Arkansas Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors after they go cold offensively and defense breaks down in fourth quarter of a loss to the Florida Gators on the road Thursday night.
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00:00 >> It was the start and the finish of the game that really, I think doomed y'all.
00:04 What went wrong in those two parts of the game?
00:07 >> I felt like we turned it over for touchdowns both of those times.
00:12 Didn't give our defense even a chance, turn it over near midcourt or
00:15 in the backcourt.
00:16 And then next thing you know, we're listening to the Florida fight song over
00:20 and over.
00:20 The turnovers that led to points are indefensible.
00:29 And we weren't great defensively anyway, but
00:31 certainly not on the ones where we've got no chance.
00:35 I felt like that's what ignited both of their runs.
00:38 And then I thought the times when we did not do that,
00:40 we scored 58 points in the middle of them.
00:43 So, but we're susceptible to that, that's who we've been.
00:47 We've gotten better at maybe those streaks being a little bit shorter.
00:52 But tonight they were at crucial times.
00:56 >> Yeah, and then last thing I'll ask is just such a game like that where you have
01:00 the lead going into the fourth quarter and you drop it.
01:03 Just how do you feel like the team has bounced back well all year, but
01:06 where are they at right now, do you think?
01:09 >> They're good, we're sitting at five and five.
01:11 We're 500 in the league, we've lived in that area an awful lot.
01:14 Again, I don't look at it as a blown lead.
01:22 I know that's easy to do.
01:24 That's low hanging fruit to me.
01:26 We fought, we got that lead.
01:29 The fact that we couldn't hold on to it is troublesome.
01:33 It makes you wonder.
01:35 But I also know that we've got it and that's when you watch that film.
01:38 It's if we didn't clip when things happened, we didn't do it chronologically.
01:43 If we just said, okay, let's go best to worst.
01:45 Our worst clusters, okay?
01:51 Our good is really, really good.
01:54 Those clips would all be together.
01:55 And then when it goes south, it clusters again.
01:57 And it's a phenomenon that I know I've had other teams that have had it.
02:03 We'll try some things to get out of it.
02:05 But our good is really good and our bad is awful.
02:09 We've got to cut the awful parts out and just don't be terrible for four minutes.
02:15 Be some other term, but we can't be awful in this league.
02:19 There is no bottom to this league this year.
02:22 Some years there are, not this year.
02:23 So there's not a game that you go into that you can survive a four minute
02:29 stretch of being awful.
02:30 You get exposed.
02:31 And I thought we had two of those.
02:35 The first four and probably some place in the middle.
02:37 I thought we tried hard.
02:39 I thought some of our efforts good.
02:42 But some of our effort, we call it faux effort.
02:46 It looks good because we're diving on the floor, but
02:48 you're diving after a ball they already have.
02:50 Or we're trying to jump in there and rebound after they've already,
02:53 six, four kids already got it chinned.
02:55 And we get beat in transition on the other way because we were faux.
02:59 Well, I was trying.
03:00 Well, you were trying.
03:01 There is no doubt that you weren't trying to do the right thing on that.
03:05 So that's where we got to keep coaching them.
03:07 I got to keep showing it to them.
03:09 And it has to hurt.
03:10 Hopefully this one does hurt a little bit.
03:12 I haven't, I've spent just a few minutes with the team.
03:14 We'll get time with them on the plane.
03:16 I was hopeful that we could take a day off tomorrow with a Monday game.
03:20 We may not do much on the floor, but there will be no off day.
03:23 Because there's too many things from the film that we've got to look at and
03:26 get fixed for these last six road game, these last six SEC games.
03:30 >> Anthony.
03:31 >> Yeah, and just kind of talking about that fourth quarter,
03:34 obviously Florida kind of has a big quarter.
03:37 Can you just talk about what adjustments you kind of saw for Florida that
03:41 kind of shifted momentum and how, I guess,
03:43 how can you learn from those going forward?
03:45 >> Well, I'm guessing, I'm not over there in her timeout, but
03:48 I know Kelly well enough.
03:50 She's been around enough good programs and
03:54 I know the program she's building as a head coach.
03:56 She probably looked at the stat sheet in the middle of the third quarter and
03:59 said they're 19 of 19 from the free throw line.
04:02 Hey, how about let us keep them off the foul line?
04:05 I'm guessing, I don't know, I didn't hear her press conference.
04:08 But she's got a good staff over there.
04:10 I'm sure somebody pointed that out and we went one for one.
04:13 They just started walling up and I felt like there were a couple times we threw
04:17 ourselves to the floor with no contact, no foul, hoping to draw a foul and
04:23 they played good defense.
