FAYETTEVILLE -- When Jimmy Dykes was hired as Arkansas' women's basketball coach a year ago, it didn't sit well with some in the game.
Dykes hadn't coached on the college level since 1991 as a men's assistant at Oklahoma State and never had coached a women's team.
Stanford Coach Tara VanDerveer and Beth Bass, head of the Women's Basketball Coaches Association, said it was "depressing" that Dykes was hired over more experienced candidates.
Dykes responded by leading an Arkansas team down to nine players -- and eight healthy ones late in the season -- to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2012 and a 57-55 first-round victory over Northwestern.
Second-seeded Baylor beat the 10th-seeded Razorbacks 73-44 at the Bears' Farrell Center in Waco, Texas, last Saturday to end Arkansas' season at 18-13.
Dykes said earlier this week he didn't focus on whether Arkansas' NCAA Tournament berth -- after the Razorbacks were picked to finish 12th in the SEC in a preseason poll -- provided validation he was the right hire.
"The only time I even think about 'Was this a year of validation for Jimmy Dykes as a head coach?' is when I'm asked about it," said Dykes, an ESPN analyst the previous 15 years. "I never wavered in my confidence or belief to be a leader.
"I can't control what people think about me good or bad right now as a head coach at Arkansas. That's on them."
Dykes said he continues to believe now, as he did when he was hired, that he is without question the best person to coach Arkansas.
"I know that in my heart," he said. "If I don't feel like that, I shouldn't be sitting here."
Dykes said he and his assistant coaches learned to be creative in practices and games working with a depleted roster.
"I really don't believe we could have gotten any more out of the nine players than we did this year, and that's not anything we did," Dykes said. "That's the inspiration they've given to me because they've completely given us everything they possibly could from the very first time we had a practice at Bud Walton Arena, where we literally started with two-line layups drills going full speed for 30 seconds and we struggled to do that.
"So to go from that point to where we were playing Baylor, we feel really, really good. I wish we were still playing. I really do feel we're good enough to be in the Sweet 16. We just didn't play well enough to advance out of our bracket."
Dykes, 53, said this season represented his first lap as a college head coach.
"I hope I have another nine laps to go," he said. "I'd love to do this for the next 10 years of my life.
"I do know I'm a much better coach than I was when I took the job, simply because I've been through it. Hopefully, that will translate into better decisions in recruiting, better decisions on the bench, better decisions on how we run our practices, better decisions in every aspect of this program."
Arkansas is losing two seniors and three-year starters in point guard Calli Berna and forward Jhasmin Bowen, but it will return three of its top four scorers in forward Jessica Jackson (14.9 points per game), guard Kelsey Brooks (13.8) and forward Melissa Wolff (8.4).
Dykes said Wolff, a senior-to-be who averaged a team-high 7.8 rebounds, is ready to be a leader.
"She's kind of been the pulse and the heartbeat of our team all season long in terms of her fight," Dykes said. "Her heart is bigger than anyone I've ever been around."
Dykes said Arkansas will miss Berna and Bowen, but the roster will be bolstered next season with the addition of five November high school signees: Jordan Danberry, Briunna Freeman, Malica Monk, Keiryn Swenson and Bailey Zimmerman.
"I felt good about our recruiting class when we signed them, and I feel even better now looking at the senior year that all five of them had," Dykes said. "They make us faster, they make us quicker, they make us more explosive.
"I'm not counting on all of them playing right off the bat. They're going to have to earn that."
Dykes said Arkansas is hoping to add some spring signees.
"We have a couple more on our radar that we're going to try and get," he said. "When you only have nine and you lose a couple of those to graduation, you have room to bring in some more."
Sports on 03/25/2015