We formally have our first Energy 4 opening of the 2025 teaching carousel season in ladies’s faculty basketball.
After 15 seasons on the helm of Missouri, Robin Pingeton introduced Wednesday that she is resigning on the finish of this marketing campaign. Her Tigers are tied for final place within the Southeastern Convention this yr with a 2-12 mark in SEC play and a 13-16 general report.
Pingeton leaves Mizzou with an general report of 249-216. Her greatest stretch main this system coincided with Sophie Cunningham’s presence on the roster from 2015 to 2019. Over that 4 season stretch, the Tigers had been ranked as excessive as eleventh within the AP Prime 25 Ballot, made 4 consecutive NCAA Tournaments, and received 39 video games within the SEC. Pingeton by no means received her group into the second weekend of March Insanity although, and by no means once more led the Tigers to a match berth with out Cunningham – the 2016 SEC Freshman of the 12 months and three-time All-SEC First Group choice who has carved out a profession for herself within the WNBA.
Missouri has had a dropping report in 4 of their final six seasons. Because the Tigers’ report dwindled, Pingeton was unable to retain standout gamers that went on to have success elsewhere, like Aijha Blackwell, LaDazhia Williams and Mama Dembele — the latter of whom has helped USF win 9 straight video games this season.
Nonetheless, Pingeton leaves Missouri as its second winningest coach of all time. Maybe one in every of her most memorable triumphs was when the Tigers upset No. 1 South Carolina in 2021, which was this system’s first-ever win over the top-ranked group.
“After numerous reflection, I’ve determined it’s time for a brand new voice to guide Mizzou Girls’s Basketball,” Pingeton mentioned in an announcement. “This can be a choice I arrived at after initiating conversations with Laird Veatch, and I’m extremely grateful for his management and help all through this course of. I really like Columbia, Mizzou and the wonderful group that has supported my household and this program for thus a few years. That is the top of this chapter. I’m wanting ahead to the subsequent one.”
The SEC may be the hardest convention in faculty basketball. It boasts a pair of groups which have received the final three nationwide titles in South Carolina and LSU – coached by two of the perfect to ever do it in Daybreak Staley and Kim Mulkey – and one other group in Texas that appears like a contender beneath Vic Schaefer. In the meantime, Tennessee is experiencing a first-year renaissance beneath Kim Caldwell, Kentucky is aggressive once more after hiring Kenny Brooks, Vanderbilt appears to have stumbled onto a reputable star in Mikayla Blakes, and Oklahoma, Alabama and Ole Miss have all been ranked within the AP Prime 25 Ballot this season. Mississippi State can also be eyeing its third consecutive 20-win season beneath Sam Purcell.
A number of brokers and fellow coaches anticipated Missouri to open this offseason, however assessments of the job and Missouri’s place within the SEC are combined.
“They need to be good, however it doesn’t look like they’re keen to spend the cash to be nice,” one longtime assistant coach advised SB Nation.
Willingness to spend cash and an funding in ladies’s faculty basketball has helped separate the haves and have-nots in conferences just like the SEC for a number of years, however the hole may turn out to be much more noticeable with the Home settlement looming. Georgia, for instance, goes to provide its third-biggest piece of the income sharing pie – about $900,000, in keeping with the Athens Banner-Herald – to ladies’s basketball.
However one agent mentioned Missouri would “be blissful” to be in the course of the pack within the convention and make the NCAA Event “on a considerably common foundation.” That’s a bar that’s clearable if Missouri makes the correct rent.
Right here’s who may be within the combine to guide the Tigers:
Molly Miller
It may well nearly be assured that Miller will get a name about this job. The 38-year-old Missouri native is considered as one of many rising stars in teaching circles and received her begin in teaching at her alma mater, Division II Drury, which is about simply three hours southwest of Columbia. As the top coach of Drury, Miller guided the Panthers to a 180-17 report and an look within the Division II Remaining 4 in 2019. She’s had success since making the bounce to Division I too, sporting a 110-37 general report with Grand Canyon within the WAC. Kentucky briefly kicked the tires on Miller final season earlier than hiring Brooks, however she may find yourself within the SEC in any case.
Kristen Gillespie
The final time Missouri employed a ladies’s basketball coach, she got here from Illinois State. It may not be a nasty concept for the Tigers to take a look at the identical place they pulled Pingeton from, as a result of Gillespie has piled up numerous wins whereas main the Redbirds. Gillespie – who performed for Kay Yow at N.C. State – has gone 149-92 in eight seasons at Illinois State. In 2022, she led them to their first NCAA Event look in 14 years, and in 2023 received the common season convention title and the Missouri Valley Coach of the 12 months award.
Kellie Harper
Whereas Harper didn’t meet expectations at Tennessee, take into account this: she is aware of the state, she is aware of the SEC and she or he’s received in each. Between 4 stops as a head coach – Western Carolina, N.C. State, Missouri State and Tennessee – Harper has a 60.2 profitable share, 9 NCAA Event appearances and 5 convention championships beneath her belt in 20 seasons on the sidelines. She took Missouri State to the Candy 16 and helped flip it right into a mid-major energy, and led the Vols to the second weekend of March Insanity twice. On this yr off, Harper has stayed plugged into the sport by working for the SEC Community. Harper confronted immense stress to win at her two earlier Energy 4 stops: at N.C. State, she needed to observe Kay Yow and at Tennessee she coached within the shadow of Pat Summitt. At Missouri, filling Pingeton’s footwear might be a a lot simpler elevate.
