Arkansas Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors previews game with Alabama that's a repeat of earlier matchup on Thursday night at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark.
Category
🥇
SportsTranscript
00:00 All right, as always, if you have a question,
00:03 just use the raise your hand function or message me in the chat.
00:06 And with that, we'll go to Ethan.
00:09 >> Hey, Mike, just first of all, any update on Carly?
00:13 >> Yes, well, I will not practice today, don't anticipate her.
00:17 She took a really solid blow as you saw on the video from Miriam.
00:21 Just one of those freak kind of deals, took a shot to the nose.
00:28 Tried to play with the mask, it was very, very uncomfortable.
00:31 She was not feeling well, one of the toughest kids we have.
00:37 So when she said she didn't feel like going, got back, got looked at,
00:40 she'll be out of practice today.
00:43 Don't anticipate her for the weekend.
00:45 We'll hope for the best, but not looking good right now.
00:49 >> Yeah, and then any update, I guess, on Talia?
00:52 >> She practiced with contact a day last week and one day without.
00:59 So today will be day two of contact, we'll start to ramp her back up.
01:03 Anticipate having her available for the week for Thursday.
01:06 Sailor, go ahead and give you Sailor too, Sailor is gonna be day to day.
01:11 We started, implemented a kind of a three month finish the season calendar
01:19 down to the day, down to the hour, and obviously it worked.
01:24 She feels really good about how it got started after last week,
01:27 how she played and how she felt.
01:29 So we'll just continue to go down that, knowing that it's gonna be still a day to
01:32 day pain management with her.
01:35 And try to maximize minutes for all of our kids, but specifically with her.
01:41 >> Yeah, and I guess how good do you have to feel about just,
01:46 I know you keep on having some issues, Carly's like the next one.
01:49 But you've had so many players step up and
01:52 y'all been able to have some great games down some people.
01:55 >> Yeah, I mean, I think it validates kind of how we prepare and
02:00 how we build the thing.
02:02 You keep, Carly Johnson, I said it for months,
02:07 she's right there in that cusp of being able to break into the lineup.
02:11 And I know some people play ten people about equal minutes.
02:16 I've never, it doesn't happen in women's basketball.
02:19 I mean, just go down the top 25 and you look at how many people,
02:23 they're playing seven, eight.
02:24 And I've kind of bought into that theory, I've stuck with it.
02:28 It's hard on that kid in that eight, nine spot.
02:30 But Carly came into this program, knowing that she was gonna be a good player on
02:35 a great team, we hoped, and that's exactly what she's been.
02:39 She stayed ready, it's a hard, hard place to live.
02:43 We've had some kids that didn't like it and they've left.
02:45 I mean, you can chronicle it if you like.
02:48 Those kids in those spots as freshmen and sophomore, they have to make a decision.
02:52 Is it worth it?
02:54 Or do I have to go try something different?
02:55 She's decided it was worth it and has made the most for our opportunity.
03:00 She's a playbook, she and Carly both.
03:02 They're both stories that people ought to be talking about,
03:07 cuz every team has players like this.
03:10 And it's a great example of if you stay ready and you don't have to get ready,
03:14 what happens when your number gets called?
03:15 So I've had a lot of high school coaches reach out.
03:18 I've had a lot of coaches from other programs reach out and
03:22 talk about how those kids have excelled when their number was called.
03:27 And I think it's a testament to our team, our players on keeping those kids ready.
03:32 I mean, all you have to do is, again, is follow social media to see how excited
03:36 our kids are for those players when their opportunity comes.
03:39 So it does make you feel good.
03:41 It makes you feel validated in how you go about building things.
03:45 And I think it speaks really a lot of volume to our kids,
03:48 the type of kids that we have in our program.
03:50 >> I think I'm the only one asking questions, so I'll keep going.
03:54 >> Keep rolling.
03:56 >> Yeah, going back and watching the past two games,
03:58 I mean, it just really stood out to me watching.
04:00 It felt like after anybody did something really good, just like the on-court
04:05 body language and celebrations among teammates.
04:07 I know whenever Jenna hit her three, it was really good, when Saylor hit some.
04:11 I was just wondering if that's just kind of the personality of the team coming out,
04:14 or is that something that's stressed, just the good body language like that?
