Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Daunting road task awaits Arkansas
FAYETTEVILLE — Mike Neighbors has always had an eye for talent. The first-year Arkansas women’s basketball coach knew more than 10 years ago he was watching a star at a Fayetteville youth basketball league game.
Blair Schaefer was torching her opponents back then, a blur of blond ponytail whizzing up and down the court. Neighbors, then an assistant coach at Arkansas, recalls her scoring more than 60 points in one game.
“I was the first coach ever to offer Blair Schaefer a college scholarship,” Neighbors said Wednesday at his weekly news conference. “She scored 61 in a fifth-grade game one night and I told her, ‘I don’t know where I’ll be coaching, but when you’re old enough to play, I’m offering you a scholarship.’”
Schaefer didn’t take Neighbors up on his offer, but he will get a chance to see the Mississippi State senior guard tonight as the Razorbacks (10-4, 1-0 SEC) travel to Starkville, Miss., to take on the No. 3 Bulldogs (15-0, 1-0). Tipoff is scheduled for 8 p.m. on the SEC Network.
Schaefer is the daughter of Mississippi State coach Vic Schaefer, a former Arkansas assistant coach on Gary Blair’s staff from 19972003. Vic Schaefer has built the Bulldogs into a national power in six seasons, leading the program to its first Final Four last season and a stunning overtime win against UConn that ended its 111-game winning streak in the NCAA semifinals.
Neighbors, who also has a Final Four appearance on
his resume from 2016 as the coach at Washington, knows his team faces a tough assignment tonight. He is using this contest as a measuring stick at the halfway point of the season
“This is a really good chance for us to go on the road to see if we’re as far along as we think we are,” Neighbors said.
Blair Schaefer is not putting up the ridiculous offensive numbers she did as a fifth-grader, but the 5-foot-7 senior guard is averaging 8.7 points and 2.3 assists per game while shooting 42 percent from beyond the 3-point line.
Teaira McCowan, a 6-7 junior post, has had a monster season for Mississippi State. She is averaging 20.3 points and 12.5 rebounds per game and has been named the SEC Player of the Week three times. Guard Victoria Vivians, a pre-season All-American who scored 19 points in the win over UConn last season, is averaging 19.8 points with 27 steals.
“We’ll have to be as close to perfect as we can be to have a chance,” Neighbors said. “They can expose you on both ends of the floor. They’re not 1, 2 or even 3 dimensional, they can win a lot of different ways.
“You can’t beat them with just your option A. You’ve got to have a plan and you’ve got to play extremely well.”
Arkansas is 2-4 on the road this season, but Neighbors said six road games is not a true measuring stick to gauge the team by.
“Our road opponents have been pretty good opponents,” he said. “We haven’t had too many on the road that we went in as the favorite. And obviously, in this case, we won’t be again.”
Malica Monk and Devin Cosper are putting up solid numbers for Arkansas this season. Monk is averaging 16.9 points per game and Cosper is close behind at 16.4. They are Arkansas’ only players averaging double figures in points.
Arkansas has also done a good job protecting the ball, averaging just 11.8 turnovers per game. Mississippi State is forcing an average of 22 opponent turnovers per game.