01:53 which at media day, a lot of Alabama's players call y'all, you know, the lookalike in the
01:58 conference. Is there anything maybe from watching film of that game that you kind of picked up on
02:03 that you think you think of Samford?
02:05 You better be ready to play. That was a seven point game. Do not look at the final score,
02:09 Brett and Matt. The final score ends up 30, but it was a seven point game at the
02:14 going into the fourth quarter. Kind of got away from him a little bit in the fourth. But
02:19 you know, again, you've got you've got some transfers from some from high level schools.
02:23 You got another SEC post player down there. You got Peyton Pritchard's sister who I recruited
02:28 when I was at Washington. I can't believe she's still in college, but that's the way it is these
02:32 days with COVID. I watched her play a bunch when I was in Seattle and she was down in Oregon.
02:39 It's a good team. Our kids. I don't think our kids. I'm not I know our kids did not
02:45 overlook a pine bluff. They're not going to overlook Samford, so they've got their attention.
02:51 They're easy. They've got two great shooters. Our kids recognize talent when they see it.
02:56 They can look at those numbers and see they got two kids shooting almost 50% from the
03:00 three point line. They know what that looks like to do that. It's incredible, so.
03:03 I think with them having played Alabama, who, like you said, people a lot of times think that
03:11 we have a lot of similarities. I think that particular game being that close will certainly
03:16 have our kids attention because it's not really a true home game. It's in our home state, but
03:19 we're not any more used to shooting on those rims than they are. Traditionally,
03:23 we've played very well down there. I hope that continues. We always have great support, so.
03:27 Samford has got our attention. They would have had our attention either way,
03:33 but I think coming off a loss, maybe more particular focus than normal can be expected.
03:37 Yeah, I have a few more, but we have a full crowd.
03:40 No problem. We don't have practice until 1, so I'll stick around as long as you need me.
03:44 All right, Bob, it's your turn.
03:49 OK, hey Mike, how you doing?
03:52 I'm doing good, Bob, you?
03:53 I'm good. Hey, I'm working on something. There's been a lot of fan frustration or consternation,
03:59 whatever you want to call it, that the games in North Little Rock haven't been available to stream
04:04 and this year that's changing. I'm just wondering what you think about that.
04:10 I think any chance that a Razorback fan gets to watch our game is for the good. I don't know.
04:14 Honestly, didn't know there was consternation. I'll have to look that word up, I think,
04:20 after we're done, Bob, but I think it means concern.
04:22 I guess it was probably over not being able to get a ticket. I know the men's game is a hard
04:29 ticket because I had a lot of people reach out to me and say, hey, can you get me tickets to
04:33 the men's game? And I said, I'll do my best. You can't get them. It's a hard ticket down there.
04:40 So I'm sure that people wanted to be able to see it and couldn't because of the streaming.
04:44 Somebody said it was because technology maybe in the building, and I guess they've got that
04:48 upgraded, would be my guess. You can upgrade technology pretty quick these days. They've
04:54 upgraded their sound system in there. I go to a lot of concerts down there, so they've made a lot
04:57 of good upgrades in their sound. So I'm guessing they probably made an update in their Wi-Fi.
05:02 I hope they got their shot clocks working and the clock's working. We've tended to have some
05:08 issues with those, but I think it's great we can stream it. I know my mom and dad will be happy
05:13 because they can come to our game and get back home in time to Greenwood to watch the men's game.
05:17 They'll be fired up. I think beyond ticket availability, it's just people want to be,
05:24 if they live in California, they can watch all the Hawk games, except they could never see the
05:28 game in Central Arkansas. Or if they live up here and maybe can't make the trip to Little Rock or
05:34 North Little Rock. I don't think it was the arena's fault, but they got some kind of new gizmo.
05:41 I think ESPN worked with them and the SCC network. But I think it's just people just thought,
05:47 "Well, gosh, you can see 30 games streaming or on TV and you can't see the one." And also,
05:53 I think this will help with baseball too. But yeah, I think it's just the fact that people can,
05:58 the game's available. And of course they get to listen to Matt. I understand Matt's doing the
06:02 color and Brett's doing the play-by-play for both games, I think. Do we have to address him as like
06:09 raise your back, like voice of Arkansas, any upset for some award? Am I going to have to start
06:15 referring to Matt with some title before everything? Yeah, he's actually-
06:18 Just call me sir. Just say sir. Yes, sir. No, sir. I'll be good.
06:21 I've been doing that already because you're my elder.
06:23 He's a finalist for Arkansas's-
06:29 Yeah, that's it.
