How Mizzou women's basketball quietly left a difficult 2022 behind, giving way to the potential of 2023
December 30, 2021, was a hallmark moment for Missouri women's basketball.
The Tigers, with just eight available players, took down No. 1 overall and eventual national champion South Carolina in overtime to gain national notoriety. But, the team won't stop to think too much about the moment.
"I probably won't pause too much to think too much about that," Pingeton said. "All I can you is I feel really blessed to be their coach, and it's much bigger than the scoreboard. It's about who they are, their character, their heart posture."
It was a high point the program had been missing for years, but that high was eventually met with the low of missing the 2022 NCAA Tournament.
On December 29, MU ended a rollercoaster 2022 with a 74-71 win over Kentucky. The Tigers quietly navigated their way to a 12-2 record and will begin 2023 with a chance to return to the postseason conversation.
Making the tournament in 2023 starts with leaving 2022 behind, which had rollercoaster highs and lows. The win over the Wildcats featured those same swings.
MU trailed 17-5 at one point in the first quarter, a similar start to when Kentucky bounced the Tigers at Mizzou Arena last year when the Tigers were on the tournament bubble and in the midst of missing four key players. After the first quarter, MU had made just four field goals compared to seven turnovers.
That gave way to the second quarter. The team clawed back to take a 39-30 lead into halftime with a 29-point second period while holding Kentucky to 11 points in the same frame.
"They kind of punched us in the mouth," Pingeton said. "It was a physical game. We had to adjust to the physicality of the game. I thought Kentucky did a good job of forcing our offense to start a little higher, disrupting our cuts."
It was an impressive turnaround, one that exemplified what Pingeton wants the team to be.
She's said many times already how this team doesn't have an agenda. They're playing for the team and the name on the jersey, and they have a love to see each other succeed more than seeing themselves succeed. The win over UK was different from other parts of 2022 because of how Pingeton's team handled some of the lows Thursday.
MU led by as many as 10 at the midway point of the fourth before Kentucky tied the game at 66 before the Tigers pulled with free throws and defense. There were times when the team couldn't, or didn't know how to, rally from collapses last season.
"We talk a lot about being resilient, about being your sister's keeper," Pingeton said. "You're not going to play a perfect game, and in the SEC especially it's just such a tough league that you've got to be able to have that bounce-back mentality and you've got to cover for each other and you got to out fires for each other."
It was impressive considering the kind of adversity the program did see this year.
The 2022 calendar year began just days after the win over South Carolina, which saw MU fall out of that notoriety in the months of January and February. Losing streaks met with players missing time with a "violation of team standards," in Pingeton's words, had MU fighting to be back in the tournament conversation.
It never happened. A WNIT loss followed. A four-player transfer exodus occurred, including star Aijha Blackwell, and Pingeton was left to piece together parts that would make MU ready for SEC play this season.
That pieced-together roster will enter 2023 with a "gritty" identity that Pigneton wants. More importantly, the Tigers quietly left behind 2022 with a 12-2 record, a rotation of improving freshmen, a veteran core and quality wins.
Wins over Bradey and Southeast Missouri State padded the 12-win record, to be sure, but wins over UMass, Arizona State, Wake Forest and Kentucky put the Tigers in a position to firmly return to the tournament picture by winning in SEC play.
That veteran core, led by Hayley Frank's 15.4 and Lauren Hansen's 15.1 points per game, has become patient. Hansen started 0-4 against Kentucky but finished the game with 18 behind Frank's game-high 20. She never forced shots, but kept working to find what would light her spark.
"They keep passing me the ball, they're always staying positive with me and telling me to keep shooting," Hansen said. "Just staying present."
The veteran's patience plays well with the growth Averi Kroenke and Ashton Judd have shown. The two have come up to speed quickly at the college level and are now consistent contributors.
"They're so fearless," Hansen said. "They're just so tough and they just fit in so well with us."
Both Judd and Kroenke played in crunch time against Kentucky, having more than earned their minutes throughout the non-conference slate. Against UK, Judd had 12 points off the bench and Kroenke was +18 in 11 minutes.
"You want to be big time, you got to act big time," Pingeton said. "You got to be able to produce."
According to the ESPN women's college basketball bracketology, Missouri is one of the last four teams in the NCAA Tournament along with Texas, Colorado and Mississippi State.
Winning most of its games at home will keep MU in that position. Stealing an upset will have the Tigers firmly in the tournament picture.
"We want to be a gritty team," Pingeton said. "We want to be a team that's not afraid to roll up their sleeves and go to work. I think they've done that."
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: How Mizzou women's basketball quietly left a difficult 2022 behind
