Arkansas Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors on starting SEC play against the Kentucky Wildcats on the road Thursday night.
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00:00 Yeah, first of all, just I know.
00:03 Playing in Rupp Arena kind of unique.
00:05 Just maybe some of your first thoughts
00:07 whenever you think about that that arena.
00:09 Historic lots of big games played in
00:13 their kids or recognize it. Be one of
00:17 those games I do hope kids get their
00:19 cell phone cameras out and you gotta
00:21 take some pictures of and get a
00:23 picture on the logo. I think that's
00:24 part of the experience. We've all
00:26 got a little checklist or when you
00:28 get to my age that you do,
00:30 you got that little checklist of
00:31 places you want to say that you played.
00:33 So I'm excited for our kids to see it.
00:35 You know it's you build it up in your
00:37 head and you get in there a little
00:39 bit and it's old. You know you
00:41 forget how old the building is.
00:42 Could still look so good on TV so.
00:45 You know, I know the circumstances
00:47 for Kentucky is not ideal to not
00:48 have a home floor home court
00:50 advantage to place where they
00:51 shoot every day and play every day,
00:52 so we need to take advantage of
00:54 that for the one year we have it,
00:56 but cool experience for our kids for sure.
00:57 And when I hope they take advantage,
00:59 we'll play it up.
01:00 We played there.
01:01 I've been in that gym a few times
01:03 playing and watching games,
01:04 so we'll we'll talk about the history of it.
01:06 Yeah, and then I know Kentucky.
01:09 I mean the record right now is 7 and 7,
01:11 but they've really challenged
01:12 themselves with a lot of tough games.
01:14 I'm sure there's probably some
01:15 real respect there for LZ for you.
01:17 Sure, no, I you know she's trying to do
01:19 what we talk about in our league meetings
01:21 all the time about doing what's best
01:23 for our league and go out and challenge
01:25 yourself and not everybody does.
01:27 She does.
01:27 They won the SEC championship two years ago,
01:30 so you know they've got a good.
01:33 People want to play Kentucky.
01:35 She goes out and does it.
01:36 She could certainly put together a schedule.
01:38 They've got all the money in the world.
01:39 They could buy games in there,
01:40 but she doesn't do that.
01:41 She goes out and challenges her team.
01:44 It helps our league a lot of
01:45 respect for how she does it.
01:48 And again, they're tested.
01:51 Our group has learned not to look at records,
01:54 really not even to look at common opponents.
01:55 It's natural.
01:56 They're going to look at Sanford
01:57 and we beat them by about assume,
01:58 you know that that's fair.
01:59 That's OK to do.
02:02 But we all know from night
02:03 to night how things can be,
02:05 so they will have our respect simply
02:07 because it's an SEC game.
02:09 It is Kentucky.
02:11 They all are worth one game.
02:13 You know that's where we start this speech.
02:15 You don't get a bonus point.
02:17 In the win loss column for for
02:19 beating somebody that might be 14
02:21 and oh is compared to somebody
02:22 at seven and seven overall.
02:23 We're all back to 00.
02:26 And I know Kentucky will
02:28 approach it that way.
02:29 They will.
02:30 They are tested.
02:31 They know where they're.
02:32 They've been through adversity and I
02:34 think that makes him a dangerous team.
02:36 There is healthy as they've been all year too.
02:38 Like this is the first time I think
02:40 I've looked at a box schedule or a box
02:42 score from their last game against Sanford.
02:45 And when oh they all played.
02:47 So there is healthy as they've been.
02:49 I'm sure they've been building toward this.
02:53 And I and I think will you know like
02:54 like we did last year when we got
02:56 up there for our first road game,
02:57 it wasn't our first overall game,
02:58 but face the team that was prepared
03:01 and had been through the challenge.
03:03 Dudley.
03:11 Thank you, I was talking a little.
03:12 You talked a little bit about the other day.
03:13 This is the league in general.
03:15 Talk about what you've seen out of the league,
03:17 what you expect this year out of,
03:18 you know, another great crew, obviously.
03:21 I think overall we're sitting in,
03:23 you know, the conversation of being
03:24 one of the top three leagues in the country
03:27 with what our body of work is.