06:30 ... for the year. Yeah.
06:32 I think this, Bob, I think it's awesome that we can get them all on there. But again,
06:36 you're talking to the guy that used to have to avoid this, Mike Irwin giving the score at 1030,
06:40 so I could watch the game's tape delayed on channels, on the news when I was a kid. So the
06:46 fact that they were getting 29 out of 30 or 30 out of 31, I don't know. It's kind of just today's
06:54 society that we're going to complain a little bit about everything. But I'm glad they got it fixed
06:58 and we got some fans across and parents. I think it's big for recruiting too. We're recruiting.
07:02 We've got kids that we tell us to watch and they may be home for the holidays and this is their
07:07 only chance to watch. So again, with technology where it's at today, not being able to watch
07:13 something live, it's head scratching for all of us because there's so much stuff out there
07:18 that is live that I don't want to watch. I'm getting sick of pickleball already and it's a
07:23 great sport and I don't degrade anybody that plays it, but it's not taking me long to not
07:28 love that as a... I'd rather watch poker, I think, than pickleball, but I don't know. That's just me.
07:35 Yeah. Okay. Thanks.
07:37 Hey, I'm interested to read what you come up with because I want to know what the issue's been. So
07:42 I'll be looking for your piece. Okay. We always appreciate that.
07:46 All right. All right. Daniel.
07:49 Hi, Coach. We talked about it after the game that you hadn't had a chance to see the film or kind
07:59 of diagnose what had happened, but I'm wondering if you've had a chance to look and is there any
08:05 similarities between what was happening early in the season and now? No, there are different
08:10 reasons. Like I thought that night, the leads that we lost were normally personnel decisions
08:17 that I had made, lineups I had put together that we hadn't worked on much. Our issue the other
08:22 night was effort when you break it down and you look at it. We were straight-legged, we were flat
08:28 footed on rebounds, we were slow to rebounds. I looked at all the measurable numbers on our
08:38 K'nexon devices. We should not have been tired. We played tired.
08:42 It would be an excuse to say that we were tired going into finals. It's a fact.
08:47 We were going into finals. That is a fact, but it shouldn't have been a fact or. We just got
08:54 outplayed. They wanted it. They had a lot to play for. I heard John Calipari say at one time,
09:04 we were a little bit arrogant, I think, maybe at times that, you know, hey, we just beat Florida
09:11 State. We're going to beat everybody we play now. And that's a valuable lesson to learn. All teams
09:16 learn them some way or the other. Some teams don't always lose to have to learn it, but there were
09:21 22 clips that just jumped off the computer screen at you. Anybody could have picked it. I wouldn't
09:30 have taken a basketball coach, any fan that was frustrated with us, anybody that they were
09:36 justified. We were pretty bad for 22 possessions. And in a game that is decided by one or two
09:43 possessions, 22 is way too many. And they were easy. They were obvious. They were fixable.
09:49 We pointed to those 22 and we've made it was really about, you know, it was a core group of
09:55 our four kids that took the brunt of the film session. And I think they took it well. We'll
10:00 see if they can translate it. But it was, I feared it was probably effort. I didn't say it the other
10:06 night because I didn't want to not be right. I didn't want to have facts. I tell my kids all
10:11 the time, facts and film. I didn't want to speak to y'all after that when I was emotional and not
10:16 have the facts in the film. Now I got them. We just didn't play hard enough for enough possessions.
10:21 And that comes down to us and preparation and what I'll tolerate. And my toleration level got a little
10:27 bit lower for lack of effort. So it'll show up in practice and may show up in rotations. I don't
10:33 know. I'm going to give those kids a chance to respond. Thank you all. All know me well enough
10:38 on here. I'm not a big fire. Everybody guy after a bad performance or a bad moment, I give you a
10:43 chance to rectify it and point it out. And we speak truth to each other. And if they can fix
10:49 it, then that'd be great. That's what this game's about. Going back to what we said at the beginning,
10:55 I think this is the time of the year that teams use this month to not have class and really focus
11:02 on basketball. And the teams that utilize it best probably make the most headway. And that's what
11:06 we're going to try to do. Changing a few things tactically, changing a few strategies, but not
11:12 overall philosophy or personnel. You'll see the same starting five and they'll get a chance to
11:16 fix their problems and play out of their mistakes and learn from them and try not to make the same
11:22 ones again. You only play it, I think, seven people in the game. Just how's the injury report
11:31 coming along? And is that something that you have to do in the near future at least? No, I don't
11:35 think so. We should get Emory back. We got some good news on her. She should be probably won't
11:40 be back for the Samford game. Not ruling her out completely, but probably less likely for that game,
11:47 but very probable for the Illinois game down in West Palm. Sam's nose was not broken, so she will
11:54 have to fight with that mask throughout the game like she was having to at the end of the game.
