Missouri’s 68-52 loss to Iowa in the second round of the NCAA Tournament was the end of an era. Seniors Sophie Cunningham and Cierra Porter left Carver-Hawkeye Arena as one of the winningest recruiting classes in Tigers history. Cunningham and Porter went to four NCAA Tournaments and were the first players in program history to win three tournament games. They, along with redshirt-senior Lauren Aldridge, leave behind a large legacy.

Missouri finished this season at 24-11 and 10-6 in conference play. We now look back at what Robin Pingeton’s team did well this season, areas where it can improve, and storylines to watch during the offseason as the team prepares for life after Cunningham.

• Road Victories over Top-25 Teams. Missouri went 3-2 against Top 25 teams in SEC play this year. Two of those victories were on the road. The Tigers made history on Jan. 6 by defeating No. 10 Tennessee 66-64 in Thompson-Boling Arena for the first time in school history. It was the biggest victory of the Cunningham era for a little over a month. Then, the Tigers took down No. 5 Mississippi State 75-67 on Feb. 14. Cunningham had 24 points and six rebounds in her “flu game” in Starkville. The victory confirmed that Missouri was a program that could compete with the nation’s best.

• SEC Tournament Performance. Missouri lost to Florida and Kentucky in the SEC regular season. The Gators ended Missouri’s 3-0 start to conference play in thrilling fashion on Jan 13. Then Kentucky dominated the second half to defeat the Tigers by nine on Jan. 24. Missouri avenged both losses in the SEC Tournament. The victory over Kentucky was the fourth SEC Top-25 victory of the season ,and it put the Tigers in their first SEC Tournament semifinals in program history. Mississippi State proved to be too much in the semifinal, but Cunningham dropped 33 points in the 71-56 loss.

• Three-Point Shooting. Missouri led the SEC in three-point percentage this season. The Tigers shot 36 percent from deep and made 8.3 threes per game. A lot of that was Cunningham, she made 30 percent of the team’s threes and shot 40 percent from deep. The best returning three-point shooters, junior Amber Smith and redshirt-junior Hannah Schuchts will have to take more threes to keep up this level of success. They combined to make 66 threes this season —19 fewer than Cunningham made on her own.

• Turnovers. Missouri’s 26 turnovers against Kentucky in the SEC Tournament illustrated the season-long problem. Traveling violations and bad passing nearly cost them a game in which they outplayed the Wildcats. It was like that all year. The Tigers averaged 16.2 turnovers a game and had a .9 assist/turnover ratio. Plus, the turnovers led to easy points for the opposition. The Wildcats scored 22 points off turnovers in the 70-68 loss to Missouri. Iowa had 15 points off Missouri’s 14 turnovers in the Tigers' final game.

• Go-to Scoring. Cunningham was there whenever Missouri needed a bucket. However, when she was in foul trouble the Tiger offense slowed and players struggled to win one-on-one matchups. Smith will have to grow offensively without Cunningham next season. She was the team's second-leading scorer and averaged 12.4 points a game this season. Smith is effective when posting up smaller guards down low or driving against forwards from the high-post. However, she will need more of a perimeter game next season to better create off the dribble.

• Levy’s Injury. The biggest surprise of the season was the play of freshman Akira Levy. She was a burst of energy for the Tigers on and off the court. She pushed the ball in transition and was aggressive defensively. Most importantly, she showed an ability to break down defenders off the dribble and attack the basket. Levy averaged 4.8 points and two assists in 15.8 minutes per game this season before tearing her ACL and meniscus in her right knee on Feb. 24. The injury ended her season, and her athleticism was greatly missed in the postseason.

Next year will be extremely different for Missouri. The departures of Cunningham, Porter, and Aldridge will have a massive short-term impact on the program. But the hope is that the Tigers continue the momentum from their four consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances.

“This senior class has been so incredibly special to the University of Missouri, on the court, off the court,” Pingeton said after the loss to Iowa. “They've paved a heck of a road for the kids to follow after their graduation, and they've done it the right way.”

Cunningham is the leading scorer in program history and the most important player in Pingeton’s tenure at Missouri. Porter was the Tigers' only consistent post player and her absence will force Schuchts and sophomore Emmanuelle Tahane into much bigger offensive roles. Levy proved to be a great change of pace to Aldridge, but her knee injury put an ending to productive freshman season. Her recovery is one of the biggest questions for the Tigers next season.

However, there is plenty of reasons to optimistic for next season. The Cunningham and Porter era has ended but the Aijah Blackwell and Haley Frank era is about to begin. Blackwell was ranked No. 8 in espnW’s 2019 HoopGurlz Rankings and Frank finished 29th. Blackwell is the highest-rated recruit in Missouri history and Frank is coming off back-to-back Gatorade Missouri Girls Basketball Player of the Year titles. Those two will be joined by Micah Linthacum, a 6-3 forward from Jefferson City. It’s a recruiting class that rivals the 2015 class that had Cunningham and Porter. 2019 will be Pingeton’s first ever recruiting class with multiple top 30 players and has the potential to continue the Tiger’s upward trajectory.