Arkansas hires Neighbors away from Washington
FAYETTEVILLE — Mike Neighbors, a Greenwood native and former University of Arkansas women’s assistant basketball coach and former Arkansas women’s basketball director of operations before coaching the University of Washington to the Final Four, has come back to his home state as head coach of the Razorbacks women.
Neighbors’ hiring as the Razorbacks’ women’s head basketball coach was made official Monday by Arkansas Athletic Director Jeff Long.
“This is my dream job, and everyone who knows me knows that,” Neighbors said. “I grew up wanting to be a Razorback and then a Razorback coach, and the four years I spent at Arkansas prepared me for this moment. It prepared me for my first job, and it prepared me for the head coaching job at Washington four years ago. Now it has come full circle, and I’m back at Arkansas.”
Long cited Neighbors proven success record and his Arkansas heritage.
“I am excited to welcome Coach Neighbors back to his home state and back to his alma mater, the University of Arkansas,” Long said via a UA press release. “It was vitally important to our search committee and to me that we attract someone who is entrenched in the women’s game and someone who has demonstrated the ability to connect with our young women on and off the court. Mike Neighbors has spent his career teaching, coaching and mentoring young women, dating back to his time as a high school coach in Arkansas. He is a member of an elite group of coaches who have taken a team to the Final Four, and that is the kind of leader we need in the strongest conference in women’s basketball. I know that Mike’s energy and excitement about being a Razorback will inspire our student-athletes and our fans.”
Neighbors replaces UA alum and former men’s Razorbacks basketball walk-on Jimmy Dykes, who, without benefit of previous head coaching experience and without ever previously coaching women’s basketball, piloted Arkansas the past three seasons.
Neighbors, a former women’s high school coach at Bentonville and Cabot and with Arkansas experience as an administrator under former coach Gary Blair and an assistant in Susie Gardner’s final Arkansas season, is augmented by assistant coaching stints at Tulsa, Colorado, Xavier and Washington and these last four seasons head coaching Washington to records of 20-14 and the WNIT semifinals, 24-10 and the NCAA Tournament first round, 26-11 and the Final Four, and this just completed season’s 29-6 ending at the Sweet Sixteen after finishing his best Pac-12 season second in the league.
“I feel like everything that I have done in my career has prepared me to be the head women’s basketball coach at the University of Arkansas,” Neighbors said. “As a native Arkansasan, I understand how special our state and the University are. There is only one Razorback, and I’m excited to be able to put that logo on my chest and represent our institution and our state across the country.”