11:59 And then Talia's knee knock at the end of the game when she went knee to knee with that kid on that
12:04 last shot. It was just a bump. It wasn't a twist or a turn or anything like that. So nothing that
12:10 is requiring anything other than just a little bit of ice and some soreness. So we should be
12:16 back to, you know, I don't know that that changes our number necessarily. I would tell you that
12:20 matchup wise, looking at Samford, it's a better matchup for Jenna and Christina and Carly Keats.
12:27 So I think our bench would be a little bit more available Sunday than probably what I utilized on
12:34 last Sunday or on Saturday. Sorry, Saturday against Samford than what I did on Sunday against UAPB.
12:38 Thanks, coach. You got it.
12:41 Dudley.
12:43 Coach, is there also an element to where, you know, y'all were favored and even their coach
12:50 Dunn mentioned, you know, have so's and have nots. Was there an element of pressure going down the
12:56 stretch that maybe they were playing with an urgency to win and y'all were playing not to
13:00 lose because y'all were not supposed to? Million percent, whatever, infinity percent,
13:05 whatever number you want to put on it, Dudley. You're in the game enough to know
13:09 that in today's, and I mean today, I don't mean yesterday, I mean today, it changes every single
13:17 day for our kids. Winning doesn't feel as good as it used to. It's more of a relief.
13:24 Like, you beat Florida State and you want to celebrate, you want to be happy,
13:30 but it's almost like this relief because you don't have to, because you get to check Twitter.
13:35 You know, nobody wanted to check Twitter the other day because they knew exactly what it
13:40 was going to be. It's predictable. So, yeah, that pressure's there. I feel it. And if I'm feeling,
13:45 I know a 17-year-old kid feels it. They got to listen to and read people that
13:51 have 1% of the information, make assertions about them. That's no fun. So, yeah, I have no doubt
14:00 that that had a lot to do with it. I don't know what she meant by haves and have-nots, but
14:03 she's got some pretty good haves too. She's got some pretty good players that have had.
14:09 I think she was just talking about budget-wise.
14:11 Yeah, I've been on both sides of that and yes, it probably gives you a little bit more
14:21 I think what made them play well was they were playing well. I think that's where their excitement
14:25 and energy came from. They started making shots. You know, when we got up 10, they didn't quit.
14:30 You know, when they got Miriam in foul trouble, you'd go back and go on the counterback to what
14:35 Daniel said. You look at that film, what we look like with Miriam versus what we look like without
14:38 her. It wasn't good. So, but yeah, no, I agree with Dawn. Yeah, they did play. They played loose.
14:44 They played confident and yeah, we got a little tight because I mean, you were in the building or
14:51 were you just watching it? I was watching from home. No, you could feel it. I mean, we sense it.
14:57 We know and it's part of what we have to deal with, but no, you're a, again, picking them
15:03 infinity percent right that you start thinking about it. You know, two minutes to go, three
15:10 minutes to go, like, you know, Saylor hits that three and get back in. You're like, okay, maybe
15:14 this is it. And then they go down, we get a stop and they kick out and hit a three. And I promise
15:18 you, one of the first thing that entered my head was what am I going to say to Phil on the radio
15:22 here? And if we can't find a way to score five points in the next 12 seconds. So it's reality.
15:30 I think we're getting better at coping with it and dealing with it. It's not fair. That's okay.
15:33 Not everything is, but yeah, it factors in and it's not an excuse that I'm not sitting here saying
15:40 that people aren't, they can go do what they want to do, but it does make things harder for our kids
15:44 and for us. It's not making it any easier. It makes it harder. So, um, but we did learn something
15:53 from it. There's no doubt. So now I think that's the key part. Yeah, you got it. All right, Ethan,
16:00 go ahead. Yeah, just maybe I overlooked her, um, or something, but I know it's just a really hard
16:07 time for Sasha right now. And I don't think I've seen her at the games, your recent ones. Is she
16:11 just kind of taking some time completely away? Yes. Yeah. Um, she's not able to do what she did
16:19 last year and still come around and sit on the bench and come to practice. Um, you know, she
16:26 has always, she said that she wasn't going to make a big announcement. Didn't really want us to,
16:30 you know, I told her we would have to address it obviously, because people would start to not see
16:34 her. And all she ever has ever said was that, you know, this hit her back harder than it did the
16:40 first time. Um, and you know, it took her a full year last time. So not to anticipate her changing
16:48 her, uh, mind or not mind, just changing the way she feels about how basketball affects her life
16:54 anytime between now and the end of the season. So, um, the door is still always open to her.
