FAYETTEVILLE -- Head coaching experience and experience coaching women apparently meant nothing to Athletic Director Jeff Long the previous time he hired a women's basketball coach.
Those attributes meant a lot more the second time around when Washington women's coach Mike Neighbors was hired earlier this week.
While replacing one Arkansan and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville graduate with another, Long swapped dramatically different resumes.
Jimmy Dykes, a fervent Long supporter since Long's 2007 Arkansas arrival, became nationally known through his 19 years as an ESPN basketball analyst.
The broadcasting-to-coaching novelty netted Arkansas publicity and injected hope from Dykes' unflagging enthusiasm and history as a Razorbacks walk-on from Fayetteville.
In women's basketball circles, it also netted criticism. Dykes had paid no women's coaching dues, some asserted.
Hired directly from ESPN, Dykes mentored only men during his 1984-1991 coaching career with six schools and always as an assistant.
Neighbors, a Greenwood native, coached high school girls at Bentonville and Cabot. He worked two different Arkansas Razorback tenures, first as director of operations for Gary Blair and as an assistant in Susie Gardner's final season. He also was an assistant coach for women's programs at Tulsa, Colorado, Xavier and Washington before guiding Washington these past four seasons to a 98-40 record. Neighbors' Huskies reached the Final Four in 2015-2016 and just capped a 29-6 with a berth in the Sweet 16.
Dykes' third and final Arkansas season ended 2-14 in the league. Attrition leaves just seven scholarship players with one requesting a scholarship release to transfer.
It's a small wonder that suddenly experience counts.
"It was vitally important to our search committee and to me that we attract someone who is entrenched in the women's game," Long said Monday upon hiring Neighbors. "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. That is the kind of leader we need in the strongest conference in women's basketball."
Neighbors seems to be what the Razorbacks need, but nothing is guaranteed.
Tom Collen, the coach Long inherited in 2007-2008 who was dismissed in 2014, went 171-52 at Colorado State and Louisville. As an Arkansas assistant, Collen was the chief recruiter assembling the 1997-98 team that Gary Blair coached to the Final Four. But Collen, weathering some health issues, did seem tired as Long chose to relieve him just two seasons after Collen's Razorbacks went 24-9 overall and 10-6 in the SEC.
It was just March 2015 when Dykes energized Arkansas by piloting Collen's nucleus into the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Neighbors needs more patience than Dykes was afforded to build up this short roster.
Because of his proven resume, Neighbors seems more apt to receive it.
Sports on 04/08/2017