In a matter of four days, Missouri dropped a pair of home games this week, falling first on Sunday to Nebraska in overtime before a 78-73 defeat at the hands of Northern Iowa Wednesday. The consecutive early season losses came as the Tigers’ first back-to-back nonconference defeats since 2012, and with them Missouri is now off to its worst start under Robin Pingeton since her first season in 2010.
But, as the Tigers stumbled toward their first road trip of the season this weekend at Green Bay, some good news did arrive. On Wednesday, just hours before Missouri tipped against Northern Iowa, the program announced the official signings of a pair of 2020 commits in St. Louis’s Jayla Kelly and Austrailian guard Sara-Rose Smith.
The Tigers’ newest recruits – who verbally committed on Sept. 22 and Oct. 13, respectively – are the only two players currently signed to join the program following this season when Missouri will lose five players, including Amber Smith, Jordan Roundtree and Hannah Schuchts, to graduation.
In turn, Kelly and Smith will quickly become part of a young core for Missouri, tasked with filling those shoes alongside current newcomers Aijha Blackwell and Hayley Frank.
“We’re really excited about both of them,” Pingeton said. “They’re great young ladies. I think they’re great culture kids for us. They’re going to fit us really well."
In Kelly, the Tigers will have something they don’t right now: a physical presence who can control the paint. When the 6-foot-3 center from Parkway Central arrives in Columbia, Missouri will immediately have a better rebounder and interior defender than it has on its 2019-20 roster, and someone who can alleviate the woes the Tigers are currently experiencing inside and on the glass.
The No. 79 recruit for her class and the No. 2 prospect in the state of Missouri according to ESPW, Kelly chose the Tigers over offers from SLU, TCU, Purdue and Northwestern, among others. In a release from the program, the four-star signee said it was the culture around Missouri and its women’s basketball program that gave her “a sense of home” with the Tigers. With Kelly, Pingeton has now inked three of the four top in-state prospects over the past two recruiting cycles.
To go with the defensive reinforcement Kelly will deliver the Tigers, she’ll also bring with her a refined offensive game. Headed into her senior season, the big from Chesterfield already has a proficient post game and has shown an ability to finish with a soft touch around the basket. Kelly has the speed and mobility to factor into the transition game, as well. During her junior season at Parkway Central, she averaged 12.4 points and 11.8 rebounds per game while leading the Colt to a 24-7 record.
Things should only get better for Kelly in her senior season before she makes the trip West to Columbia.
“We’ve been watching Jayla for a while,” Pingeton said. She has great size and moves well for her size.”
Smith, who hails from Surrey Hills, Australia, is less of a defined prospect than Kelly but will arrive to the Tigers with loads of potential. She joins forward Shannon Dufficy, a transfer from Utah State who is sitting out the 2019-20 season, as the second Austrailian Pingeton has nabbed within the last year.
From the start, the 6-foot-1 guard can be a versatile rotation piece for the Tigers. As an athletic wing with size who can shoot from beyond the arc and defend multiple positions, Smith will command minutes early on, no matter how far along the rest of her game is. But while Smith may come to Missouri a raw product, she also possesses a size and skillset similar to other wing players Pingeton has molded into stars for her program, and Smith could very well become the next.
“Sarah is pretty athletic,” Pingeton said. “She can shoot the 3-ball. She has a great motor. And She’s relentless and just doesn’t stop.”
Smith also joins the Tigers with significant experience under her belt. The 18-year old has already competed in two leagues at the semi-professional level in Australia and has also represented her country in the FIBA Under-19 World Cup and the 2018 Youth Olympics, where she earned a bronze medal.
With Kelly and Smith set to play next to Blackwell, Frank and anyone else Pingeton brings in through the transfer portal, Missouri now has a young, talented core it can lean on in 2020-21 and beyond. Blackwell and Frank have already shown flashes of just how dominant they can be in their short time with the Tigers, and they should be even more sure-footed come next November. If this current season proves to be nothing more than a transition year – and that is certainly a jump to make this early – Missouri should be locked and loaded next when the season tips off next fall.
On top of the talent Kelly and Smith will bring the program, Pingeton was also keen on how her newest signings fit the culture of her program.
Of course, that’s what every coach in America is searching for. But losing Sophie Cunningham at the end of last season and veterans like Smith, Roundtree and Schuchts at the end of this one, leaves Missouri without a true identity or a proven stable of leaders. That, in addition to contributions on the floor, is what Pingeton will be looking for from Blackwell and Frank next year, and maybe Kelly and Smith, too.
She’s certainly glad to have them.
“Talent wise, they’re certainly great additions,” she said. “But I think just as important we like who they are and what they stand for. They’re going to be great additions for us.”
