Mizzou women’s basketball set to tip off a new era

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

The Mizzou women's basketball team will begin a new era in less than two weeks.

First-year head coach Kellie Harper and her team will open up the the 2025-26 schedule on Monday, Nov. 3 against Central Arkansas at Mizzou Arena. However, the unofficial start will come on Tuesday, Oct. 28, when Maryville visits Columbia for an exhibition game.

"We're really excited to get out on the court and play and get the season started," Coach Harper said. "A week from today, we're tipping it off under the lights and we're excited. I think we've had a lot of growth as a program, already. I think our team has given us a lot of energy. They've given us a lot of effort. I think they're looking forward to playing against somebody else, right now."

You can watch the full press conference with Harper in the video player below.

In the lead-up to her first season in Columbia, Harper has assembled a roster of 13 players, which includes a mixture of returning talent and transfer portal pickups.

Overall, it will largely be a lot of new faces on the court for Tiger fans, as MU brought on eight new face to mix with the five player who chose to return through a coaching change.

"Listen, this year we're gonna rely on everybody," Harper said. "If you're on our roster, you're going to contribute, so someway, somehow everybody, but I do think that we do have players from the transfer portal that are going to have to come in and give us quite a bit of production, whether that's points, defense, rebounds, handling the basketball...We're gonna rely on everybody."

With her new-look group assembled, Harper is focused on enjoying enjoying the journey with her new team. Just one year ago, she was on the broadcast side of the sport, working for SEC Network as an analyst. Now, she is happy to be back where she belongs.

"I'm just really happy," she said. "I've enjoyed every bit of this. I've enjoyed the process. I've enjoyed the complexity of the recruiting, trying to put a team together. I've enjoyed working with the staff to figure out who's going to do what and how we allow each voice to be heard. You know, I love figuring out the ins and outs within the athletic department, how you go about this process, how is this process done. I love working to make our program more efficient. I've just really enjoyed myself."

When asked about what the team's goals would be for her first year at the helm, Harper said that's hard to pinpoint before a season begins. They will have goals for the 2025-26 campaign, but it may be a game-to-game process, especially with lots of factors that you can't control like injuries, etc.

One thing Harper is counting on is leaning on the presence of junior guard Grace Slaughter, who is back for her third season in the black and gold. The Grain Valley, Missouri native is one of the best returning players in the Southeastern Conference. Coach Harper said her decision to return to Columbia, amidst the offseason coaching change, was incredibly important to the future of the program.

"I think that's what we need," Harper said. "I think the five players that stayed made a big statement. They want to do it and they want to do it here and they believe that we can do this here. Listen, that's gonna be, you know, five years from now, I want to talk about those five kids. I want to talk about those kids that made a commitment to stay here and look what we have done now."

Slaughter said, after being able to talk to her new coach in March, a lot about her vision for the program resonated with her.

"She's been to all the places that I think is every women's basketball player's goal. She's not only coached in the Sweet 16, but she's won national championships," Slaughter said. "She's played for coach Pat Summit. SHe's done incredible things. She's had multiple first-round draft recruits. So, understanding her history, I think, has been a big plus. Also just understanding that I just get to play for a coach that has the same vision for Missouri has been super special."

You can watch the full press conference with Slaughter, as well as fellow returners Abbey Schreacke and Averi Kroenke in the video players below.

As the Tigers get ready for the season to begin, there are still a few key areas they are honing in on in practice.

Coach Harper wants her team to be able to play fast, but not just in the sense of getting up and down the court quickly.

"I want to think quicker. I want to not just run quicker, but think quicker. That'll be important," she said. "When we talk about playing fast, I think a lot of people have this misconception of getting the ball from one end to the other fast and we would like to do that. But, when we talk about playing fast, we want to actually do it in the half court. We want to be able to run our offensive sets quickly. We're still working on that. It's still a process. It's still a process for us, but I think our players understand where we're trying to go with it. But, if we're offensively sharing the basketball, it's going to be important. I think utilizing our ability to read screens both on and off the ball, inside, out, working behind the three point line, that's going to be really important for us to continue to find threes and make them and then putting the ball on the floor and get ourselves to the free throw line. So, you know, we want to make sure that our offense is, is all encompassing."

One of the biggest focuses of the offseason was building chemistry, especially with so many new faces. Harper told local media members that her group of girls took a lot of time building the relationships that will take them far in a season, this summer.

Harper said those relationships will be critical in this locker room getting each other through the good times and bad that will come with the re-building of Mizzou women's basketball.

As for the expectations on the program, headed into a new era, it's not something the players talk too much about.

"We don't too much talk about like what's going on in March or what will happen here or there. We really just really genuinely focus on improving day-to-day. Like, the first things that we talk about in the future is literally our exhibition game next Tuesday. But other than that, we really just go day-to-day and just try to improve little by little every day," guard Shannon Dowell said.

You can watch the full press conference with Dowell in the video player below.

Each and every player mimicked the same message, on Tuesday: the thing that stands out about this team is their competitiveness.

Coach Harper said she doesn't want anybody to be okay with losing. That's never been in her DNA and she wants her players to aspire to that same mindset.

"There's definitely high expectations. I mean, we're playing for Kellie and she has standards that she set herself. I mean, she's been a successful coach and, obviously, she's going to want to sustain that. She puts that on some players to play hard during practice and to do all the right things," forward Jordana Resima said.

You can watch the full press conference with Resima and guard Sydney Mains in the video players below.

Mizzou will tip off exhibition action against Maryville on Tuesday, Oct. 28 at 6:30 p.m. at Mizzou Arena.