FAYETTEVILLE -- Head coaching experience and experience coaching women apparently meant nothing to Athletic Director Jeff Long the previous time he hired a women's basketball coach.
Those attributes meant a lot more the second time around when Washington women's coach Mike Neighbors was hired earlier this week.
While replacing one Arkansan and University of Arkansas, Fayetteville graduate with another, Long swapped dramatically different resumes.
Jimmy Dykes, a fervent Long supporter since Long's 2007 Arkansas arrival, became nationally known through his 19 years as an ESPN basketball analyst.
The broadcasting-to-coaching novelty netted Arkansas publicity and injected hope from Dykes' unflagging enthusiasm and history as a Razorbacks walk-on from Fayetteville.