Missouri State Lady Bears nearing the beginning of the Beth Cunningham era
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No one on the Missouri State Lady Bears knows what it's like to undergo a coaching change quite like Sydney Wilson.
The senior will have her third head coach in her five years with the program. Initially recruited by Kellie Harper out of Overland Park, Kansas, Wilson was a consistent contributor to the Cinderella Sweet 16 team of 2019. The successful run put the Lady Bears back in the national spotlight but it led to Harper being hired away by Tennessee, her alma mater.
Missouri State then hired Amaka Agugua-Hamilton who continued the success. A three-year run with the Lady Bears going 74-15 over the stretch with a pair of NCAA Tournaments, including an additional Sweet 16 appearance, and an additional season that was destined for a deep NCAA Tournament run if it wasn't canceled due to the beginning of the pandemic.
After "Coach Mox's" success, she was hired away before returning to her home state and becoming the head coach at Virginia.
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With one season of eligibility remaining, Wilson knew she wanted to remain a Lady Bear even when she saw her teammates from an incredible stretch either graduating or transferring away. But once Missouri State announced it hired former Notre Dame associate head coach and Duke assistant Beth Cunningham as its next head coach, Wilson was at ease thinking she would have a third successful head coach.
"I just still can't believe she's my head coach," Wilson said. "Her resume, when she first came here, I was like 'wow' and I'm still stunned. She doesn't really care that she has that name to her along with like Muffet McGraw and Duke. She is just her own personal self and I really like that about her."
Cunningham is days away from embarking on her first season as the head coach of the Missouri State Lady Bears. She has previous successful head coaching experience at Virginia Commonwealth before she returned to her alma mater, Notre Dame, where she once was a standout player while leading the Fighting Irish to the first Final Four appearance in program history.
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On the staff at Notre Dame, Cunningham was an associate head coach under the legendary McGraw. She was a part of one of the most successful stretches in NCAA women's history with the Irish going 244-19 from 2012-20 which included seven straight 30-win seasons, six conference titles, five Final Fours, the 2018 National Championship and a runner up finish in 2019.
After McGraw's retirement, Cunningham spent two years as an assistant at Duke under Kara Lawson before being hired away by Missouri State this offseason.
"I can't believe it's been seven or eight months because it feels like yesterday was my introductory press conference," Cunningham said recently. "You look at it now with the season being right around the corner with the home opener against Missouri and it's just gone so quickly. I feel like we've accomplished a lot in a short period of time."
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For Wilson, the biggest difference between this coaching change to the last one has been the amount of turnover on the roster.
Agugua-Hamilton took over a young group coming off a Sweet 16 appearance. After three seasons, the majority of those players graduated including program greats like Brice Calip and Elle Ruffridge. Jasmine Franklin, coming off a torn ACL in the middle of the 2021-22 season, chose to transfer to play under Harper at Tennessee.
That left Cunningham needing to construct a roster in a way Agugua-Hamilton never had to. Five of the rostered players from 2021-22 stayed with the program and three of the freshmen signed to play for Coach Mox decided to stick to their MSU commitment.
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"We obviously had a lot to do as far as filling out a roster and putting a coaching staff together," Cunningham said. "Then we had to teach a new system offensively and defensively and trying to bond on and off the court with trying to get to know each other and all those things. That's why I say that you always feel like there's not enough time in the day because you constantly want to do more to put yourself in the best position possible."
New players on the court will include the likes of Kansas transfer Aniya Thomas, Dayton transfer Capria Brown, Colorado transfer Kennedy Taylor and former Kickapoo standout and Moberly Area Community College transfer Indya Green.
With Wilson, Paige Rocca, Ifunanya Nwachukwu and Isabelle Delarue back, Taylor Woodhouse should make more of an impact after sitting last season to rehab a knee injury she sustained during her final year of high school. Freshman Jade Masogayo is one Cunningham said will likely make an immediate impact.
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The new system Cunningham will install, offensively, will look similar to what she learned at Notre Dame under McGraw while the defense will look similar to how MSU's has in years past.
"We're going to be very different offensively than what they previously were," Cunningham said. "They had a lot of experience at the guard plays and we're dominant inside and I like our size and strength inside. I've copied a lot more of the Princeton style and a little bit of what the Celtics did from when I was at Duke and what Kara Lawson did and some of the things she brought. It's just going to be a different style and it's kind of interesting because I do think some of our kids fit that."
Cunningham takes over a team that has been picked to finish sixth in the Missouri Valley Conference — something players on her team literally roll their eyes at. The program hasn't placed sixth in the MVC since 2013-14, the last time the program finished the year with a losing record.
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When the ball is tossed up on Nov. 7 at Great Southern Bank Arena with the Lady Bears taking on Mizzou, the Lady Bears will have their third different head coach in the last five years.
Missouri State can only hope Cunningham will bring the similar success that the previous two brought — and maybe even go a few steps further.
"I think if we control the things we can control, let the chips fall where they may," Cunningham said. "You can't control a lot of things but there are some non-negotiables that we focus on. Everywhere else I've been, if we've been successful at those things that really don't have to do with talent, we've put ourselves in a good position."
Missouri State Lady Bears schedule 2022-23
Nov. 2 — Missouri S&T (exhibition)
Nov. 7 — Mizzou
Nov. 15 — Saint Louis
Nov. 17 — Oklahoma State
Nov. 25 — vs. UTSA (Las Vegas)
Nov. 26 — vs. Middle Tennessee (Las Vegas)
Dec. 4 — @ Toledo
Dec. 9 — @ TCU
Dec. 17 — UT Martin
Dec. 21 — Little Rock
Dec. 29 — @ Indiana State
Dec. 31 — @ Evansville
Jan. 5 — Illinois State
Jan. 7 — Bradley
Jan. 11 — Southern Illinois
Jan. 14 — @ Valparaiso
Jan. 20 — @ Belmont
Jan. 22 — @ Murray State
Jan. 26 — Northern Iowa
Jan. 28 — Drake
Feb. 1 — @ Southern Illinois
Feb. 4 — Illinois Chicago
Feb. 10 — @ Bradley
Feb. 12 — @ Illinois State
Feb. 19 — Belmont
Feb. 23 — Evansville
Feb. 25 — Indiana State
March 2 — @ Drake
March 4 — @ Northern Iowa
Wyatt D. Wheeler is a reporter and columnist with the Springfield News-Leader. You can contact him at 417-371-6987, by email at wwheeler@news-leader.com or Twitter at @WyattWheeler_NL. He's also the co-host of Sports Talk on Jock Radio weekdays from 4-6 p.m.
This article originally appeared on Springfield News-Leader: Beth Cunningham ready for first season as MSU Lady Bears coach
