University of Arkansas head women’s basketball coach Mike Neighbors has stepped down from his role with the Razorbacks. Neighbors resigned from his position on Tuesday after recently completing his eighth season as the head coach of the Razorbacks and his 12th season overall as a Division I head coach.
Neighbors was hired as the Arkansas head women’s basketball coach prior to the 2017-18 season. The Greenwood, Arkansas native compiled a record of 148-114 at Arkansas, leading the Razorbacks to six winning seasons and positioning the Hogs for six postseason appearances.
“As I shared in my introductory press conference on April 4, 2017, the opportunity to coach the Hogs fulfilled a lifelong dream,” Neighbors said. “I also acknowledged that there would be a time when that dream would end, and until then, I pledged to do my best to make my family, my team and my home state of Arkansas proud. One day would have been an honor! Yet, I’ve had the privilege of leading our program for 2,898 days.
“I am appreciative of all the administrators, staff, student-athletes, managers, practice players, spirit squad members, the Hog Wild band, table crew, ushers, UAPD, facility staff, radio and TV talent, boosters and fans, for the support and commitment to Arkansas women’s basketball over the last eight seasons. We leave with our heads high and enough memories to last a lifetime.”
Combined with his four years as the head coach at the University of Washington, Neighbors has a career 246-155 record as a head coach at the Division I level.
“I am deeply appreciative of Coach Neighbors and his contributions to the University of Arkansas and our program during the past eight seasons,” Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Hunter Yurachek said. “There is no questioning his love and passion for this university and this state. After a successful run at the University of Washington, he returned to his home state to take on the challenge of competing in the nation’s most challenging conference. During his tenure, we enjoyed numerous memorable wins and watched some of the best players in the history of our program.
“I want to thank Coach Neighbors for his commitment and dedication to the Razorback program. I wish Mike, Jayci and their family the very best.”
Neighbors led the Razorbacks to a pair of NCAA Tournament appearances and two trips to the WNIT during his tenure. The Hogs’ back-to-back NCAA Tournament berths in 2021 and 2022 were the first consecutive trips to the Big Dance for the women’s program since 2002 and 2003. He quickly turned around the program winning 22 games in his second season on the Arkansas bench and followed up with a 24-8 campaign in 2019-20 that would have resulted in the program’s first trip to the NCAA Tournament since 2015 if the tournament would not have been canceled due to the pandemic. Neighbors’ Hogs again reached 24 wins in 2022-23 with a deep run in the WNIT, reaching the Great 8.
Along with team success, Neighbors and his staff developed the two greatest scorers in program history. This past season Izzy Higginbottom became the school’s all-time leading scorer for a single season with 790 points, surpassing another Neighbors protégé in Chelsea Dungee, who set the record with 759 points in 2019. Higginbottom added her name to the top of several records in her lone season on The Hill, setting the top mark for scoring average (24.4 ppg), free throws made (242) and field goal attempts (578) while finishing second in free throw attempts (267), free throw percentage (90.6%) and field goals made (251).
The Neighbors era also produced two of the program’s eight WNBA Draft picks in history and did it in the same draft when Dungee was selected fifth overall by Dallas and Destiny Slocum was picked 14th overall by Las Vegas.
Yurachek announced that a national search for the next head women’s basketball coach will begin immediately.
https://arkansasrazorbacks.com/coach-mike-neighbors-steps-down-as-arkansas-womens-basketball-coach/
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