COLUMBIA, Mo. 鈥 When new Missouri athletics director Laird Veatch sat down for introductory meetings with the school鈥檚 various head coaches, he made something crowd-pleasingly clear: He wouldn鈥檛 be putting them through any SWOT analysis.
The straight-out-of-business-school acronym, pronounced like 鈥渟wat,鈥 stands for strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats 鈥 and it鈥檚 a common, if reductive, way to organize a business or athletic program鈥檚 competitive standing.
Veatch doesn鈥檛 seem like a fan of that approach, even when getting acclimated with a new athletics department. The coaches he鈥檚 getting to know appreciate the lack of SWOT-ing.
鈥淭hat was my first sign,鈥 gymnastics coach Shannon Welker said recently at a fundraiser. 鈥淚鈥檓 like, 鈥業 really think I鈥檓 going to enjoy working with Laird.鈥欌
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Veatch emerged from those conversations feeling confident.
鈥淚鈥檝e, genuinely, been very impressed with our head coaches, with a lot of staff 鈥 just the talent, the energy, enthusiasm,鈥 he said. 鈥淲e鈥檙e a fairly young group overall, I would say, just generally speaking. Really good, quality people.鈥
Mizzou is returning all of its head coaches for the 2024-25 sports year, a bit of unique continuity underneath a change at the athletics department helm.
As things currently stand, that won鈥檛 be the case at this time next year: Women鈥檚 basketball coach Robin Pingeton鈥檚 contract expires April 30, 2025, shortly after the end of the college hoops season.
That deadline sets up what will likely be Veatch鈥檚 first coaching personnel decision at MU: Does he extend Pingeton? Allow her contract to run out and search for a successor? It鈥檚 already unique for a coach to enter the last year of their deal, which leaves them without any contractual obligation or incentive to prepare for the future on the recruiting trail.
For now, much as he isn鈥檛 subjecting his coaches to SWOT analyses, Veatch isn鈥檛 establishing concrete external expectations for Pingeton and the women鈥檚 basketball team.
鈥(I鈥檝e) had some really good conversations with Robin,鈥 Veatch said. 鈥淚 think a lot of her as a person, as a coach. She鈥檚 obviously had some real success points throughout her career. She, and all of us recognize, the expectations are always to win and get better, right? She鈥檚 done some really good things, from what I can tell, from a recruiting standpoint and positioning her and the program to get back on a better track.鈥
Though the Missouri women have lost two experienced contributors in forward Hayley Frank and Mama Dembele, the Tigers have a young core of players who will be entering their second and third seasons. Pingeton has also found some size in the transfer portal to add to a team that went 2-12 in Southeastern Conference play for a last-place finish in the league.
As Veatch explains it, his stance on evaluating Mizzou women鈥檚 basketball is not an exception but the rule for how he鈥檒l analyze other programs at critical junctures that could involve coaching changes.
鈥淎ny time I go into a year when we鈥檙e coming off a point where it wasn鈥檛 what we wanted to be the year before, it鈥檚: Let鈥檚 focus on getting better and taking a really big step,鈥 Veatch said. 鈥淏ut you can鈥檛 overly define what that is until you see it.
鈥淵ou observe it, you鈥檙e around it, you鈥檙e part of it because so much of assessing the performance of a coach or a program is about all the things going on behind the scenes, not just the wins and losses. Ultimately, wins and losses 100% absolutely matter at a real high level. But it鈥檚 got to be a part of all that, so you got to spend time with people and see what they鈥檙e doing and how they鈥檙e operating. That鈥檚 something that鈥檒l come in time.鈥
