UA women release non-conference schedule

FAYETTEVILLE — The non-conference women’s basketball schedule for the University of Arkansas will include five games against teams from Power 5 conferences.

Home games against Arizona State and Nebraska, neutral-site games against Pittsburgh and Wisconsin, and a road trip to Iowa State highlight the non-conference schedule, which was released Thursday. Arkansas will play 14 non-conference games beginning with a Nov. 9 home game against Northwestern (La.) State.

The games against Arizona State on Nov. 18 and Nebraska on Dec. 18 are return trips from road games Arkansas played last year when the Razorbacks lost 89-43 at Arizona State and 80-69 at Nebraska. The Sun Devils and Cornhuskers both made the NCAA Tournament in 2018.

The Pittsburgh and Wisconsin games are set for Thanksgiving weekend in Nashville, Tenn. The Iowa State contest on Dec. 2 is part of the Big 12/SEC Challenge.

The Razorbacks will also play at Texas-Arlington on Nov. 14, Abilene Christian on Dec. 8 and Tulsa on Dec. 20.

Arkansas is coming off a 13-18 season, which was Mike Neighbors’ first as head coach of the program.

“The schedule is about the same as it was last year in terms of strength of schedule, RPI-wise,” Neighbors said. “After recruiting and hiring staff, the next most important thing you do is scheduling. I think we’ve scheduled accordingly to the team we have and the team we expect to have. It will challenge us, I think.”

In SEC play, Arkansas will play home and away games against Missouri, Georgia and Ole Miss; home games against Alabama, Auburn, Mississippi State, South Carolina and Vanderbilt; and away games at Florida, Kentucky, LSU, Tennessee and Texas A&M.

Arkansas is scheduled to play three exhibition games against international teams in Italy later this month. The Razorbacks also will play an exhibition game at home on Nov. 1 against an undetermined opponent.