FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. — Arkansas women’s basketball head coach Mike Neighbors has announced the 2023 non-conference schedule, as revealed on Thursday. The Hogs will play 15 non-conference contests, including eight home games, two away matchups, a neutral contest in North Little Rock and two tournaments in Florida.
“Once we assemble a roster, the next important thing is to provide the team with an appropriate schedule,” said Neighbors. “We need to have an authentic confidence heading into SEC play. To get that done, we need to create a number of adverse situations to expose our shortcomings and also to balance that with opportunities to learn about our strengths.
“We work year-round with [associate head coach] Todd Schaefer heading up those efforts to be very selective with who we play, when we play and where we play. It’s a huge puzzle to solve. There are facility conflicts to consider, travel to consider, recovery to consider, exams to consider and holidays to consider… Not to mention styles of play and implications on our NET ranking.
“It’s always a fun day to release that hard work to our fans so they can start making plans.”
Arkansas will open the 2023-24 season with three straight home games, starting with the season opener against Louisiana Monroe on Tuesday, Nov. 7. On that Friday, Nov. 10, the Hogs will host Murray State for Elementary Day. Last year’s Elementary Day was brought back for the first time since 2019 and was a huge success with a top 15 Bud Walton Arena crowd of 7,410 fans. Field trip sign-ups for schools for that game will be available soon. The program will finish that homestand with a matchup against Little Rock on Tuesday, Nov. 14.
The Hogs will hit the road for the first time during the season on Friday, Nov. 17 to face Arkansas State in Jonesboro. The last time Arkansas traveled to the northeastern corner of the state to face the Red Wolves was 2021. Arkansas will play another in-state opponent at home in Central Arkansas on Monday, Nov. 20, which will serve as the N7 game.
“We were able to again maintain our in-state games and good regional rivalries,” added Neighbors.
Arkansas’ first of four trips to Florida this year will begin in Fort Myers at the Elevance Health Women’s Fort Myers Tip-Off from Friday, Nov. 24 to Saturday, Nov. 25. As announced earlier this summer, the Hogs will play Wisconsin on that Friday at 1 p.m. CT and play either Marquette or Boston College on that Saturday at 3:30 or 6 p.m. CT at Suncoast Credit Union Arena.
In the inaugural SEC/ACC Challenge, Arkansas is set to play Florida State on Thursday, Nov. 30 at 6 p.m. CT at the Donald L. Tucker Center in Tallahassee.
“The SEC-ACC [challenge] is going to be amazing,” said Neighbors. “Both leagues were very intentional in setting those matchups.”
Arkansas will round out the week with a primetime matchup against UCLA at Bud Walton Arena on Sunday, Dec. 3. The Bruins are coming off a NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 appearance, while finishing the year 27-10.
“We expect UCLA to be ranked near the top of all preseason polls and hope everyone will mark that date to be in Bud Walton Arena with us,” added Neighbors.
The game against UCLA is the first of three in a row at home for the Hogs. Arkansas will then host Louisiana Tech on Thursday, Dec. 7, facing the Lady Techsters once against after playing the team in the first round of the 2023 Postseason WNIT. The Hogs will finish the home stretch by playing Arkansas- Pine Bluff, the last of four in-state opponents on the schedule, on Sunday, Dec. 10. After a 42-year ban, this marks the fourth straight year the Hogs have played in-state opponents. This year marks the third year Arkansas will play all four other Natural State DI opponents.
Arkansas will make its return to North Little Rock to play Samford at Simmons Bank Arena on Sunday, Dec. 16.
The Hogs will then travel back down to Florida for the West Palm Beach Invitational from Wednesday, Dec. 20 to Thursday, Dec. 21. Arkansas will face Illinois, who is coming off an NCAA Tournament appearance, on that Wednesday, and play either San Diego State or Loyola Chicago on that Thursday.
Arkansas will finish the non-conference slate with a home matchup against Incarnate Word on Sunday, Dec. 31 to ring in the new year.
