University of Arkansas women’s basketball Coach Mike Neighbors acknowledged facing mentor Gary Blair for possibly the final time tonight will be special, but it’s also an important SEC game for both teams.
The Razorbacks will take on Texas A&M without guard Makayla Daniels, Neighbors said Wednesday morning.
The junior, who started the week as the team’s leading scorer, suffered a knee injury in the second quarter of the Razorbacks’ 86-83 overtime loss at Tennessee on Monday and did not return.
Neighbors said she would not be available against the Aggies and had no timetable for her return. He did say the injury was not season-ending.
Arkansas (14-7, 4-4 SEC), which had a three-game winning streak snapped in Knoxville, Tenn., will try to keep some recent momentum going.
Neighbors said Rylee Langerman will get her fourth start of the season and first in SEC play with Daniels out. The sophomore from Norman, Okla., has played in every game and is averaging four points, four rebounds, a steal and an assist in 20 minutes during league play.
The Arkansas coach considered starting a bigger lineup, but ultimately wanted to change as little as possible.
“Try to keep it as normal as you can,” Neighbors said. “Rylee, she plays starter minutes. And I think that’s the fastest, best way for us to go. And then we’ll just have our rotations be a little shorter and we’ve shown that we can do that.”
Amber Ramirez, the team’s lone senior, and freshman Samara Spencer each came up with big performances on Monday to earn SEC weekly honors. Ramirez poured in a season-high 29 points and hit five three-pointers in 44 minutes of action at Tennessee to help her earn SEC co-Player of the Week honors. Spencer picked up her third SEC Freshman of the Week honor of the season, after scoring 17 points, dishing out 4 assists and playing a season-high 43 minutes on Monday.
Prior to this season, Blair announced this would be his last in a storied coaching career. He ranks third in career wins (849) among active Division I coaches and led the Aggies to a national championship in 2011. Blair, who is in his 19th season at A&M, also guided Arkansas to its only Final Four appearance in 1998.
The defending SEC regular-season champion Aggies (11-9, 1-7) have been going the wrong direction lately, losing seven of their last eight.
Neighbors said it shows how competitive the SEC is. He also believes it’s difficult for the Aggies as they make Blair’s farewell tour. But he won’t be taking anything for granted, especially against guard Jordan Nixon, who hit a pair of buzzer-beaters last season to beat the Razorbacks.
“That’s the razor-thin line in this league,” Neighbors said. “From SEC champs to that’s just where we’re at. … They do have a lot of new faces with transfers. But their identity’s the same. As long as Jordan Nixon’s got the ball in her hands against us, until that clock hits zero, zero, zero, there will not be a relaxed moment with us.
“They’ve got it. It’s there and that’s what’s scary about it. It’s just a matter of time before it does start to click.”
Neighbors credits Blair for his success in college coaching and said he will always look up to him. The longtime coach hired Neighbors as his director of basketball operations in 1999 when he was the Arkansas coach, so tonight’s game will have great meaning.
“It’ll be emotional for me,” Neighbors said. “If Coach Blair doesn’t take a chance on a snotty-nosed high school coach that thought he knew everything about the game that really didn’t, I wouldn’t be talking to you. … He changed the lives of my kids, my family. The experiences I’ve had with basketball as a result of him, not only giving me a chance but then preparing me, too.
“He didn’t just give me a chance. He invested. He put me in tough situations. He challenged me every single day by throwing me jobs to see if I really did want it.”