On Tuesday, Mike Neighbors was introduced as the next head coach of the Arkansas women's basketball team. Neighbors comes to Arkansas with glowing credentials. He helped Washington to a Sweet 16 spot in the just completed NCAA Tournament as well as the Final Four the previous season.

Mike Neighbors was introduced as new women's basketball coach on Tuesday.

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At Arkansas, Neighbors will replace Jimmy Dykes, who resigned following the 2016-17 basketball season. Neighbors made no secret of the fact this is his dream job. While that is great, one only has to remember three years ago when Dykes was hired this was his dream job as well. He left a job at ESPN to coach the Razorbacks. Neighbors is leaving a job that went to the Sweet 16 for one that didn't make tournament. He talked about that.

"I want to be part of the solution to my University," Neighbors said. "I wasn’t ready the last time this job came open. I had only been a one-year head coach and I hadn’t worked hard enough. Just like when I was a basketball player and a baseball player and tried to play football, I hadn’t worked hard enough in my career at that point to advance far enough to have this job any other time it had come open.

"So I worked really hard at Washington and we had some great things going and we had great kids and as a result that hard work made this job possible. I told my team in Washington that I took this job when I was 10-years old - 38 years ago I took this job when I got that book. It’s been the job that has driven me in every decision I have made. So regardless of a Sweet 16 finish compared to a not Sweet 16 finish, I want to be a part of the group that is being remembered for getting this thing to where we are all proud of it."

One big difference in Neighbors and Dykes though is the experience coaching women's basketball. Arkansas was the first job coaching women's basketball for Dykes which is different than men. In addition to numerous assistant jobs and high school head coaching ones, Neighbors compiled a 98-41 record the past four seasons at Washington. That includes a 9-4 record in four post-season tournaments including three in the NCAA. Neighbors first season at Washington he took the team to the WNIT. He talked about what it feels like to have experience of not only getting into tournament, but winning once you get there.

"I think when this job was open three years ago I could have done it, but now I know I can, we can, do it," Neighbors said. "We know what it looks like, what it feels like, what it taste like and we even know what it smells like. Without those years of tournament experience and deep tournament runs I think I would have still been trying to sell a vision.

"Now I have can sell some credibility what it does feel like. Obviously we've got to earn some trust because that without that none of these experiences of me having that doesn't translate to this group. We'll go to work building that trust and see if those things can carryover."

Each of the past three teams at Washington has won at least 23 games. Neighbors feels he's prepared to be the head coach at Arkansas. The SEC is very good in women's basketball. In the national title game this year it was South Carolina against Mississippi State, both from the SEC. Neighbors coached in the Pac-12 though at Washington where his team finished 15-3 in the league, tied with Stanford and one game behind champion Oregon State.

Neighbors also has to fill a staff at Arkansas and that's something he has a plan for at this time.

"I talked to the people that are here today," Neighbors said. "I have invited my staff from the University of Washington who I have known and trusted to come. They each have unique situations they are going to have to work through.

"Though we've been talking about this for awhile and I brought them all into the loop the second I knew this was a possibility now that it's real they're going to have to figure out. It will take some time, but I am about finished with everybody on staff. That becomes a little bit of a timetable based on the staff that's at Washington."

One interesting tidbit from Neighbors is his team won't be goal-driven and he gave an example why.

"We learned a few years ago to burn goals," Neighbors said. "We had a team that had gone through the first round of the NCAA Tournament with a really cool T-shirt that said, 'NCAA Tournament or Bust' that was our goal. And we got to the NCAA Tournament and we busted. We got in, but we were satisfied because of goals.

"So I talked to the team about the danger of sometimes setting goals instead of setting a bunch of standards and holding each other accountable to them. We're gonna try that first. We're gonna just let them come up with those standards that are important to them and what a win and a loss looks like in each one of those standards. And then we're going to start holding each other accountable starting tomorrow."

Being from Greenwood (Ark.), Neighbors also related to how he told his mother he was coming home after accepting the job.

"I don't know if you saw my mom over there, but she's got the biggest mouth you can ever imagine in a good way," Neighbors said. "She would have shouted from the roof tops so I had to keep it very, very quiet and I told her very, very late at night so everybody would be asleep. But it made me feel like I had made them proud. That was special."

One thing that Neighbors should bring back to the program that has been missing since Gary Blair left for Texas A&M is selling the community on the team and creating excitement. Blair was brilliant at that.

"He's the best, I am trying to be second-best," Neighbors said. "I will give you points of evidence. When we got to Washington we were last in the Pac-12 and we sold the place out with 10,000 leading the league.

"So he has a very clear way of doing things that I've tried to emulate and build with my own. I am not gonna be throwing candy out. He's got his own things and I've got my own things. It's important to our kids and important to recruiting and all those things tie together. Luckily I was with him. Luckily one of my first duties was trying to drum up excitement in the areas. So I know places to go and things to do and not to do. Invaluable experience."

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