FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas women’s basketball Coach Mike Neighbors talked about his team having lots of good pieces prior to the start of this season.
But the picture is starting to take shape with the Razorbacks nearing the end of nonconference play.
Depth has been a strength for the Razorbacks, who are off to a 9-2 start and have won three in a row. They take on the University of Central Arkansas at 1 p.m. on Saturday at Simmons Bank Arena in North Little Rock.
They have five players averaging in double figures in scoring. But even that’s been tested with junior Erynn Barnum, the team’s leading scorer and rebounder at the time, and freshman Emrie Ellis being recently sidelined by injuries. But the team’s handled it well, Neighbors said.
Neighbors put it in perspective a bit by comparing UConn’s loss of guard Paige Bueckers, which has been highly publicized compared to Barnum’s injury.
“There’s one team that lost their leading scorer and it was all over the front page news in every newspaper in the country,” Neighbors said. “We lose ours and our leading rebounder, and it kind of goes unnoticed to most.”
Barnum has missed the past two games with an undisclosed injury and is not expected to return until after the first of the year. In addition, junior Marquesha Davis, who played in seven games and started one, decided a little more than a week ago to enter the transfer portal. So that means the Razorbacks have had just 11 players available in the past couple of games.
But freshman Jersey Wolfenbarger and 6-3 junior Destinee Oberg have taken up the slack, Neighbors said. The 6-5 Wolfenbarger shifted from the perimeter to playing more inside, especially on defense, and Oberg has turned in back-to-back solid efforts — including her first double-double Sunday against the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
“We know we’re not relying upon one or two people to carry the scoring, rebounding or defensive load,” Neighbors said. “This team has a sense of by committee. I think it means the way we went about it, getting people ready to be ready has helped.
“We’re starting to find some flow offensively. We knew that would take some time.”
Arkansas lost almost 60% of its scoring and more than 50% of its rebounding from last season’s NCAA Tournament team. That meant lots of new faces, including five true freshmen and sophomore transfer Sasha Goforth.
Amber Ramirez, the lone senior on the roster, said the team’s come together nicely though.
“I thought it was going to be a little harder for everybody to mesh and get incorporated with the new system,” she said. “But everybody’s doing great, playing together and having fun right now.
“I’d give us like a B-plus just because we’re so young.”
Ramirez also said everyone comes to practice with the right attitude.
“They all want to learn and come in wanting to listen and get better every day,” she said. “We’re all here as one team to help each other. We will do whatever we need to do to win, whether that’s score, play defense, rebound, pass or set a screen.”
The group also understands it’s not always going to be easy, Ramirez said. The Razorbacks haven’t flinched despite losing players to injuries and the transfer portal.
“I think that’s what this team does, adjust and adapt,” Ramirez said. “That’s what they’re willing to do, and I think that’s what’s really special about this group.”
The Razorbacks started the week ranked 18th in the NET ranking, which surprised Neighbors.
“When we put the schedule together, we were hoping we’d be in the top 50 coming out of nonconference,” Neighbors said. “We thought we need to be in top 50 of the NET then go into the league and let the SEC do what the SEC always does.”
The NCAA instituted last season for women’s college basketball, a rating system called the NET rankings, which took the place of the Ratings Percentage Index. It’s an acronym for an NCAA Evaluation Tool, the NET rankings take into account game results, strength of schedule, game location, scoring margin, net offensive and defensive efficiency and the quality of wins and losses.
Neighbors said nobody really understands the formula for calculating the NET rankings, but he surmised his team’s increased efficiency especially on defense could be a factor. The solid schedule also helped.
“I think we picked the right teams, too,” Neighbors said. “We knew Central Florida was going to be tough. We knew Jackson State was going to be tough and of course going to UConn. I think we were strategic, but I’m a little surprised we’re in the top 20.”
Neighbors said before the season began returning players were even going to have to grow into new roles, but that maturation is all taking place right before his eyes.
He brought up the entire bench erupting when Oberg hit two free throws in the final seconds Sunday to secure the double-double in a blowout win against UALR. In addition, Goforth acknowledging she needed to shoot an open three-point shot late in the game against Jackson State despite the fact she’d missed her previous four was a good sign.
“There’s three phases of roles, you identify them, you communicate them and then you accept them,” Neighbors said. “And acceptance is the hardest role and it takes the longest, and we’re there. The way the kids talk to each other, the way they respond to coaching and respond to each other.
“It’s cool and it’s rare. It doesn’t happen all the time, but it’s starting to show.”
But Neighbors also said he and the team know what’s coming — a meat grinder of an SEC schedule. Six SEC teams are ranked in The Associated Press poll this week and 13 of the 14 teams in the league are among the top 100 in the NET.
He had a quick response about a recent social media post that said the Razorbacks would be lucky to go .500 in the SEC this year.
“I said, ‘I’ll take .500,’ ” Neighbors said. “Sign me up right now and we’ll try to improve on it. Outside of one or two teams in our league, if you promised them 8-8, they’re making plans to be a 6 or 7 seed in the NCAA Tournament.”