COLUMBIA, Mo. — New Missouri women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper says she could give you a scouting report on every Southeastern Conference team with her eyes closed. And her formal introduction to fans and media Monday gave no reason to doubt that.
Getting back into coaching after a year away — Harper worked as an analyst for the SEC Network after her five-year stint at Tennessee — she received an immediate test of her mental database. During her introductory news conference, a student journalist asked Harper what she saw during Mizzou’s SEC tournament loss to Ole Miss, a 20-point, 20-turnover loss that ended the Tigers’ season and the coaching tenure of Harper’s predecessor.
Harper provided the immediate correction: MU lost to Mississippi State during that game, which was fairly inconsequential in the grand scheme of the SEC season — neither the Tigers nor the Bulldogs made much noise. But the new Missouri coach remembered how that game played out anyway, complete with a 31-0 run in Mississippi State’s favor.
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“We had a really good, strong first half, right?†Harper said. “We just weren’t able to play for 40 minutes.â€
That she readily referred to past versions of Mizzou as “we†while still very much new to the job suggests Harper is capable of quick adjustments — and that’s not an entirely tongue-in-cheek observation. To make the most of her debut season, she needs to hit the ground running. The transfer portal is open, which means now is the time for Harper to build her first MU roster.
To start, she didn’t feel like she was walking into Mizzou Arena with no idea of who was on her roster.
“I’m very familiar with this team,†Harper said. “I obviously played against this team for several years and then was able to watch this team throughout the season, so I feel like I’ve got a pretty good handle of who they are.â€
Harper’s Lady Vols beat Robin Pingeton’s Tigers 80-69 on Feb. 4, 2024, for example, a game that gave the new Missouri coach a look at some of her current key players. Guard Grace Slaughter, then a freshman, played 38 minutes in that game, scoring 14 points. Ashton Judd pitched in 12 points and five rebounds. Guard Abbey Schreacke made two of her four 3-pointers.
All three are eligible to return to MU for the 2025-26 season. Slaughter, in particular, stands out as a retention priority. Schreacke, along with guard Averi Kroenke, attended Harper’s introduction. An unspecified group of other returners missed the ceremony to go to class.
While the Tigers went just 3-13 in SEC play this past season, there are parts of the roster Harper does want to keep in place.
“I was impressed with the toughness and the fight that this team had all season long,†she said. “We talked about this: There were some heartbreaking losses that could’ve gut-punched a team so much that they quit, and they didn’t quit. That gave me a really good understanding of the type of character that we have on this team.â€
Returners, however, could wind up as less than half of the roster when Harper’s first season tips off this fall. Only seven remain after a handful of early portal entries. Missouri has one incoming freshman — point guard Nikki Kerstein — who was signed by Pingeton and remains on track to enroll this fall. That could leave seven spots for Harper to fill via the transfer portal, bringing the total roster size to 15.
“I’m super-excited about who we have here, and then we know we’ve got to address the needs on the court,†Harper said. “We’re going to do that in the transfer portal. ... We’re really excited about who we think we can bring in.â€
One of the advantages of Mizzou hiring Harper, from a purely logistical standpoint, is that she was able to start on the job a couple of weeks ago and maximize the transfer portal window. The Tigers don’t have any commitments yet — this cycle seems to be moving rather slowly on a national scale on both the men’s and women’s side — but Harper seems pleased with the portal conversations she’s had.
“We’ve had a lot of buzz and a lot of excitement — and a lot of interest — from some really talented portal players,†Harper said. “I’m not trying to look years down the road. I’m trying to figure out how we’re going to do it this year. With the landscape now, you get the right pieces, you can make some waves pretty quickly.â€
She’s hinting at the postseason there. Missouri wants to get its women’s program into the NCAA Tournament regularly, which is why it hired a coach who brought Tennessee to the big dance four years in a row. Making the tournament will require the Tigers to more than double their SEC wins from this season, but that kind of rapid rebuild is mouth-wateringly possible with half of a roster to acquire.
“I’m sure she’s going to have less patience than anyone to turn a program (around),†MU athletics director Laird Veatch said. “It doesn’t happen overnight, so to speak, but in this day and age — with the transfer portal, with NIL, with the SEC as it is and this competition, people wanting to play at this level — I think we can get back to better and more competitive really quickly.â€
