Watching that game last night was mind boggling. Its really hard to watch them play. Some of the girls look really unintrested. At one point we had 4 girls under the basket and vandy had the one big girl under there. The Vandy girl tipped the ball four times to herself and then eventually scored. Our girls were just standing there watching her do it.
I like Neighbors but doesn’t seem to care about rebounding or defense.
Perhaps he’s a bit too neighborly. Those are dirty jobs. Might need to hire Mike Rowe as an assistant coach. His teams are like soccer teams who play the game beautifully, but lose to less skilled teams who who beat the heck out of them and win ugly. He’s always had very attractive, Offensive minded players. Maybe he needs some big uglies . Does Larry Johnson have any daughters?
We have a tough minded defensive player in Saylor and sometimes, Daniels with Raylee coming on in relief. He seems to have lost Sam several games ago on defense and last night on offense as well. Barnum had a terrible knee injury that has limited her defensive accruement. Losing Sasha has without doubt hurt the defensive focus and aggressiveness this year. Carr’s value is offensive with her three ability although lsst night she was battling for rebounds. The replacement of Barnum with Ellis, who showed energy, gave an indication of why she is not playing more. she is normally third person up but last night he play her rather than Maryam. Last of course is Jersey with the affinity for the bright lights not yet on.
I recall years ago watching a loose on the floor in a game against Ole Miss where our greatest offensive player of that era stood and watch the fight for ball at his feet. He and his teammates lost that game because the less talented team wanted it more. He, of course was a great kid and left for the NBA at end his sophomore year. I say this only to point out my concern for this group. Neighbors said last night he and the team had lost confidence, further he couldn’t coach confidence. I don’t disagree he makes decisions about who is willingly to fight and who is not. I would rather see Raylee, Makayla, Saylor, Emrie, Chrissy, etc., give their all in fight than watch the passivity of last night. He needs to light a fire.
I have defended Mike and this team all year. But last night they did look like the fight was going out. Mak, Rylee (not Raylee) and Saylor will always fight. But Samara seemed a shell of herself. As did Erynn. When Erynn couldn’t get her shots to fall I REALLY didn’t like her body language. it was a regression to a couple of years ago.
Erynn was extremely frustrated by foul calls and she allowed her frustration to evolve into inner-directed anger that dominated her plays. Her stares on the bench could have better been displaced through the encouragement of her teammates on the floor. I felt she was angry with Mike for sitting her down. I wish he had tried a dual post on Vanderbilt. I hope he can find answers or someone else is going to do it for him. Arkansas Women’s Basketball has strong support but the competition will send that support elsewhere. You must challenge your steam when they play will effort even in losing a game. Oh well back to softball and gymnastics.
Seldom do I see Mike’s teams play with energy and urgency throughout an entire game. Some nights it is like “watching paint dry”.
His offense is plodding and becomes boring if the threes are going in. It has been exciting to see Barnum play the key but now her production has significantly dropped. His 3 point producers (Carr, Daniels and Spencer) do not seem to be scoring at the rate they were a month. Last as I recall Spencer no more than drives. Last year she was either hitting or driving, this year she dribbling and tossing phantom passes. She is still the same player…what has happened?
Samara has played great alot of this year. Some games she is red hot from 3. But in the last few she is in a major slump.
I agree that she has played great but she has been in a slide…hopefully she has bottomed out. My point on her is driving to the basket s her game and she is not driving, she is dribbling. Making lay ups, being fouled, and shooting free throws can break her out of her slump.
What is the team’s identity?
Arkansas has a great recruiting class coming in next year but if they don’t show improvement HJ will probably have a serious talk with Mr Neighbors. I like Mike but he just hasn’t gotten us over the hump. Most of our wins are from bottom half of league and we just lost to Vandy who had 1 conference win prior to betting us. A complete embarrassment!
Having players who’s last name ends in barger.
Normally don’t post but we seem to be one sided. The ladies are 19-8 and the men are 17-8. LSU has one conference win for the men and Vandy has two for the ladies; which both came at the hogs expense. Not fair to jump on Mike with his young ladies and not do the same to the men.
There are several differences.
First off, the men have lost games because they don’t have shot makers. The women have lost games where it looks like lack of effort. That is a huge difference.
Second, Muss has some capital to work with coming off two Elite Eights. Neighbors has yet to win an NCAAT game at Arkansas.
And the men lost one All Star for the season, and another for almost all of it. The injuries came during the season. I know Mike lost Sasha Goforth, but he had time to adjust before the season.
(The ladies split with Vandy, didn’t lose both)
But the post is about the ladies team not the mens.
So everytime someone questions the mens team they have to question the womens also?
The mens team plays defense the womens don’t. The mens team rebounds and the womens team hasn’t rebounded the last 5 years. Muss has been to back to back elite 8’s and Neighbors hasn’t won a tournament game. Trust me, to question him is totally fair.
Not to mention that, on paper, the women have just as much, or more, talent than the men.
But the difference is I know what Coach Muss wants. I don’t know what Mike Neighbors wants. I listen to his press conferences and he says we need to get better. I don’t really know it what area he thinks they need to get better. I don’t really care what the records are. I care about what I’m supposed to expect from the team. I don’t know with the girls. I don’t know what I’m watching for. If you do, then please tell me.
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