Bubble Pops on Neighbors' Dream Job; Resigns as Razorbacks' Coach

After difficult season with SEC leading scorer not getting all-league honors, Hogs women's coach stepping down

Arkansas Razorbacks coach Mike Neighbors on the sidelines against Fairfield at Bud Walton Arena in Fayetteville, Ark. / Walt Beazley-Arkansas Communications

FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas women's coach Mike Neighbors' dream job lasted eight seasons. On Monday, he stepped down, per a press release from the school.

“As I shared in my introductory press conference on April 4, 2017, the opportunity to coach the Hogs fulfilled a lifelong dream,” Neighbors said in the release. “I also acknowledged that there would be a time when that dream would end."

That happened after a 10-22 season (3-14 in the SEC). While there had been successful seasons, Neighbors' teams didn't have a lot of success in the NCAA Tournament, which was the expectation when he was hired.

"We leave with our heads high and enough memories to last a lifetime," Neighbors said.

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 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 a program that had basically fell apart under previous coach Jimmy Dykes.

The Hogs won 22 games in Neighbors' second season and followed up with a 24-8 campaign in 2019-20 that would have resulted in the program’s first trip to the NCAA since 2015 if the tournament would not have been canceled due to the pandemic. They again reached 24 wins in 2022-23 with a deep run in the WNIT, reaching the Great 8.

"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," athletics director Hunter Yurachek said in the release. "During his tenure, we enjoyed numerous memorable wins and watched some of the best players in the history of our program."

Those players included Chelsea Dungee, who set a Razorbacks record with 759 points in 2019.

This season, Izzy 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).

Despite that, she was left off the All-SEC teams at the tournament last week.

Neighbors 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.

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