04:17 >> I mean, it's one of our, we have eight things that we judge every practice on,
04:21 and we call it powerful.
04:22 Body language doesn't always has to be positive.
04:26 I mean, if you feel bad, I don't want you to act.
04:27 I don't want you to fake it.
04:28 I want it to be authentic.
04:30 And that's what those kids have, they're authentic with it.
04:32 They are genuinely pulling for each other.
04:36 I think it's something we have had.
04:38 But I mean, again, because we live in the reality world, let's talk about it.
04:43 It's because we're winning.
04:45 It's a lot easier to do when things are going your way.
04:47 It's really hard to do when adversity hits, and we've been through enough
04:51 adversity.
04:52 I think when those moments come, we want to celebrate them as they happen.
04:56 You have to celebrate them.
04:57 We do talk about how your brain keeps score.
05:00 And if you don't celebrate those moments, man, your brain goes away on you.
05:04 So we've been very intentional on making sure we clip all those things and
05:08 make sure they see them.
05:10 I've never coached a team that played good that didn't feel good.
05:14 So we're trying to do everything we can to highlight the positives while still
05:18 learning from our mistakes and learning from the things that we do wrong.
05:23 But there is, and a lot of it does have to do with winning.
05:28 But even through, I mean, this is the first streak we've been on in a while.
05:32 I mean, two games doesn't really make a streak, but
05:34 we've been going back and forth, back and forth.
05:36 But throughout that, I felt like it's been growing.
05:39 So I hope it continues.
05:41 I think we will play our best when we feel our best.
05:43 >> And then I know you have a lot of respect for Christy Curry and
05:49 her and coach Johnny Harris.
05:51 Just I guess playing both of them this week,
05:53 what are some things you like about both of them that you appreciate?
05:58 >> Well, with Christy, it goes back to when I first got started.
06:02 And I think most of us coaches that the people that how they treated us,
06:07 Christy never looked down upon me as a young assistant.
06:10 She was always open to conversation, to opinions on the road.
06:17 She has been somebody that JC and I talked to, her and
06:23 Kelly are married and have a family.
06:25 So we have huddled up with them at Final Fours and
06:30 at the SEC meetings to talk about the challenges of a married couple working
06:34 together, so she just always is very genuine.
06:37 She's so underrated too.
06:38 When you look at the number of career wins versus ranked teams,
06:44 the number of career wins versus teams that make the NCAA tournament,
06:48 she's in the top ten of those categories.
06:51 I guarantee you'd win a bar bet.
06:53 I'm her biggest advocate when it comes to those things because her name doesn't get
06:57 talked about enough some of the things that she's done along the way.
07:00 And Alabama is a really tough place to be something other than a football coach.
07:05 And she's kept that team competitive.
07:09 They get to the NCAA tournament.
07:10 Within the SEC, getting the NCAA tournament two or
07:14 three years out of five is a really hard thing to do.
07:16 And she's done that in a really tough place.
07:18 In our meetings, she's always, for her players,
07:24 she's a strong advocate for our game.
07:26 So I just think she's often overlooked when it comes to talking about some of
07:31 the best in the country.
07:32 And then the things I learned from Johnny, cuz I would sit in her office and
07:38 watch her recruit and just overhear her talking on the phone to recruits.
07:42 The different times that we've worked together in the same office.
07:48 And then since coming up, she spent a lot of time with Coach Blair and
07:53 there's kind of a fraternity of people that have their Blairisms.
07:58 Things that we've all endured having to be a part of a Gary Blair staff.
08:02 So we've shared in those moments, she knows my kids, we share a love of guitars.
08:08 She's taken the guitar up and has become quite a good player.
08:13 We talked about a lot of things that aren't basketball related, but also too,
08:16 she's one that she will call about scheduling.
08:19 She knows it's something I cover.
08:21 And from talking in meetings, she's always had good advice.
08:26 And now that she's a head coach, a lot of times when you have a relationship
08:31 as assistant coaches, it kind of goes away when you both get to be head coaches,
08:36 cuz you're recruiting the same kids.
08:38 But that hasn't changed with Johnny.
08:40 Johnny's consistent from when she worked with Coach Horton at West Arc to all
08:44 those stops that she's been along the way.
08:46 She's been very consistent with who she is and
08:49 I appreciate that about how she goes about doing it.