03:30 I think you could argue for two other ones as well,
03:33 but we've had some other teams go out
03:34 and challenge themselves and beat some top teams.
03:37 We've got as many good wins as any league out there.
03:40 We've got some tough losses though too.
03:42 We've got some losses that you know
03:43 we're going to have to explain to the committee
03:45 when the time comes so.
03:48 But I do think overall our league went out
03:51 and put together a schedule that we could get
03:54 six, seven or eight teams in the tournament
03:56 depending on how the league plays out.
03:59 I don't think nine or 10's possible,
04:02 like some years it might be,
04:05 but I think we're going to be in that six, seven, eight range
04:08 with what has happened in the non-conference.
04:10 I think South Carolina, you know,
04:12 has established themselves.
04:13 I think they've been unanimously ranked number one
04:16 in both polls the last couple of weeks.
04:19 And I know LSU has got a lot of media attention,
04:22 but it's still, they're the defending national champs.
04:26 Tennessee's getting Rekia Jackson back healthy
04:28 at the right time.
04:30 Mississippi State's done what they've done.
04:32 Ole Miss has done what, I mean,
04:33 the top teams have done what they're supposed to do.
04:36 I'm really, overall you look down too,
04:39 you look at the job Johnny did at Auburn
04:41 and what Shea has done with Vanderbilt teams
04:44 that have been traditionally picked at the bottom,
04:46 have gone out and scheduled well and got good wins too.
04:49 So I do not think we have a bottom of the league.
04:52 I think if anybody that's followed it,
04:56 tried to pick it from the bottom up,
04:57 you'd get a wide range of who's at the bottom.
04:59 There's not a clear cut bottom of this league,
05:02 which means the middle is going to be a war
05:05 and every game's going to be big.
05:07 We did bring it up the other night, just one time.
05:10 I told our team we would remind ourselves one time
05:13 that we had six games last year decided on one possession,
05:17 three points or less.
05:18 And that some of those possessions
05:20 were the third possession of the game
05:22 and others were the 17th and others the last.
05:26 But every play could win this game
05:28 and every game could be the difference
05:29 in whether you see your name on selection Sunday.
05:31 So we did talk about it
05:33 because that sting was real last year
05:34 and I don't want us to forget about it.
05:36 I don't want us to dwell on it,
05:37 but I do want it to motivate us.
05:38 So I do hope to see today,
05:43 this will be our first practice
05:44 since we've wrapped up non-conference schedule,
05:47 I hope to see a little bit more focus
05:49 and a little more attention to detail
05:51 and a little more value placed on every rep that we take
05:55 to see that carry over.
05:57 But I think you could put the, you know,
06:00 the Big 12's making a strong case right now,
06:02 the Pac-12's in there, along with us,
06:05 the ACC and the Big 10.
06:06 I mean, every coach in every league
06:08 is going to say their league's the best.
06:10 We all know that's a mathematical impossibility
06:13 for all five of them to be the best.
06:15 But I think we're one of the better leagues at the top
06:19 and I'd be willing to stand up and argue
06:21 that we could make a case for multiple bids come,
06:26 I think we're 78 days out.
06:28 I got to go back and check my math
06:29 before I put it on the practice schedule.
06:31 You know, we've been counting down the days
06:33 till selection Sunday, kind of like a,
06:35 with that NASA theme, the T minus,
06:37 I think we're down to 78 days.
06:38 So, a lot's going to happen between now and then.
06:41 There's going to be upsets,
06:43 there's going to be things we predicted,
06:45 but you know, that's what's great about sports,
06:48 no matter how much it's changed
06:49 over the last couple of years,
06:51 you still got to go play the games.
06:53 - Also, 15, 15 non-conference games,
06:56 did you get what you wanted to
06:58 out of the very different styles and all that?
07:00 And what do you think you got accomplished during that
07:03 as far as improving the team from the start to now?
07:05 - Great question.
07:07 And yes, I do.
07:08 We kind of took an inventory of that last couple of days.
07:12 Various styles for sure, various matchups,
07:17 various environments, quick turnarounds, long layoffs,
07:21 a lot of things to challenge us and prepare us there.
