After 15 seasons at the helm of Missouri, Robin Pingeton is stepping aside. Could a former Tennessee coach replace her, or will it be someone from the mid-major ranks?
We officially have our first Power 4 opening of the 2025 coaching carousel season in women’s college basketball.
After 15 seasons at the helm of Missouri, Robin Pingeton announced Wednesday that she is resigning at the end of this campaign. Her Tigers are tied for last place in the Southeastern Conference this year with a 2-12 mark in SEC play and a 13-16 overall record.
Pingeton leaves Mizzou with an overall record of 249-216. Her best stretch leading the program coincided with Sophie Cunningham’s presence on the roster from 2015 to 2019. Over that four season stretch, the Tigers were ranked as high as 11th in the AP Top 25 Poll, made four consecutive NCAA Tournaments, and won 39 games in the SEC. Pingeton never got her team into the second weekend of March Madness though, and never again led the Tigers to a tournament berth without Cunningham – the 2016 SEC Freshman of the Year and three-time All-SEC First Team selection who has carved out a career for herself in the WNBA.
Missouri has had a losing record in four of their last six seasons. As the Tigers’ record dwindled, Pingeton was unable to retain standout players that went on to have success elsewhere, like Aijha Blackwell, LaDazhia Williams and Mama Dembele — the latter of whom has helped USF win nine straight games this season.
Still, Pingeton leaves Missouri as its second winningest coach of all time. Perhaps one of her most memorable triumphs was when the Tigers upset No. 1 South Carolina in 2021, which was the program’s first-ever win over the top-ranked team.
“After a lot of reflection, I have decided it’s time for a new voice to lead Mizzou Women’s Basketball,” Pingeton said in a statement. “This is a decision I arrived at after initiating conversations with Laird Veatch, and I am incredibly grateful for his leadership and support throughout this process. I love Columbia, Mizzou and the amazing community that has supported my family and this program for so many years. This is the end of this chapter. I’m looking forward to the next one.”
The SEC might be the toughest conference in college basketball. It boasts a pair of teams that have won the last three national titles in South Carolina and LSU – coached by two of the best to ever do it in Dawn Staley and Kim Mulkey – and another team in Texas that looks like a contender under Vic Schaefer. Meanwhile, Tennessee is experiencing a first-year renaissance under Kim Caldwell, Kentucky is competitive again after hiring Kenny Brooks, Vanderbilt seems to have stumbled onto a legitimate star in Mikayla Blakes, and Oklahoma, Alabama and Ole Miss have all been ranked in the AP Top 25 Poll this season. Mississippi State is also eyeing its third consecutive 20-win season under Sam Purcell.
Several agents and fellow coaches expected Missouri to open this offseason, but assessments of the job and Missouri’s place in the SEC are mixed.
“They want to be good, but it doesn’t seem like they are willing to spend the money to be great,” one longtime assistant coach told SB Nation.
Willingness to spend money and an investment in women’s college basketball has helped separate the haves and have-nots in conferences like the SEC for several years, but the gap could become even more noticeable with the House settlement looming. Georgia, for example, is going to give its third-biggest piece of the revenue sharing pie – about $900,000, according to the Athens Banner-Herald – to women’s basketball.
But one agent said Missouri would “be happy” to be in the middle of the pack in the conference and make the NCAA Tournament “on a somewhat regular basis.” That’s a bar that’s clearable if Missouri makes the right hire.
Here’s who might be in the mix to lead the Tigers:
Molly Miller
It can almost be guaranteed that Miller will get a call about this job. The 38-year-old Missouri native is viewed as one of the rising stars in coaching circles and got her start in coaching at her alma mater, Division II Drury, which is about just three hours southwest of Columbia. As the head coach of Drury, Miller guided the Panthers to a 180-17 record and an appearance in the Division II Final Four in 2019. She’s had success since making the jump to Division I too, sporting a 110-37 overall record with Grand Canyon in the WAC. Kentucky briefly kicked the tires on Miller last season before hiring Brooks, but she might end up in the SEC after all.
Kristen Gillespie
The last time Missouri hired a women’s basketball coach, she came from Illinois State. It might not be a bad idea for the Tigers to look at the same place they pulled Pingeton from, because Gillespie has piled up a lot of wins while leading the Redbirds. Gillespie – who played 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 Tournament appearance in 14 years, and in 2023 won the regular season conference title and the Missouri Valley Coach of the Year award.
Kellie Harper
While Harper did not meet expectations at Tennessee, consider this: she knows the state, she knows the SEC and she’s won in both. Between four stops as a head coach – Western Carolina, N.C. State, Missouri State and Tennessee – Harper has a 60.2 winning percentage, nine NCAA Tournament appearances and five conference championships under her belt in 20 seasons on the sidelines. She took Missouri State to the Sweet 16 and helped turn it into a mid-major power, and led the Vols to the second weekend of March Madness twice. In this year off, Harper has stayed plugged into the game by working for the SEC Network. Harper faced immense pressure to win at her two previous Power 4 stops: at N.C. State, she had to follow Kay Yow and at Tennessee she coached in the shadow of Pat Summitt. At Missouri, filling Pingeton’s shoes will be a much easier lift.