16:59 She's still, you know, part of what we do. I've included on every text message and I told her I
17:04 would until she told me to stop. And she hasn't told me to stop yet. I still send her our game
17:10 patches. I still send her a pregame card that I write for. Um, but just, she's just not here
17:17 physically right now and I hate it for her, but I'm telling y'all, we've said it. A lot of people
17:22 on this call, we said it it's all over the country. It's happened that, I mean, y'all,
17:28 I'm not naming names cause it's not my business to name their names, but four people in our league
17:33 that are doing it right now. There's one that was on a national game last night. If you're watching
17:37 the Texas, Arizona game, there's another high level player. Um, we're starting to see some
17:42 of the effects of what we all went through with COVID and social and all that stuff that we've
17:48 been through in the last five years. Some of the results are starting to show up. And I'm not saying
17:52 that's what Sasha's is, but I'm saying it's not only Sasha. There is a lot of, and maybe it
17:59 happened used to in the past. We just didn't know about it, but you know, we're talking about game.
18:04 We're talking about the, the, the daily cost of doing business. Y'all think about what just
18:09 happened yesterday. There were kids at shoot around and I know this for a fact, cause it
18:14 happened to one of my friends. They were at shoot around yesterday with a kid who's been setting
18:18 out all year long because they're a double transfer. And she got, because the, because
18:24 the team was out practicing, she had her phone over there on the side and she was on Twitter
18:29 and said, wait, there's been a rule change in the last hour. I can play tonight.
18:35 And then she went and got her practice gear on and practiced and played
18:39 Matt's laughing because like, in what world does that ever happen? Matt never crazy.
18:48 You had kids that were planning on setting out the entire year that got notified. I don't know
18:53 how many happened in men's basketball, but I found seven women's basketball players that when they
18:59 woke up that morning, had no idea that they were going to play that night. I'm not saying it's a
19:05 good idea. I'm not, I mean, I don't know what I'd have said to our kids. Like, you really think it's
19:09 a good idea to ramp up from not having practice for a game. And now all of a sudden you're out
19:14 there, but I don't know. I mean, it changes every day. It changes now. And now I can't even say
19:22 every day it changed within the day for those kids. And again, I, maybe, maybe it's going to
19:29 make a stronger people and make those kids stronger when they're my age, but I know I
19:34 wouldn't have handled it very well as a 19 or 20 year old kid. So we're asking an awful lot of them.
19:41 So I'm going to keep doing my best to protect every one of ours and help them the best I can
19:46 through it because it is literally changing now by the hour. And by the way, those kids that played
19:52 last night, two weeks from now, might have to check their uniform back in because some other judge
19:56 may say, no, I agree. And they can't play yet. So there's going to be some people that play three
20:01 or four games and then, I don't know, turn your stuff back in and you can't play again.
20:07 But I don't know. Again, anybody that signs up for college athletics, you're in for a roller coaster.
20:12 You don't like to merry-go-round in the Ferris wheel. So you signed up for this strap in and
20:17 hold on tight and do your best not to fall out. And then last thing I have for you is just,
20:22 I want to talk about Michaela for a little bit. It just, she's had a big role every single year
20:28 that she's been on your team, but it's like that role has kind of changed every single year. You
20:32 know, with Dunji on your team, it's kind of similar to now with Taliyah where there's just a big time
20:37 score. How do you think she's adjusted, I guess, to all the different roles that have been thrown at
20:43 her? In total Mac fashion, just stoic. You know, she's handled it. Okay, I got it. Okay, I got it.
20:52 Okay, I got it. Give me a day or two. Give me a game or two. Give me a week or two. I got it.
20:59 I have no doubt it comes from her upbringing with her mom and dad and her support system on how
21:04 they've raised her to do whatever she can do to help that team. And that's why we were so lucky
21:09 to get her because of where we were at in our program. We knew we were going to be changing.