07:25 The 15 games is always a decision
07:27 'cause you don't have to play that many,
07:30 but kind of talking about what we did,
07:31 our kids do want to test themselves.
07:33 So, here's what I think we did learn, Dudley.
07:35 I think our roles,
07:37 and I'm going to have another check-in meeting
07:39 with all of our kids,
07:41 but I think they're pretty clearly identified.
07:43 I mean, I think we know we're going to count on Saylor
07:45 for 10 to 12 defensive rebounds a night.
07:48 We're going to count on Taliyah
07:51 to be able to create her shot eight to 10 times a game.
07:53 We're going to count on Sam and Mac
07:55 to create for themselves and for others
07:59 15 to 20 times a game.
08:01 They're both going to have,
08:03 Mac's going to guard the other team's best perimeter player
08:05 as long as she's not over 6'3".
08:08 Saylor's going to guard this person.
08:10 Miriam's going to protect the rim.
08:11 I think our starters' roles are so clearly identified
08:16 on what we need out of them
08:18 and really starting to be accepted.
08:20 I've seen so many positive things happen
08:22 in the last six games that have convinced us
08:26 that we're headed in the right direction.
08:29 You know, I still want more consistency
08:31 and that's going to come just because of reps,
08:34 but with Jenna and Carly Keats coming in,
08:38 giving us a backup there,
08:41 again in another 180, Emory's going to practice today.
08:45 (laughs)
08:46 You know, I said the other day, she might not practice.
08:48 She is, so, you know, we're going to keep dealing with that,
08:51 but I do think we need to get some depth.
08:53 Some of those roles a little bit clearly more defined,
08:56 but I think our starters all know
08:58 and respect what each other have to go out there and do.
09:00 And then they're going about helping each other do it.
09:03 I've seen Sam make so much growth
09:05 in finding open shooters this year,
09:10 as opposed to sometimes in the past.
09:12 She's gotten much more comfortable at doing it.
09:14 In fact, the other night,
09:15 I thought we were a little too unselfish.
09:17 We had three or four drives to the basket
09:19 that could have resulted in a layup
09:20 and we were looking for kickouts.
09:22 So that's a good sign.
09:23 Now we got to go back and say,
09:24 "Hey, go ahead and lay that thing in
09:25 for the rest of the year."
09:27 But I do think the 15 games gave us enough variety,
09:32 put us in enough challenging situations.
09:34 I think we're going to improve a lot in these next two weeks
09:39 because we're not going to be in constant preparation mode.
09:42 There's a couple of skill days
09:44 dedicated to just working on us,
09:46 not preparing for Kentucky.
09:49 So without being in school and without being having...
09:53 Obviously we know our opponents,
09:55 but a little bit more regimented Thursday, Sunday format,
10:00 I think we're going to improve individually,
10:02 which will improve us as a team.
10:04 Kind of put a bow on that.
10:06 - Appreciate it.
10:07 - Yep.
10:07 - Anyone have anything else?
10:10 Go ahead, Ethan.
10:12 - Yeah, can I have...
10:13 Oh, go ahead.
10:14 - Yeah, you...
10:15 - No, Daniel, you get it.
10:16 - Daniel and then Ethan can follow.
10:18 - Hey, coach, I was just wondering
10:20 with the invention of the portal
10:24 and SEC starters going out,
10:26 do you have to kind of change your message
10:29 to pre-portal to post-portal
10:31 as to how you...
10:32 I guess, is there less of a line of demarcation
10:35 with conference play now that the talent's more spread out?
10:38 - I hadn't thought about it, but yeah.
10:41 Yeah, I mean, I think...
10:43 I mean, we saw that.
10:45 Let's just use Zae Green.
10:46 Let's just talk about her.
10:47 That's a kid that played in our league
10:49 at two different places,
10:50 and now she's at a school that's not SEC.
10:52 So she's shooting up the draft boards
10:56 and you wouldn't normally see a player like that
10:58 in the non-conference.
11:00 I mean, I can go back to the first game of the year.
11:04 They had three or four starters from the SEC
11:07 on their roster.
11:07 So yeah, you're probably got onto something there
11:11 that there's not as big a chasm
11:16 between the power fives and the not.
