Hope.

Hope is defined as a “feeling or expectation and desire for the certain thing to happen” and “a feeling of trust.”

It feels weird to say this, but as we head into a new women’s basketball season, this is my overarching feeling— hope. I look at the new coaching staff, the promised investment by the athletic department, the new additions, the schedule, and even the social media posts, and the main feeling I have feels an awful lot like hope. It’s refreshing.

It definitely wasn’t always this way.

Rewind

Way back in April 2024, a bunch of us — me, Quentin, Josh, Dylan, Adeen, Abigail, and Matthew — participated in a State of the Union roundtable on Mizzou’s Women’s Hoops after the Board of Curators and interim athletic director Marcy Girton decided (foolishly) to retain head coach Robin Pingeton for a 15th season despite ending the 23-24 season with 12 straight losses. We were… upset. I wondered why the school was choosing to punt on a sport at a time when interest was (and remains) sky high.

Abigail said at the time, “Mizzou (as a large, ambiguous entity) chose not to invest in women’s basketball. That passivity wasn’t neutral. That passivity signaled they don’t care enough to hold this women’s program to a higher expectation of excellence. That’s disappointing, and I mean disappointing in the tone your parents use when they say, “I’m not mad; I’m just disappointed.”

Abigail said it nicer than me; I was irate and wanted answers more than just… well, the former AD (Desiree Reed-Francois) left. Screw that.

So we settled in for what was largely a lame duck season. We all knew how this would end, and sure enough, the 2024-25 season went poorly and the Tigers’ season ended with a thud after getting annihilated 100-59 at home against Vandy in a catastrophic defensive performance. Then they followed that up in the SEC Tourney against MS State, where despite being up 10 points early in the third quarter, were on the unfortunate end of a 31-0 run that ended their season with a 75-55 L. If you’d watched the Tigers at all last season, you’d know that this had become common place— there was always a quarter where they just stopped doing anything productive, whether it be shooting, defense, ball control. Sometimes it was one of those things that plagued them, and sometimes it was all of those things. It was infuriating and left me wondering if whomever the team’s new coach would just be watching in horror.

The Tigers managed just three SEC wins (MS State, at Texas A&M, at Arkansas) and a 14-18 overall record and missed the NCAA Tournament for the fifth consecutive season. After announcing on February 26 that she would step down at the end of the season, the 15-year Robin Pingeton tenure ended.

The Investment

A coaching search commenced, and Laird Veatch made clear in a March 7 press conference that with women’s basketball on the rise, he saw that investing in the program could benefit the university, state and conference. He described his vision for the type of coach the search committee was looking for, and I think that’s when the hope started to seep in. It sounded like Mizzou… cared?

In our excitement for the future, the Majority Rules crew, alongside some very special WBB enthusiasts, held a lively coaching search roundtable where we fought for our favorite candidates. Several of us mentioned that if Mizzou hired Kellie Harper, who I’d be clamoring for since she got fired from UT the previous year, that they would return to relevance very quickly.

The search committee clearly listened to our very wise suggestions, as they announced the hiring of Harper on March 18. I was ECSTATIC, and by all accounts, so was she. In her introductory press conference on March 31 she said, “When Missouri called, I knew really, really quickly that this was the perfect, perfect fit for me. I’m honored to have a passion for this program, that I have to be able to lead this program.”

For her staff, Harper quickly surrounded herself with coaches who had previously served under her at either Missouri State or Tennessee (Jennifer Sullivan, Kenzie Kostas & Liza Fruendt), and/or played under her (Kostas & Fruendt). The last additions to the coaching staff were Todd Schaefer, who spent 8 years at Arkansas as an assistant/associate head coach some time at Washington where he coached Kelsey Plum, and Michael Scruggs, a Knoxville native who spent time at Georgia Tech and Purdue and had worked as a student assistant under… Pat Summitt.

Harper said one of the things that the legendary Pat Summitt said was, “Surround yourself with good people. You can be so much more successful when you’re around people that are going to elevate you.”

Ahhhh… more hope.

The Additions

With a new staff on hand, there were bound to be some defections as players looked for new opportunities and more playing time. Ashton Judd was the most impactful transfer out, signing with Texas in the offseason, but the other transfers were largely bench players. Here’s an outline of who Kellie & Co. brought in. A lot of guards!

Saniah Tyler (St. Louis, MO, Sr): The former Kentucky guard was relegated to bench duty when new coach Kenny Brooks came aboard and brought with him the incomparable Georgia Amoore. During her sophomore year, she averaged 10.6 ppg in 26.8 mpg.

Jordana Reisma (Brown Deer, WI, Jr): The All-Horizon and All-Defensive junior from Cleveland State center was a scoring machine, averaging 15 mpg and 6.9 rpg, including a career-high 25 against Purdue Fort-Wayne. He was a remarkably efficient shooter, averaging 67.7% from FG and 71.7% from the charity stripe.