08:53 I pull for her every time we're not playing,
08:55 certainly in the non-conference to win them all.
08:57 And then when we have to play, we've been down to the wire the last two years.
09:02 I mean, they've both been, Ramirez hits a shot here at the buzzer a couple years
09:06 ago, and then last year we went in a crazy comeback.
09:09 So I don't expect anything else out of her team's playing probably the best they've
09:13 played since she's been there.
09:15 Their crowds are coming out, I'm glad we got them at home.
09:17 >> Yeah, what do you think that last time against Alabama, maybe in hindsight,
09:23 were some of the things you were proudest of what y'all did well?
09:26 And maybe some things that going into this game again this week,
09:29 you might expect some adjustments made and y'all have to figure it out.
09:32 >> We got to guard a little bit better.
09:34 I mean, going back and looking at the film, I left the game, and
09:37 like I always told y'all, it's usually not ever as good as you think or
09:41 as bad as you think.
09:43 And we won the game, so I felt really good on the way.
09:45 And then I started watching, they just missed some shots.
09:47 I'm not sure we made a miss.
09:49 So I think those are shots that they're capable of hitting.
09:53 We didn't do a very good job on Sarah Ashley Barker, and
09:56 it's gonna be hard to do cuz she's really playing at a high level this season.
10:00 But I look back at watching that film and even though we won, we shot it well.
10:05 And then I think the score was not indicative of how that game was.
10:09 So we're gonna have to defend better.
10:12 Offensively, we're gonna prepare for the zone.
10:15 They really stifled this one when they went to the zone.
10:17 We turned it over a few times.
10:19 I would anticipate we'll have to be better against the zone.
10:22 Again, knowing Christy and her staff, they're not gonna try the same thing and
10:27 expect a different result.
10:28 We're gonna see something different.
10:29 So we'll have to be better on both sides of the ball.
10:32 We got off to a horrendous start down there.
10:34 I was disappointed with that, but proud of our bounce back and our finish.
10:39 But I think at home, our crowd can make such a difference.
10:45 And if we get off to a great start, just like we did against Kentucky,
10:49 we won that game in the first five minutes of the game.
10:52 It was pretty even after that.
10:54 But when you get our crowd amped up to start the game and
10:57 it keeps us playing at a really high level, I think that'll be important.
11:01 So get off to a better start, for sure, be a little bit better defensively.
11:06 And then have a solution for their changes,
11:08 I think their adjustments, I think they'll have.
11:11 And then with us, it'd be a different roster that played against them.
11:15 I don't anticipate having Keats, we anticipate having Taliyah.
11:19 So it'll be a little bit of a different roster, so
11:20 that changes the matchups a little bit.
11:23 I thought we did a really good job on Nia last time because Mac was able to guard her.
11:27 That might not be the case this time.
11:29 So that's a kid who can go from, I think we held her without a three point attempt
11:35 until in the transition in the second half.
11:37 So although we've played them recently and although we know them very well,
11:41 I do think it could be a little bit different game because the matchups could
11:45 be different.
11:46 [BLANK_AUDIO]
11:48 >> And Jacob.
11:49 >> Hey, coach.
11:51 When you were rematching with Kentucky or going into round two of that,
11:54 you talked about how the balance between maybe not liking to play teams a second
11:59 time, but how it makes prep so much easier.
12:01 Are you seeing kind of the same thing in terms of not having to prep matchup
12:05 specific this time around?
12:07 >> Yeah, and again, it's pretty close together.
12:11 It's within five games of each other.
12:13 So I think it keeps us from having to convince kids,
12:17 like now you don't have to convince them that Sarah Ashley Barker is faster than
12:20 she was last year.
12:22 The first time we had to try to convince them of that.
12:25 And the film doesn't always show it.
12:26 Well, when you have to guard her and she drives it by you the first three times,
12:30 you learn pretty fast.
12:31 She's a step faster.
12:33 And Timmons is much more aggressive this year than she was last year.
12:37 You can tell them that, but now they know it.
12:40 So I may have come a 180 on this, Jacob.
12:43 I may wanna go back to our days when I was in the Pac-12.
12:47 We used to play our rival back to back games.
12:50 Like if we played them on Friday, we played them on Sunday.