21:14 I would have never predicted that she could have done what she has done though. Again, you go back
21:22 and you look at her impact on both sides of the ball. You know, Kylie put out a deal about her,
21:27 you know, being the all-time leading point guard scorer. So she's a points guard now. She's
21:32 officially graduated to a points guard, not a point guard, but she's always guarded the other
21:36 team's best player for five years now. And their numbers are down. Our team is the most cohesive
21:42 team we've had in her five years here. And that's largely responsible for her. The way that she
21:47 handles the locker room, the way that she handles us coaching her, the way that she handles, you
21:53 know, when she, when she talked about coming back, obviously it was a no brainer. We wanted her to
21:57 come back. We, you don't, you don't let that kind of leadership move on. Some kids after four years,
22:05 maybe it's better for them to move on, but not Matt. We needed her. So I did tell her that,
22:09 you know, obviously we didn't anticipate her being here with Talia coming in. So she knew full well
22:13 what was coming and I have challenged her and y'all can ask her about it. She's prepared to
22:18 talk about it. But like I told her, her true legacy, like most people's is how you leave
22:22 something when you leave, how do you leave it? Did you leave it better than you found it?
22:26 I don't think, I don't think there's any question we're going to have done that.
22:30 Mack will have done that. And when, when this year wraps up, she left it better than she found it.
22:36 And she's left it ready for Sam to, you know, take over that leadership role and now start
22:42 molding Talia into that. You know, Talia has earned that respect in practice and she's obviously
22:49 learned it, earned it in our performance in games. And it's, it's not an easy thing for anybody
22:55 to have a freshman come in and impact a team that way, but they've handled it with a lot of grace
23:02 and a lot of poise. You know, we have our learning moments. Some of those things we saw on film were,
23:09 you know, missing each other, you know, one person would drive it in and we'd miss somebody.
23:15 Talia had 21 points in the second quarter. If I'm, am I right? Am I right about that, Matt? Y'all
23:19 were watching like, and we missed her on the, we, we had her on a next pass and we missed her.
23:24 Okay. So it's real easy for somebody to go, ah, y'all are selfish. They didn't want her to,
23:30 that's not true. They just didn't see her, but it can, can come off that way because people want it
23:36 to be. It's not feels like that on the team. It doesn't feel like that in the locker room.
23:40 Doesn't feel like that on the bus, but there's going to be people that want to try to make that
23:44 the story, but they won't be able to. I don't think with Mack leading us. So speaking directly
23:48 back to Mack, you know, I don't know how everybody will remember her, but anybody that's paid
23:57 attention is very objective, has got to know that she's left it way better than she found it when
24:04 she got here and has really set the bar. I mean, she's up there in the, in the talks of our great
24:09 point guards, our Mount Rushmore point guards with Amber and Amy Wright and maybe Callie Berna
24:15 up there, Sierra Rica. I mean, she's in that conversation of some of the better point guards
24:18 that have ever played here. Thanks Mike. Yep. Mike, that was similar to my question. So I want
24:24 to follow up on that. You know, when Talia gets going, it's really special to watch when she's
24:27 scoring like that second quarter, how did the other four then maintain an offensive aggressiveness
24:33 mindset when she's going so that when their turn comes, it hasn't been seven possessions since
24:38 they've thought about trying to score? Well, we didn't handle it because they made an adjustment
24:42 at halftime. They said they're going to trap those ball screens and get it out of her hands.
24:45 And we did not do that. So I don't know that we know the answer to it yet, but that's something
24:50 we got exposed on. We have to work at it. You know, it's one of those feed the hot hands,
24:55 or do you keep trying to let the game come to you? You know, it's always a balance as a coach,
25:00 but I think, I think they are aware of it. I think they know that if somebody is hot,
25:09 we always want to try to feed the hot hand, whether it was Talia or whether it was,
25:12 you know, Mac, a couple of games ago, they look for each other. So that's probably something I've
25:17 got to do a better job of, of making sure if that, if that starts to happen again,
25:23 that if there is an opportunity, maybe to throw it inside or drive it, that we look at doing that,
25:27 spread it out a little bit. But, you know, I think having, having overall team balance
25:34 makes for the best teams. There's no question. You also need somebody that can get you a bucket
25:39 when you need it. And that's what obviously Talia has got the ability to do. And when she gets going
25:43 like she did, and I'll still tell y'all, we haven't seen it yet. I saw her go for 57 in a high
25:49 school game in which she looked like that for the entire game. That was in a state semifinals too.
25:54 It wasn't against, you know, somebody that wasn't going to, you know, win a game that year. It was
26:00 in their state semifinals. So she's getting more and more comfortable. I think her turnovers will
26:05 start to come down as she understands the things that you're talking about. And that when it is
26:13 time, you know, don't shoot yourself out of a hot streak too, you know, don't, don't heat check it
26:19 so much that you end, you finish what you're, you got started, move that ball if it's not a shot
26:25 that, but when you're on a heater, I've only been on one, one time in my life, one time in my life.
