Pingeton brings women's basketball to new heights
Sophie Cunningham trotted up the steps on the south side of Mizzou Arena as her family and friends cheered. Fresh off 32 points which led then-No. 13 Missouri to a 77-73 win over then-No. 11 Tennessee, Cunningham was on her way to talk to her family.
At the same time, a group of middle-school aged girls walked out of the arena.
“We love you, Sophie!” they yelled in unison.
Cunningham waved eagerly. An hour after the game had ended, about 100 people stood courtside waiting for the star player to sign autographs and take pictures. It was only a fraction of the record-setting 11,092 people who came to Feb. 18 matchup, but it was way more than the usual crowd that hung around after games.
After Cunningham talked with her family, she walked back to the court. She took a seat at the scorer’s table, where she would stay for the next 30 minutes to get through the line of admirers that snaked around the court.
She didn’t mind. Not one bit. She likes being the one those eyes look up to wherever she walks.
“It takes a lot of hard work and you have to watch everything you do, too, because there are a bunch of little kids looking at you,” Cunningham said. “I wouldn’t want it any other way.
“I’m just very blessed to be on this platform.”
She’s always had a platform in Columbia. Cunningham was part of four straight state championships at Rock Bridge High School during a career that culminated in a spot on the McDonald’s All-American team. But it has grown since she came to Missouri three years ago. The junior all-American has 1,510 career points — eighth and rising on the school’s all-time list — and has etched her way into Missouri women’s basketball history with more than a full season left to play.
It’s not just Cunningham, though, who has brought Missouri to new heights the past couple of years. She and the rest of her teammates have given the women’s basketball program credibility in not only the way they play on the court but the way they conduct themselves off of it.
Coach Robin Pingeton is the one who stresses the importance of the mark her players leave on the community.
“Sometimes you have that one first-time interaction — what kind of impact do you want to have?” Pingeton said. “So just always be mindful of that, be mindful of the fact that they’ve been blessed with some great talent and a big stage to really be light that shines for other people. Honestly, I think that means as much to them as playing the game and what the scoreboard looks like.”
Pingeton got emotional before the game against Tennessee when she walked out of the tunnel and saw 11,000 fans all cheering for her and her squad. It was an experience that showed the growth the program has made in the last eight years since Pingeton was hired.
During her first season in 2010, Missouri finished 13-18 overall and 5-11 in the Big 12. That was the best record the team had since 2006-07.
When the Tigers began SEC play in 2012, Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick knew Pingeton’s program was going to be okay. Then Missouri recruited players like Lindsay and Sophie Cunningham and other in-state players.
For Warlick, that’s important. Pingeton found players who were going to battle for her.
“Fans want to watch that,” Warlick said on Feb. 18. “They want to watch it — they want to watch kids battling, playing hard. That’s entertaining. I think the women’s game is just really fun to watch because we’re athletic now, we’re physical, we can penetrate, we can shoot threes. The only thing we don’t do right now is dunk the basketball, and we’ve done that, but not on a consistent basis.”
Missouri does all of those things, and the Tigers pride themselves on being aggressive and getting to the ball first.
That mindset is going to be a key for Missouri at the SEC Tournament this week. The Tigers (23-6, 11-5 SEC) clinched the No. 6 seed and will play the winner of Florida-Mississippi on Thursday night in the final game of the day. The 82-63 loss to No. 17 Texas A&M on Sunday put Missouri on the same side of the bracket as Georgia and South Carolina — two teams that the Tigers have played well against, despite a loss to the Bulldogs and a split with the Gamecocks.
Missouri is in excellent shape to host the first two rounds of the NCAA Tournament, regardless of what happens in Nashville this week.
There’s a buzzword that floats around when the Tigers are asked about their style of play: Blue-collar.
For each player, it means something slightly different, but each of them know the origin of the mentality.
Coach P.
“Blue collar — we work for everything we get,” Cierra Porter said. “Those are the type of kids that Coach P. recruits. The girls that aren’t afraid of hard work and are going to go out there on the court and do what needs to be done for their role as best they can. Not necessarily be the superstar, but do what they need to do to win us the game.”
Pingeton wants players who have a motor that she doesn’t have to start every day — like Jordan Chavis, a sophomore who is stayed late after every pre-season practice and is shooting 39% from three-point range this season. Like Amber Smith, who went into the weight room over the offseason and came out with a new career-high 27 points against LSU in early January.
Pingeton’s mindset may be new to Mizzou women's basketball...but it's been with her for a long time.
It comes from her playing days at St. Ambrose University, as well as her coaching days there, too… and chauffeuring days, and equipment managing days, and all the different roles she had while head coach of a team that didn’t have the resources Missouri does now.
“I think it’s given me a great appreciation for hard work and blue-collar mentality,” Pingeton said. “I think that’s what it’s all about, being in the trenches with people and not being someone that stands alone and telling someone what to do.
“It just takes a village, and that’s always been my mindset.”
The blue-collar mentality means hard work and effort, but it also means competitiveness and aggressiveness. Pingeton could recruit the most hard-working player in the world, but if she doesn’t have the competitive edge, the coach will push for it.
“I’ve always had it in me, but it wasn’t pulled out of me until Coach P. demanded it,” Porter said. “I think you would see bits and pieces of it, but it has to be a consistent thing here. That’s her expectation for everybody.”
Aggressive or assertive might have a negative connotation for females, even female athletes who are expected to win ball games but also act like ladies while they’re at it. Diving to the ground in effort to win the jump ball doesn’t go along with the stereotype of females.
The Tigers couldn’t care less about stereotypes.
“We have to show little girls that, ‘Hey, you can be big and strong too, and it’s not manly, it’s cool,’” Porter said. “It’s just awesome.”
Cunningham added that the effort she gives on the floor is just plain fun. She enjoys having an “alpha-dog mentality.”
Sometimes it might cause people to call her dirty. That only fuels her.
“It’s okay for girls to play aggressive,” Cunningham said. “That’s our style of play, and we’re not going to change. We’re going to get to those 50-50 balls first. We’re not going to let anyone outwork us.”
Cunningham, Porter and the Tigers are showing those who watch them that effort goes a long way in winning games. But they’re also showing that the effort they give off the court counts, too.
Just ask the 11,092 fans who showed up to watch a them play last weekend. Or all of the little girls--and boys--who studied Cunningham’s every step down the bleachers to the scorer’s table and on her way to make their day.