12:52 We played back to back and it was kind of odd, but she grew to kind of like it.
12:56 So maybe I've come a full 180 on that.
13:01 Just the memories are fresher.
13:04 You don't have to convince kids of things.
13:06 It does make your mental prep faster.
13:11 So we can spend a little bit more time on the physical part of it,
13:13 which for us right now with limited bodies, our mental and
13:18 physical well being have to go hand in hand.
13:22 So hopefully it's a benefit like it was.
13:24 I thought we were a lot better the second time around against Kentucky.
13:29 Probably had a lot to do with being at home as well, but
13:30 that's the same situation here.
13:32 We're back home, so I hope we haven't had too short term of a memory with that.
13:37 I hope we've had ability to maintain and draw back on some of the things that we
13:43 already did in preparation for them the first time.
13:45 >> What are the challenges as a coach of trying to walk the balance of phasing
13:52 a player like Talia back in, where it's the offense obviously found a lot of
13:57 rhythm and now you're asking a ball dominant player to kind of jump back in.
14:01 What are the challenges as a coach of trying to kind of walk that line and
14:05 bring her along slowly but bring her back into the offense in a way that she's skill set?
14:09 >> Great question and it's not one that I would tell you I have a concrete answer for.
14:14 I think every situation's a little bit different when it comes to returning
14:18 a player that's been out.
14:20 Now she's been out for a significant five game stretch, or is it six?
14:25 Five or six, whatever.
14:26 Yeah, six.
14:27 So with this particular situation though, and this is, again, Jacob,
14:31 this wouldn't necessarily be a blanket way that I would do it.
14:35 But because we're slowly bringing her back to playing,
14:38 I think we gotta slowly immerse her back in as well.
14:41 Her timing is not gonna be there.
14:43 That's the greatest fear.
14:44 I asked her what her greatest fear was and that's what she said, my timing.
14:47 And it could kind of showed a little bit when we brought her back into full
14:50 competition, so just like I do with anybody, I'm not gonna ever put a kid in
14:55 a situation they're not fully prepared to handle.
14:57 I've tried to explain to her the difference in coming back now and
15:02 coming onto campus.
15:04 When you came onto campus, we had 10 days of workouts,
15:08 then we had a full foreign trip.
15:10 Then we had 40 days of prep before we played our first game.
15:12 That's a long time.
15:15 And that was that starting spot, and you talk about being ball dominant,
15:20 the number of plays we ran, that was a result of a long period of time.
15:24 This is gonna be a shorter window.
15:26 So that time frame is collapsed a little bit.
15:29 So our plan is to take it kind of like we have the injury,
15:32 be really slow with it, not being a real rush.
15:35 Let her get in where she fits in.
15:38 I do think she's been very observant on the side.
15:41 I think she has seen some opportunities where maybe when you're on the court
15:46 playing, you don't get a chance to see it,
15:48 cuz it's all coming at you like water through a fire hose.
15:52 I think she's been able to sit over there and watch those players and say, hey,
15:57 when Sam drives it, this is where I need to be for her to find me.
16:00 Hey, when Matt drives it, that's a different place.
16:02 And it's a different place when Saylor drives it, and
16:04 how Saylor sets screens opposed to how Miriam sets screens.
16:08 So I think she used her time wisely.
16:12 I don't think she sat over there and disengaged.
16:15 A lot of times when you're injured, you have a tendency,
16:17 your self-defense mechanism is to disengage.
16:21 She never did that.
16:22 So I'm not gonna put any parameters on it.
16:25 I'm not gonna put any minutes limit on it or anything like that.
16:28 I'm gonna trust our eyes and our years of experience to make sure that we're
16:33 putting her in situations where she can be most successful as she returns and
16:38 re-immerses.
16:40 I've been saying re-emerging too much, it's immerse for me.
16:43 Re-immerse her back into what we've had going, and for everybody.
16:47 I mean, it's a different timing, it's a different rhythm.
16:50 We'll get a chance, I think, to practice these next two days with the lineup that
16:53 we're gonna play.
16:54 So I'm looking forward to practice today.
16:57 >> And then not to beat a dead horse, but I mean, you mentioned the slow start
17:02 when you guys were in Tuscaloosa.
17:04 And obviously, it's been an issue all season long.
