We formally have our first Energy 4 opening of the 2025 teaching carousel season in girls’s school 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 total file.
Pingeton leaves Mizzou with an total file of 249-216. Her finest 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 gained 39 video games within the SEC. Pingeton by no means obtained her staff into the second weekend of March Insanity although, and by no means once more led the Tigers to a event berth with out Cunningham – the 2016 SEC Freshman of the Yr and three-time All-SEC First Crew choice who has carved out a profession for herself within the WNBA.
Missouri has had a shedding file in 4 of their final six seasons. Because the Tigers’ file 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 staff.
“After plenty of 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 determination 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 therefore a few years. That is the top of this chapter. I’m wanting ahead to the following one.”
The SEC could be the hardest convention in school basketball. It boasts a pair of groups which have gained the final three nationwide titles in South Carolina and LSU – coached by two of the very best to ever do it in Daybreak Staley and Kim Mulkey – and one other staff in Texas that appears like a contender below Vic Schaefer. In the meantime, Tennessee is experiencing a first-year renaissance below Kim Caldwell, Kentucky is aggressive once more after hiring Kenny Brooks, Vanderbilt appears to have stumbled onto a respectable 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 be eyeing its third consecutive 20-win season below 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 blended.
“They wish to be good, however it doesn’t seem to be they’re keen to spend the cash to be nice,” one longtime assistant coach instructed SB Nation.
Willingness to spend cash and an funding in girls’s school basketball has helped separate the haves and have-nots in conferences just like the SEC for a number of years, however the hole might change into much more noticeable with the Home settlement looming. Georgia, for instance, goes to offer its third-biggest piece of the income sharing pie – about $900,000, in accordance with the Athens Banner-Herald – to girls’s basketball.
However one agent mentioned Missouri would “be comfortable” 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 best rent.
Right here’s who could be within the combine to guide the Tigers:
Molly Miller
It could virtually 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 obtained 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 file and an look within the Division II Ultimate 4 in 2019. She’s had success since making the bounce to Division I too, sporting a 110-37 total file with Grand Canyon within the WAC. Kentucky briefly kicked the tires on Miller final season earlier than hiring Brooks, however she would possibly find yourself within the SEC in any case.
Kristen Gillespie
The final time Missouri employed a girls’s basketball coach, she got here from Illinois State. It may not be a foul thought for the Tigers to take a look at the identical place they pulled Pingeton from, as a result of Gillespie has piled up plenty of 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 gained the common season convention title and the Missouri Valley Coach of the Yr 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 gained in each. Between 4 stops as a head coach – Western Carolina, N.C. State, Missouri State and Tennessee – Harper has a 60.2 successful proportion, 9 NCAA Event appearances and 5 convention championships below 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 strain to win at her two earlier Energy 4 stops: at N.C. State, she needed to comply with Kay Yow and at Tennessee she coached within the shadow of Pat Summitt. At Missouri, filling Pingeton’s sneakers might be a a lot simpler carry.
