No. 16 Arkansas women won’t look past ULM
— University of Arkansas women’s basketball coach Mike Neighbors doesn’t believe his team will be looking past Louisiana-Monroe to Sunday’s home game against No. 4 Baylor. Not after then-No. 12 Maryland put a solid 115-96 thumping on the Razorbacks last Sunday to close play in the Gulf Coast Showcase. “If we hadn’t got our butts handed to us, it probably would have been (easy to look ahead),” said Neighbors, whose team slipped two spots to No. 16 in this week’s Associated Press poll. “If we had probably won that game, yeah, focus would have been a concern looking forward to the Baylor game.” Instead, Arkansas will take on the Warhawks of the Sun Belt Conference for a 5:30 p.m. tip in Bud Walton Arena. It might be easy to take ULM for granted. It will be the season opener for the Warhawks, and they have eight newcomers (seven freshmen) on the roster coming off a 3-26 season. The Razorbacks’ focus will be more internally though after playing four games in five days to begin the season, Neighbors said. The team had no real time to watch film or assess their performance at all over the weekend because of the crowded schedule. Neighbors said they took some time to do that this week. “This group has always been blessed with a little bit of self-awareness of what everything means and what it doesn’t mean sometimes,” Neighbors said. “And it stung to lose the way we lost, but it didn’t linger. It didn’t carry over to the plane ride. It’s helped us. “I think we learn from our wins, but you always learn a little bit more from your losses. I think you’ll see the most focused team yet on Thursday.” Arkansas rallied from a 9-point deficit in the fourth quarter to take down Florida Gulf Coast and put up a school-record 37 points in the third quarter to defeat Wake Forest in the two earlier games in the Showcase. Redshirt senior Chelsea Dungee leads four players averaging in double figures. The 5-11 guard from Sapulpa, Okla., averages 19.3 points per game. Sophomore Makayla Daniels is next
at 17.0, followed by guard Destiny Slocum with 16.5 and Amber Ramirez at 10.3.
Erynn Barnum, a 6-2 redshirt sophomore, has also been strong off the bench averaging 9.8 points, 4.5 rebounds and more than one blocked shot in just 15.5 minutes.
Players are still learning how they fit together on this team, especially someone like Slocum, a graduate transfer. Neighbors talked to her about being more aggressive at times.
“It’s new for Destiny,” Neighbors said. “She’s trying to fit in on a team with great players. And these guys are trying to help her fit in.”
He also pointed out that Dungee turned down a wide-open 3-point shot against Maryland after she had missed her last one.
“Y’all ever seen that happen?” Neighbors asked. “I said ‘What in the world are you doing?’ We created a wide-open catch and shoot, which by the way she nailed — that’s the game-winning shot against Florida Gulf Coast.”
The Razorbacks were noticeably worn down in that final game against the Terrapins, Neighbors said. But he also said this team wants to be challenged. That starts with a schedule that’s rated as one of the toughest in the country.
“They appreciate doing hard things,” Neighbors said. “We’re asking them to do something incredibly hard under incredibly hard circumstances. But I don’t think this group would have appreciated us had we not.
“We’re doing hard things. It’s not gonna be perfect. It’s not gonna be, you know, puppy dogs and rainbows and unicorns every single day here. There’s going to be some hard moments. That’s going to make us better for it I think.”