Mizzou WBB tries to keep momentum rolling through finals season
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou women's basketball team is set to take on Omaha Friday afternoon, but head coach Robin Pingeton said a big part of the team's week has been focusing on the upcoming finals week.
"This was a big week academically, we gave them Monday and Tuesday off," Pingeton said. "I think sometimes that week before finals is tougher than finals week itself and I think that was huge that they had a couple days to get caught up."
Watch the full interview with Robin Pingeton in the player below.
The Tigers are coming off of two big road wins at the Arizona State Classic. Pingeton applauded her team for the performances, especially against UMass, who she expects will be an NCAA tournament team.
"I'm proud of our girls," Pingeton said. "I think fatigue set in a little bit on that Sunday, but they were able to rally the troops and find a way to get in and get a gritty win against Arizona State."
As far as injuries, Pingeton said the team has been dealing with a number of ankle problems and right now Jayla Kelly and Kaitlyn Gilbert are working on getting back to full strength.
"Jayla is not back 100% yet, but she's moving in the right direction," Pingeton said. "KG is still a work in progress as far as getting her back to 100%, but she's still pretty good at maybe 80% so for her I think it's more of managing the load that we'll have to be consistent with throughout the course of the season."
With an afternoon game during the week, Pingeton is expecting the atmosphere to be a little different for her team, but is happy that Columbia Public Schools has partnered with the women's program to give opportunities for students to be there.
"You don't want to inconvenience your loyal season ticket holders and they're used to certain times that we play, but at the same time what a great time for us to give back to this community and opportunity for our youth to come out," Pingeton said.
Mizzou will take on Omaha Friday at Mizzou Arena at 11:30 a.m.
