Commentary

Schedule helps Arkansas into NCAA field

Arkansas women's basketball coach Jimmy Dykes, right, and Conway coach Ashley Nance watch a game at Wildcat Arena in Springdale on Sunday, March 8, 2015.

— In the not-so-distant past, Jimmy Dykes was on the other side of the March Madness waiting game.

Dykes was one of ESPN's go-to analysts as the NCAA Tournament neared. His feature "Jimmy's Jet" was popular on the network as he gauged teams' prospects of making the postseason.

He was interviewed during an Arkansas men's game last month and was asked by his former broadcast partner, Brad Nessler, where his own team would be on that jet.

"We're driving around the airport parking lot looking for a parking spot," Dykes joked, offering one important caveat, "but we've scheduled well."

It was that schedule that likely put his 17-13 Razorbacks into the NCAA Tournament in his first year as a head coach. Despite finishing ninth in the SEC standings, Arkansas was one of seven SEC teams in the NCAA field that was announced Monday.

Arkansas opens tournament play Friday at noon against Northwestern in Waco, Texas, with the winner likely to play No. 2 seed Baylor in the second round.

The Razorbacks played 10 teams that made the NCAA Tournament during the regular season. Arkansas was only 3-9 in those games, but its willingness to play a grueling schedule outside of conference paid off in the end.

Arkansas beat Iowa and Oklahoma on neutral floors in Las Vegas and North Little Rock. The Hawkeyes are the No. 3 seed and the Sooners are the No. 5 seed in the Oklahoma City Region - the same region in which the Razorbacks were placed as a No. 10 seed.

The Razorbacks played six games away from home during the nonconference schedule, winning at Middle Tennessee, Tulsa and Oral Roberts.

"We've done everything the NCAA Tournament selection committee tells teams they need to do in terms of scheduling," Dykes said at the SEC Tournament. He scheduled one less nonconference game than allowed by the NCAA because he felt the only teams available would damage the Razorbacks' ranking in the Ratings Performance Index (RPI).

Arkansas' strength of schedule ranked sixth nationally.

Dykes is the first Arkansas women's coach to make the tournament in their first year. He already has as many tournament appearances as his two predecessors had combined.

And he did it with only nine players on the roster. Regardless of how the Razorbacks fare this weekend, it would be hard to argue his first year in Fayetteville as anything but a success.

It all began with scheduling.