Shannon Dowell (O’Fallon, IL, Jr): The MVC All-Freshman honoree had three straight 20-point outings to end the regular season her freshman year, and was even better her sophomore season, leading the Illinois State Redbirds in scoring with almost 18 ppg. In six game across the MVC Tourney and WNIT, she averaged 26 ppg.

Jayla Smith (Indianapolis, IN, RS-Sr): The former Purdue guard mainly played a reserve role for the Boilers during her four seasons and spent her senior season out with injury. The highly touted high school recruit (no. 42 in the nation) had two separated 16-point outings in her career against high major opponents Nebraska and Iowa. Smith’s best season came in 2022-23, when she averaged 7.8 ppg in 19 mpg while shooting 45.5%.

Lisa Thompson (Joliet, IL, Jr): The Rutgers guard averaged 5.9 ppg and 3.7 rpg in just under 20 mpg for the Scarlet Knights. She also had four games of 10-plus points this past season, but lost some playing time due to injury and the addition of Kiyomi McMiller.

Chloe Sotell (Stamford, CT, Soph): The WCC All-Freshman guard started 26 games for Pepperdine while averaging 11.1 ppg and 3.1 asg in roughly 30 mpg. The sharpshooter, who had two games her freshmen season with six made threes, which hopefully will continue in CoMo.

Sydney Mains (Knoxville, TN, RS-Fr): The FAU guard/wing followed her assistant coach Jennifer Sullivan to CoMo after an injury-shortened freshmen season, and if she can stay healthy, she’s got a ton of potential.

The Schedule

The SEC schedule, while we don’t have specific dates yet, appears to be favorable for Mizzou… or as favorable as it can be in a league like the SEC. Mizzou finished in the bottom five of the league in 2024-25, and now will play the other four teams (Texas A&M, Arkansas, Georgia, Auburn) in the friendly confines of Mizzou Arena, hopefully in front of large, reinvigorated crowds eager to watch good basketball. They also play home games against Alabama, Ole Miss and Oklahoma, and while difficult, could be closer with good home attendance.

As for the rest of the schedule, some of that is still in the works, but we do have some details. The Tigers will face Central Arkansas, Arkansas State, Troy, and North Alabama at home and the Billikens in St. Louis. Thanksgiving Week they’ll head to Orlando and face Wazzu, and then head to the Fort Myers Tipoff, where they’ll play two more games— the first being against Northwestern or Bradley. There’s also, per the Columbia Tribune, a return date at Tulane and participation in an event called the 28.5 Shootout, hosted by the Missouri Valley Youth Services, on the schedule.

Missouri will face Charmin Smith, one of Mizzou’s head coach targets, and the Cal Bears at home in the second annual SEC/ACC Challenge. The Bears, a tourney team a year ago, lost four of their five double-digit scorers, but did add one of the best mid-major players in the nation in Morgan State’s Naya Ojukwu.

It was also recently announced that Missouri and kU have brought back the Border War and the teams will face each other in the regular season for the first time since Mizzou left for the SEC! How fun! Even if it is in KCMO and the same Saturday as the last home football game of the season (booooooo). The Tigers and Jayhawks last did battle in the WNIT 2nd Round in 2023, where the Tigers were blown out, 75-47 before the Jayhawks eventually won the WNIT.

Per Dylan, using last year’s NET rankings, Mizzou will play 0 Quad 1 games in non-con, 3 Quad 2, 4 Quad 3 and 2 Quad 4 games, which is tougher than last year’s non-con, which featured 13 Quad 3-4 games (6 Q3, 7 Q4). He and I both like the planning of this schedule more, as more neutral site games give the Tigers a chance to bolster their resume.

Wrap Up

In her final press conference after the Vanderbilt game, Robin Pingeton was asked about advice for the next coach of Mizzou Women’s Basketball, and she said this, “I just think the sky’s the limit. You got a great administration, great community. Embrace this, this fan base, open your doors to them. Let them be a part of it, because they’re passionate about it. They want to just continue to see this program grow, but they’re going to be in great hands with this administration.”

I agree wholeheartedly with Pingeton’s statement. This town loves basketball, and they have been desperate to cheer for a good team. It’s like Field of Dreams, but for basketball. If you build (good basketball teams), they will come.

As Jack Church, the assistant sports editor at the University of Tennessee’s campus newspaper, The Daily Beacon, told Dylan after the hiring, “Missouri hasn’t hired a coach with power-conference head coaching experience in its history, The Tigers should be hoping Harper’s experience of going to the second weekend of the NCAA Tournament will help them in big moments, especially as they hope to rise up the SEC standings.”

What’s that feeling? Oh yeah… it’s HOPE. I can’t wait.