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The Basketball Podcast: EP412 with Mike Neighbors on Pro Coaching and Career Transitions
In this week’s basketball coaching conversation, Dallas Wings assistant coach Mike Neighbors joins the Basketball Podcast to share insights on coaching professional and career transitions.
Mike Neighbors is an assistant coach for the Los Angeles Sparks, joining the WNBA franchise in 2025 after a highly successful collegiate coaching career.
He previously served as the head women’s basketball coach at Washington (2013–2017) and Arkansas (2017–2025), compiling a 246–155 career record across 12 Division I seasons. At Washington, Neighbors led the Huskies to a 2016 NCAA Final Four and multiple NCAA Tournament runs, posting a 98–41 record. He later guided Arkansas to its most successful eight‑year stretch in program history, including six postseason appearances and marquee wins over top‑five opponents.
Mike Neighbors has earned national recognition, including being named a Werner Ladder Naismith National Coach of the Year Semifinalist in 2017.
In 2025, Neighbors transitioned to the WNBA to join the Los Angeles Sparks coaching staff, bringing more than 30 years of coaching experience.
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Mike Neighbors Quotes:
“The transition from assistant coach to head coach was a huge jump . . One thing I would always do with my staff . . I gave them an index card, and on the front I would tell them to write down 5 things they wanted to do, 5 things they wanted to be heavily involved in . . and then on the back of the card, 5 things you don’t want to do . . If I can stay off your list of 5 things that you don’t want to do, even if I can’t give you all 5 of the things you want to do, man, that’s a pretty good day.”
“If that person wanted to be the head coach and they were consciously neglecting some of those areas, I would go to them and say, ‘Hey, you need to do one or two of these over a period of time.’”
“One thing I learned . . was it’s best if you can have your staff at different parts of their career. You don’t want 4 people that are trying to be the next head coach at every job that comes open. That’s a dangerous place to live. You might want somebody that’s ready and somebody that’s on their way to being ready, and maybe somebody that’s not sure where they want to go.”
“[The WNBA] is really fast-paced, the level of play is the best on the planet . . It took me 14 years, being very patient, to find the right job. I just always wanted to coach at the highest level I was prepared for.”
“There’s a threshold that you have to achieve. But until somebody can convince me otherwise, I want us to try to get the best shot as quickly as we can without turning the ball over— that’s why we reduce turnovers some. We shoot it before we turn it over. We’ve never scored on a turnover, but we’ve scored on a bad shot before.”
“I’m maniacal, on the teams that I’ve been a part of, about making sure that our best players who work at it take the most shots in a game over the course of a year . . if we look at a stat sheet at the end of the year on any team that I have any influence over, if our best players weren’t getting the most attempts and the most free throw opportunities, then I’ve done something wrong . . and to do that, you’ve got to evaluate the other players’ roles, and you’ve got to do a really good job of telling the story with that.”
“I think it’s our job as coaches to put our teams in the best places to win. And to me, that’s making sure our best offensive players get the most opportunities to do what they do.”
“I’ve always been told to try to practice every day like you’re trying to beat the best team on your schedule. That’s why we don’t press, because I don’t think you can press the best teams. I think there’s a reason you don’t see a lot of teams pressing in the Final Fours and the Elite Eights . . So, let’s not deviate our standards of play based on our opponent.”
“The way people are going to defend the ball screens, they’re going to try to get it out of great ball handlers’ hands. You’re going to have to be able to throw it to the short roll player. And the teams that have that are elite. The teams that have that player that can punish you in that area, spraying it out, taking it to score, getting fouled, hitting the shot, it’s vital. I don’t think at the collegiate level, and certainly down to the high school level, it happens as much because that pass is incredibly hard to make.”
“Most teams have a weak antelope. You know, we would always make a killing out of finding the weak antelope.
“You don’t waste one second [in practice]. Every drill’s got to be a combo drill. You have to have combos and you have to be working on multiple things. You don’t ever do a shooting drill that just gets one shot and has 4 passers. You don’t want a line anywhere. You don’t do anything that’s wasteful. You know, I, I didn’t even do that with our college teams back when I was at Washington.”
“I tried to do that as a college coach. I wasn’t near as good at it. If I go back to that, I’ll be better at it, about not wasting one second on something that’s not going to correlate directly to on-court success.”
“That was the other thing I learned about at the pro level, You don’t have to motivate any of these players. They’re already motivated. You have to now inspire them. And I think that’s what you have to do with your great players at the high school level or the college level or whatever level you’re at. If your great players have to be motivated, you’re already in trouble.”
“Defensively, you can’t do things one way. As much as we’d like to say we’re going to do this every time on a ball screen, the offenses have gotten too sophisticated. Skill development, if you go to watch a skill development session, it’s 99% offense, 1% defense . . Offense is art and defense is science. You have to have a scientific plan that can be adjusted. But at the end of the day, if you can’t guard the ball, you just can’t defend.”
“You have to spend an enormous amount of time preparing to know what those things are that you’re willing to give up, and then just coach your team to those standards. You can’t be upset if you’re going to front the post and you’re going to give up offensive rebounds. You can’t be mad at both those things. If you’re going to come off on the ball side, you’re going to give up some corner threes. If you don’t come off the ball side, you’re going to give up some baskets . Be comfortable giving up what you’re okay with. And then as a coach, don’t react to those things that you’ve set them up for.”
“The added pressure of the money at the college game has changed the game drastically. There are a number of people who are making money off these players, and that means there’s 3 or 4 more opinions that they’re having to listen to. I think I will do a better job of protecting them from those voices and make sure that they’re hearing our voices, our staff’s voices, what we expect, or we’ll get further away from goals than ever.”
“Believe as many true things as you can. And that takes a lot of information. You need the analytics, you need the film. Get all the information as a coach, shrink that down to a few manageable things that are actionable that you can give them feedback on easily, quickly, and then they can take that and transfer it to the floor.”
“If we’re truly going to try to be a little bit better, 1% or 2%, whatever book we’re writing, we’ve got to be better than we were. We’ve got to do that today, but we also have to have a picture of where we’re going.”
Mike Neighbors Breakdown:
Mike Neighbors Selected Links from the Podcast:
Mike Neighbors
Kathy McConnnell-Miller
Susie Gardner
Kevin McGuff
Gary Blair
Adia Barnes
Fred Castro
Morgan Valley
Jose Fernandez
Karl Smesko
Lynne Roberts
Fran Fraschilla
Dearica Hamby
Katie Collier
Taylah Thomas
Kiara Williams
Chelsea Dungee
Rickea Jackson
Kelsey Plum
Julie Allemand
Cameron Brink
Azura Stephens
Annie Duke
Nneka Oqwumike
Rick Jones
Amber Ramirez
Makayla Daniels
Vic Schaefer
Eric Musselman
Louis Whorton
Curt Miller
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