17:06 Is it something you're continuing to address in terms, I know you changed
17:10 things up about the way you prepped game day sort of situations.
17:14 Is it something you're continuing to look at?
17:17 >> Well, we're sticking with what's worked cuz we've been out three games in
17:19 a row now.
17:20 Again, I'm not sure that's considered a streak and it's not enough data to pat
17:25 ourselves on the back and say, hey, we found the answer.
17:28 Cuz I know that's not the case, but I do think we feel rested.
17:34 I think we feel better.
17:36 And I said it maybe before you hopped on there,
17:38 I've never coached a team that played good that didn't feel good.
17:41 So yeah, we're continuing to look at it.
17:43 But I think just the arrival time at the gym, we've not been there as long.
17:49 We stretch now as a group a little bit earlier and
17:52 we've condensed our time on the floor prior to tip off.
17:56 We wear those little monitor devices and
17:59 our exertions have been considerably less prior to tip off.
18:04 And our exertions in the game have been considerably higher.
18:07 So I do think maybe we found a little something.
18:10 Again, I'm not telling you that that works over the course of entire year.
18:14 But I'm also not stupid enough to change stuff up when it's working.
18:18 So we're gonna stick with what's going but constantly be monitoring it.
18:21 And if we do see something kind of get off the rails a little bit,
18:24 we'll try to correct it as we go.
18:26 But I think the starts have been better, particularly at home.
18:31 So I hope to see that continue this weekend.
18:34 >> And then last one for me, you talked about the challenges, right,
18:39 of bringing different players along with all the injuries you've kind of had in and
18:43 out.
18:44 Can you remember a time kind of in your coaching career where you've had
18:47 a situation and experience similar to this where you've not really by choice,
18:52 kind of had to tinker with things on the fly all season long?
18:55 >> Yeah, it was 2016, 15, 16 season at Washington.
19:00 We had a number of things happen throughout that year.
19:04 We had a starter go down about four games into conference season.
19:08 Put a walk on in, a former walk on in as a starter.
19:14 And she won that, she maintained that all the way through.
19:16 Our starting post player that year who led the country in rebounding,
19:22 much like Saylor is doing, had some nagging knees and
19:25 she had to swim, it's very similar to that year in 2016.
19:30 Our plum stayed healthy the whole year.
19:33 I kind of, plum and Katie Collier kind of stayed healthy the whole year.
19:37 Well, that's kind of what Mack and Sam are doing right now.
19:39 So there's a lot of parallels clicking in my head.
19:42 But I also became very aware that 2016 was a long time ago.
19:50 I don't know if anybody else knows that, but 2016,
19:52 that was a long time ago, coach, that's eight years.
19:56 And I know it seems like that to these kids that live day to day, but no,
20:00 there's a lot of fun things.
20:01 There's a lot of things we learned.
20:02 I called my former staff.
20:04 I called people that were on my staff that year at Washington and said,
20:07 can you remember anything that we did in practice?
20:11 And I got some great ideas.
20:12 I called Adia, I called Fred, I called Morgan Valley, who's at UConn now.
20:17 She was on that staff.
20:19 I called a couple of our players.
20:20 I called Kelsey, talked to Katie Collier and
20:25 asked them if there was anything they remembered.
20:27 And in talking to them, they all just remembered that how initially they were
20:31 a little bit resistant to it, because it was change and it felt like, well,
20:37 if you're not, because we all grow up hearing this old adage of if you're not
20:40 working hard, it's gonna show up and it's gonna catch up.
20:43 You can still work hard and work smart, and I think that's what we started doing.
20:46 So I think we're through the resistance phase of that, and I think we're into now.
20:52 Obviously with Sailor, Sailor's bought in, cuz she just went eight for nine,
20:55 eight for her first nine.
20:56 She thinks that this being rested, there's something to it.
21:01 So we're not gonna tell her any different.
21:02 Hopefully she doesn't see this video.
21:05 But I do think having them feeling good is a huge part of it.
21:11 And I do have some past drawing on that, that year ended up pretty good for us.
21:18 So I'm gonna hopeful that this team ends up reaching our maximum potential too,
21:22 whatever that may be.
21:22 >> Thanks, Coach.
21:25 >> You got it.
21:25 >> All right, thanks, everyone.
21:28 >> All right, thanks, y'all.
21:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]