FAYETTEVILLE — If he’s trying, it is difficult for Mike Neighbors to mask the enthusiasm he has for his fourth basketball team at Arkansas.
The Razorbacks check a lot of boxes. They’re more experienced, better inside and in better shape than a year ago when they won 24 games in a season cut short by the covid-19 pandemic.
But the overriding theme in the preseason is the team’s speed. Neighbors’ “Race and Space” offensive system has always been run at break-neck speed, but this has the potential to be the fastest team he has ever coached.
“Nobody wants to run up and down the floor as fast as we do,” said Destiny Slocum, a graduate-senior guard who transferred from Oregon State.