11:20 Doug Bruno used to laugh all the time.
11:21 He refused to call it power five.
11:23 He called it football five,
11:25 'cause he said, "There's some teams in the other division
11:27 that's not very powerful."
11:28 And he was right.
11:29 So yeah, I think...
11:32 And I think you see that in the net right now.
11:34 If you look at where the net's at,
11:36 there's a lot of teams that traditionally
11:38 are not anywhere near the top hundred
11:40 that are solidly in that.
11:41 So there might not be as big a jump, especially with us.
11:45 We didn't play anybody outside the top 250
11:48 in the non-conference.
11:49 I think, well, I don't know.
11:50 I don't know where Coach Foley ended up,
11:52 but I will bet y'all...
11:54 I'll bet y'all Lowe and Joe's
11:55 that they don't end up number 250 in the country
11:57 after they go and win about 17 of their league games.
12:00 But we played more top 150 teams
12:03 than anybody I can find so far.
12:05 I'm only about 40 teams through,
12:07 but yeah, you're probably right, Daniel.
12:10 There's probably not going to be as big a jump
12:12 as what we faced in the past.
12:14 I may use that with the team.
12:15 I'll give you credit.
12:16 - And then do you keep things?
12:18 Do you keep the net stuff to yourself,
12:20 or do y'all kind of openly talk about it amongst the team
12:23 and things like that?
12:25 - I used to talk about it openly to the team
12:27 until Matt came in and told me to shut my damn mouth.
12:30 They don't really care about it.
12:31 They don't want to know.
12:32 And she said, "Just keep that crap to yourself."
12:35 But I've got it.
12:36 I mean, if y'all looked at my desk in my office,
12:38 I keep up with it.
12:39 I watch it daily.
12:41 I study it.
12:42 Probably too much to be honest with you,
12:45 but I don't share it as much with the team.
12:49 I make them ask me.
12:51 I used to put it up.
12:52 I used to publicize it and talk about it a lot.
12:56 And there's still a few people that want to know,
12:59 but Max certainly ain't one of them.
13:01 So I think that most of our part of the team
13:04 just wants to go out and take it game by game.
13:06 And they want me to know,
13:08 but they don't necessarily want to know.
13:10 So I can talk about it with y'all
13:13 anytime you want to though,
13:14 'cause I've got it up on my board
13:16 and I look at it every morning.
13:17 - Thanks, coach.
13:19 - You got it.
13:20 - And then Ethan, yeah, go ahead.
13:23 - Yeah, just wanted to ask about Petty
13:26 and Maddie Shearer in general.
13:28 I know they're having pretty good years for them.
13:29 Just kind of thoughts on those two.
13:31 - Well, Petty would get my vote
13:33 for the biggest jump from impact.
13:37 She's obviously worked her tail off.
13:40 During the off season, she looks like a different player.
13:45 I've always hated the most improved award
13:46 'cause I used to get that at camp,
13:48 'cause that meant you sucked before.
13:50 She certainly did not suck.
13:52 She was a really good player,
13:54 but she took it to another level,
13:55 which is way harder than what I used to do.
13:57 I used to be so bad that they had to give it to you
13:59 because by the end of the week,
14:00 at least you could dribble and shoot it.
14:02 For what she did, she was already a good player,
14:05 but she took it to another level.
14:06 And then Maddie Shearer is to me always,
14:09 that's a kid that if we'd have gone out recruiting,
14:13 all of us could pick out.
14:14 She's healthy, I think is the difference with her.
14:17 The difference between her and being healthy and not healthy
14:21 is the big part, but I think Petty,
14:25 I mean, they're going to give a most improved award
14:27 and she's certainly going to be somebody
14:28 you got to consider for it.
14:30 I don't think it's aptly named,
14:32 but I mean, her usage rate, they're playing through her.
14:36 If you look at how many times they try to get it to her
14:39 and get her touches around the basket,
14:41 and then she creates a bunch of touches for herself
14:44 by getting a bunch of rebounds.
14:46 She's aggressive, she looks confident.
14:49 And then, like I said, Shearer, I think,
14:51 has always kind of had that about her.
14:53 I think she's getting healthy
14:54 and they're kind of starting to figure out
14:57 how to best utilize her.