26:31 And you don't think about it. You think about when's that ball going to find my hands again,
26:35 because it's my night. So it's a balance. We still, I don't know what it looks like with her.
26:41 We've only got to coach her for 14 games now, counting our exhibitions. But I know it's going
26:47 to happen again. So we've got to get good at recognizing it because it's going to happen again.
26:51 Compare her to Dungy. Dungy would drive into the line lane and throw up her hands and she'd
26:56 get fouled. She'd go to the line. It feels like Talia's intent is to draw the foul,
27:00 but then get the basket too. And sometimes some of those are missed because she's absorbing the
27:05 contact before she shoots too. But it feels like she's even got a three-point mentality when Dungy
27:11 was just trying to get to the line a lot of times. Yeah, a little bit different, a little bit
27:14 different in the ways they go about doing it. I think Chelsea started college with a pro body
27:22 already. If you saw Chelsea in eighth grade, she had a professional frame. Talia needs another
27:28 year in the weight room and with our nutritionists. So she has to do things with a little more savvy,
27:34 the make contact and separate, which she is so good at. I mean, she's still on pace to shatter
27:42 Plum's single season makes record and career record if she did it for enough games, but
27:48 she's almost double the pace on where Plum was at through 11 games on attempts and makes.
27:54 So it's an unbelievable knack to have at that age because it takes some savvy and it usually takes
28:02 experience. You know, we get to send clips in to the officials after every game we get to send 10
28:08 in and the vast majority of them are on her getting fouled and them not calling it because
28:14 she doesn't get knocked down. They're like, well, there was no displacement. I said, there was plenty
28:18 of displacement. She just absorbed it and tried to play through it and you didn't make it. And so
28:24 I'll get a message back from the official that says, yeah, we probably should have called that
28:28 one. I think those will add up as she gets a little bit more experience being officiated by
28:35 our officials. She's hard to officiate in practice. I'll tell you that it's she's not easy to grab a
28:40 whistle and try to figure out in practice whether they're fouls or not, but different than Dungy,
28:45 but equally as effective except and Dungy already has said it to me. So, you know, Talia makes a few
28:52 more than she's you. You don't expect her to miss more than one out of 10. I think she will shoot
28:59 90% one year of her career here for a season. I really do. She very rarely misses in practice when
29:05 we're shooting. All right, Bob, you have a question? Yeah, Mike said one more. Just what
29:13 are your thoughts on taking your team down to a different part of the state? I think it's vital
29:19 for our recruiting, for our fans. I'm so, I mean, when they made the rule, I mean, go back and look
29:27 at what we did when they made the rule for us to be able to play in-state. We've gone to every
29:31 in-state opponent's home gym now except UCA and we're actively trying to get that done.
29:35 I think for women's basketball, this is not true for any other sport because I don't coach in this
29:41 one. I don't know, but our state is really good with high school basketball. Our coaches are very
29:47 good. Grassroots programs are very good. I think we have to take our game on the road so they don't
29:54 have to get all the way to Fayetteville to see our kids play. So I'm glad our administration
30:00 supports it. There's a group of fans that reach out every year that aren't able to make it to
30:06 Fayetteville. I love eating at some restaurants down there as well. So we're going to keep doing
30:11 it as long as our administration will allow us to, but I think it's vital for the sport of high
30:16 school girls basketball and Arkansas women's basketball to play there every year that we're
30:20 able to. We try to play every year. If we're not playing Little Rock, we'll schedule a game like
30:25 this. If it's our year to play Coach Foley, we'll just go to the Stevens Center and play it there.
30:30 Any year that we're playing them at home, we're going to try to find an opponent to play us
30:35 in Little Rock. The fact that it's worked out to be a doubleheader with the men,
30:38 is it four straight years? I'd have to look. It feels like four straight years.
30:43 Is it not, Matt? Three, two, one. Not last year. Oh, never mind. We're starting a new streak.
30:49 One year off. We're starting a new streak. It's always cool. The last couple times I've been down
30:55 there, we did that. We would play and I'd go eat at Skinny J's and there'd be all the Razorback
31:00 fans there. We've been lucky enough to win there. So everybody liked me that day and would pat me on
31:04 the back. Then I'd go back and watch the men's game as well. I think it's a great atmosphere.
31:12 I love playing in Little Rock.