04:25 So I felt like they probably said no middle drives,
04:29 because we were having a lot of success opening up the lanes and
04:32 getting middle drives, Mack, Sam, and Talia, and Saylor even got one.
04:37 So my guess would be they said, hey, let's learn from the first three quarters.
04:43 They're driving it through the middle and they're getting themselves to foul line.
04:45 Let's make them make a shot and we really struggled to do that.
04:49 >> Daniel, we'll wrap up with you.
04:50 >> So I was just wondering on that, on the second to last position when you were down
04:56 by three and Talia ended up going with the mid range, I guess.
05:00 What did you see from that, especially since you're a mid range team?
05:05 >> Yeah, but there's two for one there.
05:06 We had 55 seconds, I think, when we took the time out.
05:10 That's a magic number for two for ones and you're down two possessions.
05:13 So we want to get the first good shot we got.
05:15 That's a great shot, shot that she makes an awful lot.
05:19 It's hard to make that in the fourth quarter after you've played 39 minutes and
05:22 you've been banging on it.
05:24 But we were going two for one there, Daniel, hoping to get a two or
05:27 a three there and then get a stop and have a chance to win the ball,
05:30 win the game back.
05:32 Unfortunately, we didn't score and we didn't get a stop.
05:35 So something we work on an awful lot.
05:39 We had a lot of success doing it.
05:41 It just didn't work out tonight.
05:43 >> What kind of challenges did Mythar Rupo just five, seven?
05:47 Just have you ever seen a player like that?
05:50 >> Yeah, she hung about 25 on us a couple years ago when she was in Alabama,
05:54 I think, or Mississippi State, and not Alabama, but Mississippi State.
06:01 Yeah, I've seen her do it.
06:02 That's a kid that's done it here.
06:04 She's done it at Texas.
06:04 She's done it at three high level schools.
06:07 I felt like we let her get too comfortable in the first half.
06:10 There were a couple of possessions where she just rose it right up over the top of
06:14 an uncontested shot, made it.
06:17 And then when you get her confidence going, then she's a load, driving it in there.
06:22 I thought she let her team, I thought they hit big shot after big shot after
06:26 big shot too.
06:27 I thought Warren hit some big shots, brought and hit a big three after we'd
06:31 gotten a stop and couldn't come up with the rebound.
06:33 And the ball got kicked around and kicked around and kicked around.
06:36 And it would end up in somebody's hands, Warren hit two or three that way, or two,
06:41 I guess, I mean, she may, yeah, two of her three were that way.
06:45 And then I thought Broughton's were extremely timely.
06:47 But I thought Matharu ran her team, Correa came in off the bench and
06:51 did what she's been doing to every team in the league.
06:54 Just became a menace, driving the ball in and scoring in the mid range.
06:59 I put her up there in that category with Asia Petty as the kid to use their
07:03 summertime the best of anybody in our league.
07:05 That kid really is, and their staff did a great job developing her during
07:09 the off season, she's become an all SEC top performer.
07:12 >> Thanks, Coach.
07:15 >> You got it.
07:15 >> Thanks, everyone.
07:16 >> Anybody else?
07:16 We're not in a hurry.
07:18 Steve, you have something?
07:20 >> If you have any Tennessee questions, you can ask them,
07:22 because I don't think we'll be able to meet.
07:24 >> Sure, I'll ask one just obviously with Rekia Jackson,
07:29 ever since she's been back for them, they're a different team.
07:34 What do you think about them with her especially?
07:36 >> Well, Tamari Key's playing a bunch now too.
07:38 She didn't play a lot early in the year and
07:40 both of those kids are all SEC performers, not from the past.
07:45 And they're back and they're playing, it's a different Tennessee team.
07:48 Key presents a lot of issues on us getting around the rim.
07:53 Rekia Jackson is a defensive matchup nightmare.
07:58 If you put a little kid on her, she'd post you up.
08:00 You put a big kid on her, she takes her out to the perimeter.
08:03 We've had some success with her in the past.
08:06 One year we had pretty good success with her at Mississippi State.
08:08 But there's been other times that she's kind of one of those kids that
08:12 you have to make her work for everything she's gonna get.
08:14 You can't keep her from taking shots or getting shots.
08:17 But I'm glad we have a little bit of the extra day because Tennessee,
08:23 now with Key back, with Rekia Jackson, full speed.
08:27 They've got their full complement of players.
08:28 This is a different team than a lot of people saw in the preseason.
08:32 >> That's all I have on them.
08:35 >> Okay.