FAYETTEVILLE — University of Arkansas women’s basketball Coach Mike Neighbors acknowledged a good start would do his team good confidence-wise tonight against Mississippi State in Walton Arena.
But focusing on the start would run counter to Neighbors’ season-long theme that every possession is worth the same.
“That gets out of alignment from what we’re trying to do,” he said. “I obviously would be hopeful that we get off to a great start. I think that does give our group confidence and might, for the visiting team, take some confidence away.
“I won’t make a big deal out of it, but I do hope we get off to a good one.”
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No. 18 Arkansas (14-7, 4-6) is coming off a 69-67 loss at Texas A&M on Sunday. The Razorbacks erased a 12-point deficit, but Jordan Nixon hit a driving, game-winning layup for the Aggies with 8.4 seconds left.
Arkansas is used to getting outrebounded, sporting an average of nearly minus-8 rebounds per game. But the Aggies crushed the Razorbacks to the tune of 46-18.
Neighbors understands taller players have a better chance to rebound the ball, but that’s not where he’s focusing.
“Hey, if it’s a rebound that [Mississippi State’s] Rickea Jackson jumps up and gets at a higher point than any of us can jump, no problem,” Neighbors said. “But if it’s a loose ball that came our way that we didn’t try to get and they tried harder to get, we gotta get that fixed.
“So I’ve challenged all our of our eight kids that play the most minutes, get one more rebound a game. That Texas A&M game, looking up and getting outrebounded 40-something to 18, that one stung the whole way home. I think we found 12 that we had just as good a chance at getting as they did. They got all 12 of them.”
The Bulldogs (8-7, 3-4 SEC) have played just one game in 25 days and fell out of the AP Top 25 poll this week for the first time since the second week of the 2014-15 season. They are on a three-game skid and haven’t won in a month.
None of that changes the fact Mississippi State has given Arkansas fits in recent years. No current Razorback has ever beaten the Bulldogs.
The Bulldogs have won 10 consecutive games against the Razorbacks, but that was with Neighbors’ old friend and former Arkansas assistant coach Vic Schaefer at the controls. With Schaefer now at Texas, former Tennessee standout Nikki McCray-Penson is in her first season at the helm of Mississippi State.
The Bulldogs again have size with the tandem of 6-2 Jackson and 6-5 Jessika Carter. Each player averages a little more than 15 points per game. Carter is averaging a double-double (13.6 points, 10 rebounds) in SEC play.
Arkansas senior Chelsea Dungee, who leads the SEC in scoring at 21.9 points per game, was held to 12 in Sunday’s loss and just two in the fourth quarter. She was hampered by foul trouble.
Neighbors will continue to show her video clips of what teams are trying to do defensively and present options, but he doesn’t want to make her less aggressive.
“I think we just keep showing her film and show her there are some times when maybe you can pull up and kick it out to save that foul,” Neighbors said. “But boy, it’s a really thin line to walk. The second you start doing that, now that takes away the aggressiveness.
“I’m OK if she has two charges a night. That’s fine. You just can’t have those other two reach-ins.”