15:00 To me, this is a team that also has very clear
15:02 identification of their roles.
15:05 You don't have to watch a whole bunch of film.
15:06 You can watch one or two and before long,
15:09 you're predicting what's going to happen
15:10 because they do what they do.
15:12 They don't get outside themselves.
15:14 They don't beat themselves.
15:16 You have to do something to beat them.
15:17 So, those are both two kids that certainly deserve
15:21 all the attention they've been getting.
15:24 - Yeah, and then last thing that I have is,
15:26 most teams hit big obstacles in league play.
15:28 I mean, even LSU did last year.
15:30 Just how do you think the team so far has done handling,
15:33 they've had some adversity in the non-conference?
15:36 - I've been really proud of them.
15:38 Like I said, in the past, sometimes when adversity would hit
15:43 we would pull apart.
15:44 Adversity tends to pull us together a little bit.
15:47 You know, I think there's a couple of factors.
15:51 I think our starters pretty much are comfortable.
15:54 They know they're not going to come out
15:55 for making a mistake.
15:56 They might come out if they make the same mistake
16:00 twice in a row or they don't try hard,
16:03 but they're not second guessing their roles.
16:06 It's kind of been established.
16:07 So, I think that gives them a comfort level.
16:10 So, when adversity does hit,
16:11 it's not as, maybe it's challenging.
16:16 They pick each other up better than most teams I've had,
16:20 especially with our teams here.
16:22 And I think it's a sign of good leadership
16:27 from Mack and Sam and Saylor and good followship.
16:31 Followship doesn't get talked about enough a lot.
16:33 You know, it's always leadership that gets talked about,
16:35 but followship is just as important.
16:37 And I think Talia has been an amazing freshman follower.
16:41 She hasn't stuck her nose in there
16:42 where maybe sometimes freshmen would be found upon
16:46 for having an opinion.
16:47 She's just kind of listened and she's tried to help.
16:50 Like, she overpassed it the other night.
16:53 I told her, I said, "I don't know
16:55 what you're thinking there,
16:56 but we want you to lay that shot in there.
16:58 We want you to try to get, you kicked out a shot
17:00 that I think you had a layup."
17:01 She was like, and I know what's in the back of her mind.
17:04 I know she's saying,
17:05 "I'm going to try to get somebody else an open three."
17:08 And that's great, but it's just as selfish.
17:11 I tell them all the time,
17:11 it's just as selfish not to shoot an open shot
17:14 as it is to not throw it to somebody.
17:16 So, and they're starting to reward each other with that.
17:21 Like the way they talk to each other in practice
17:25 has gotten to a point where I think when adversity hits us,
17:30 there's not that panic.
17:32 Like it's not going to kill us, you know?
17:34 Hey, we can survive this because we've been through it.
17:38 And I'm glad that we went through the schedule
17:39 the way we did.
17:41 Y'all can predict, y'all can start looking at our schedules
17:43 in the future, going to look very much what this one did
17:45 because of that reason.
17:47 We got off to build some confidence, we got challenged,
17:50 and then we've had some time to get it fixed
17:52 before we went into the SEC.
17:53 Last year, that didn't happen.
17:56 Last year, we got challenged at the very end of it.
17:59 We got exposed, but it took us a while to learn from it.
18:03 So I hope we as coaches learned our lesson last year
18:07 and carried over.
18:09 But y'all know this 16 games, we break it down four at a time
18:14 and you have basically four quarters.
18:18 First four games, next four games,
18:20 middle four games, last four games.
18:22 They're all worth the same amount,
18:24 they all carry the same value,
18:26 but everything gets amplified a little bit.
18:28 And it's fun, you know, it's a fun time of the year.
18:30 I'm glad that we're not in school right now.
18:33 We can spend extra time with each other,
18:35 doing extra things off the court
18:37 that are going to be necessary to handle
18:40 the challenges that the SEC presents.
18:45 Writing down your Little Rock thing, by the way,
18:50 because I'm a big Lope and Joes guy, so.
18:52 There you go.
18:53 Hopefully it comes true.
18:55 Write it down and there's no loser in this situation
18:58 because we all get to eat.