After eight years coaching at his alma mater, Mike Neighbors is out at Arkansas. Multiple sources confirmed to SB Nation that Neighbors and Arkansas were parting ways, and the Razorbacks officially framed his dismissal as a resignation on Tuesday afternoon.
The Razorbacks will owe Neighbors a buyout of north of $1 million. He came back to Fayetteville a year after taking Washington – then led on the court by WNBA All-Star Kelsey Plum – to the Final Four for the first time ever. But Neighbors was never able to reach that level of success with the Razorbacks.
He had three strong campaigns between 2019 and 2022, but the NCAA Tournament was canceled in 2020 and the Hogs were bounced in the first round of 2021 and 2022. Arkansas was left on the wrong side of the March Madness bubble in 2023, and Neighbors had a 9-23 record in SEC play over the past two seasons.
Overall, Neighbors went 148-114 at Arkansas, got the Hogs ranked as high as No. 10 in the AP Top 25 Poll, produced two WNBA Draft picks, and went to two NCAA Tournaments. But this season – where Arkansas had a 10-22 record, a winning percentage of .313 – was its worst since 1981.
Neighbors was not hired by current Arkansas athletic director Hunter Yurachek in 2017 – back then, Jeff Long was still in charge of Hogs’ athletics – but Yurachek did hand him an extension through 2028 in 2021.
Yurachek has been mulling over firing Neighbors for the past week, since Arkansas fell 79-74 to Georgia last Wednesday in the SEC Tournament. Multiple sources confirmed to SB Nation that Yurachek has already spoken to one potential candidate in Grand Canyon’s Molly Miller, who is also expected to be in the mix for openings at Arizona State and Missouri.
While Miller is a Missouri native and currently coaches just a stone’s throw away from Arizona State, Arkansas has the money. Neighbors’ annual salary made him the eighth-highest paid coach in the SEC and he made more than both Robin Pingeton and Natasha Adair – the previous coaches at Missouri and Arizona State.
Miller, 38, is set to coach Grand Canyon on Wednesday in the WAC Tournament at 3 p.m. ET in Las Vegas, Nevada. She guided the Lopes to a 29-2 overall record in the regular season – with two Power 4 wins – and a perfect 16-0 mark in conference play. She’s 114-37 in five seasons at Grand Canyon and went 180-17 during her time as a Division II head coach.
If Arkansas is unable to land Miller, here’s who might be next in line:
Elena Lovato
A longtime assistant for Vic Schaefer, at Mississippi State and now at Texas, Lovato is widely respected in coaching circles and has a lot of experience as a head coach and assistant at different levels. In addition to helping Schaefer’s teams reach high levels of success, Lovato was the head coach at Division II Arkansas-Fort Smith and led her team to the Division II NCAA Tournament in her second season. She also has a record of 113-8 as a junior college head coach and won two NJCAA National Championships. Lovato knows the SEC, knows how to win and knows the recruiting terrain around Arkansas.
Kellie Harper
It doesn’t seem like Harper is going to get the Missouri gig, but she could be the right fit for Arkansas. Between four stops as a head coach – Western Carolina, N.C. State, Missouri State and Tennessee – Harper has a 60.2 winning percentage, nine NCAA Tournament appearances and five conference championships under her belt in 20 seasons on the sidelines. She took Missouri State to the Sweet 16 and helped turn it into a mid-major power, and led the Lady Vols to the second weekend of March Madness twice. Arkansas hasn’t been to the Sweet 16 since 1998. While Harper didn’t meet expectations at Tennessee, she’s shown the ability to win consistently at a high level.
Ayla Guzzardo
While this seems like a longshot on paper – and indeed, the jump from the Southland to the SEC is a big one – there is a connection between Guzzardo and Yurachek: when she was finishing her playing career at Akron, he was there as the executive senior associate athletics director. There’s at least a small chance that they know each other. After the SE Louisiana Lions had losing records in 22 of their last 24 seasons, Guzzardo has guided them to five straight winning campaigns. Additionally, SE Louisiana’s lone NCAA Tournament berth came under her watch in 2023, and she’s eyeing a second bid to the Big Dance this week as the Southland Tournament begins. The Lions are the top seed in it after winning the regular season title.
