Everything Arkansas head WBB coach Mike Neighbors said after loss to South Carolina

Arkansas head women’s basketball coach Mike Neighbors spoke to the media following the team’s 95-55 loss to South Carolina on Thursday. Here’s everything he had to say.

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Opening statement

“We played a lot of great teams this year, a lot of them on the road. We knew we were going to get a very focused South Carolina – which we got, especially in the second half. I think they’re as good as anybody we’ve played all year. Obviously, (they’re) a team that gives us a hard time in a lot of different areas.

“I thought they were unbelievably defensively and in transition on offense. They settled down in the second half, and they really executed their half court, as well. They have no weaknesses when they play like that. I thought we gave them a little run there in the second quarter after we got our legs back under us but not enough to keep it going for the full game.”

On MiLayisa Fulwiley’s ability to impact the game off the bench

“Yeah, it must be nice to bring her off the bench. It was just a spark. I know she excels in that role, and she’s accepted it.

“It’s unbelievable that, you’re a little gassed, and she comes in, and she takes it to another level. Her offense, a lot of times, gets the flash, but what she does defensively, she just disrupts. It’s hard for Izzy (Higginbottom) to get around her. They play such great team defense. But yeah, I thought that when she came in, and Maryam (Dauda) came in and did a great job for them.

“They get 56 points off the bench. It just speaks to the depth that they’ve got. I think, going into March, that’s very, very important. I don’t know what will happen. I’m not very good at predicting things; I never have been. But I still think this is a South Carolina team everybody better look out for come tournament time.

Win tickets to Senior Day, South Carolina-Kentucky women’s basketball game

On Kiki Smith’s performance against South Carolina

“She’s been hurt, so she’s been out. She hadn’t been available to play; she’s slowly worked her way back in. First part of the year, she was shooting in the mid-40s from the three. She was always a good option for Izzy to kick it out to, and it kept people from being able to double team and trap and hard hedge. Phoenix (Stotijn) made a couple tonight, too. (She) made one that got waived off. But yeah, between those two, now, that we’ve got some kick-out options – Jada (Bates) going 2-for-2.

“Kiki (Smith)‘s got an instinctive offensive mind – she really does. There’s a reason she was the National Junior College Player of the Year and all the things that she was. I don’t know if everybody plays golf in here, but if you take a long break out of golf, you can usually hit your driver, but you can’t putt. She had a little long break. Her offense is still there, but there were some scouting issues that got lost on defense.

“Kiki’s a kid that we can really coach hard, and when I took her out, she goes, ‘I know I didn’t get back on transition. I blew a couple of defensive assignments.’ And she’ll look at it, she’ll go, ‘Yeah, I went 4-for-8 (on three-pointers), 7-for-13 (on field goals).’ But she’ll look over there at that far right column that says, ‘-34,’ and I think she’ll be a little bit more locked in defensively. She’ll be ready for it.

“I mean, it’s just hard to come back from not being in practice. To come back and go, ‘Oh, you got South Carolina.’ That’s a really easy one – at South Carolina, by the way – to wade back into. So, (I’m) proud of her for the offense. She’ll work on the defense.

“But yeah, it’ll open up more things for Izzy, let her not have to over-dribble sometimes and try to find her shots. It’s a hard place that we put Izzy in to draw the line on how aggressive to be looking to score and how much to fan it out. To play against their pressure and get five assists, four turnovers, she’s going to be mad she missed a few layups that she’s been making all year long. That’s my fault for not resting her more in practice and having her better ready for the game.”

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On what Neighbors hopes Arkansas can build on moving forward

“Just these last 3 games – I mean, we got two at home, and then we got one on the road against Texas A&M, who we we beat at home. They’ll be a lot harder to beat in College Station. I know that.

“We’ve known each other long enough to know I live in reality world, and I make sure our kids live in reality world. We knew this was going to be hard, and we’ve done a lot of hard things with some kids that have not given up one second. They have not. We’ve gotten better. The scores don’t show it.

“Somebody will watch this back home and say, ‘Hey, you got beat by 40. You’re not getting better.’ I beg to differ. We are getting better. We’re making progress, and I think we’re going to win some more games. I really do. If we don’t, this will still be positive momentum going into the offseason.

“Barring an amazing run in the SEC Tournament, we’re going to end our streak of being in the postseason for six straight years. There’s only two other teams in the SEC that can say that, obviously – South Carolina and Tennessee. So, I will make sure our kids understand the context, the perspective of it. It hurts. It still hurts to lose and the margins get away from us. We did meet one goal – you didn’t get free chicken tonight because we did missing free throws in the second half.”

“But yes, we’re still finding ways. I’m not happy; I’m not excited about it. It’s not been fun, but it’s been fun with them, doing it with them, and going through the hard things together. All these kids came knowing exactly what they’re up against. Every single one of them, when they came on their visit, knew it was going to be really hard, with the situation and with Texas and Oklahoma coming into our league.

“I think they’ve embraced it head-on. For 99.9% of our season, every one of our kids and coaches have acted like we just would hope they would dealing with tough stuff. We’ve had our 0.1 moments, like you would. But I’ve had as much fun coaching this team as any team I’ve ever coached. They will show up tomorrow with this behind them ready to get ready for Oklahoma. That’s something we’ll continue to do.”

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