When Robin Pingeton’s Missouri Tigers return home to face No. 13 Kentucky Thursday night, they’ll face their sixth ranked opponent in eight SEC games. The Tigers, now 5-15 on the year following a 72-53 loss to Texas A&M over the weekend, haven’t beaten any of the previous five.
On Wednesday, Pingeton admitted that her young team might not have been ready for the tough schedule Missouri has endured in 2019-20. Pingeton then acknowledged another harsh reality, one she and the Tigers swear they won’t let define the rest of their season.
“The schedule doesn’t get any easier from here,” the 10th-year head coach said.
Winners of just one of their last five games, the Tigers will continue on through the SEC buzzsaw in the coming weeks. Over Missouri’s final nine games of the regular season, it will face a pair of ranked opponents in Kentucky followed by No. 25 Arkansas on Feb. 2. Seven of the teams Missouri will face between now and March 1 carry records above .500.
A young team such as this one would be forgiven for wilting under the rigors of the Tigers’ schedule, but Pingeton remained adamant Wednesday that won’t happen. Pointing to a responsibility to the university, the community and fanbase, as well as a growing assuredness from her young players as conference play has gone on, Pingeton maintained the importance of keeping her team focused even the faces of such struggles.
“We need to stay true to the process and not grow weary,” Pingeton said. “It’s tough times, no doubt about it. It’s been really, really hard. But that’s why I can sit here and tell you that these guys are winning in life. They haven’t backed down. The energy we had in practice yesterday, you’d never have any idea what our record was.”
Key in the Tigers maintaining shape over the final month of the season will be veterans like guard Amber Smith, who Wednesday spoke about building late-season momentum and a run in the SEC Tournament. If the season were to end today, Missouri would be the No. 12 seed and play on day one of the conference tournament. But despite the Tigers’ conference struggles, they still find themselves on pace with a pack of SEC foes that could finish anywhere from No. 8 to No. 13. A No. 10 seed or better would keep Missouri out of those early tournament play-in games, and according to Smith, that now stands as the Tigers’ new target.
“We just have to keep in mind that we have a great opportunity in the SEC,” Smith said. “We have to know that if we get hot before the SEC Tournament that puts us in a better spot. Nobody wants that play-in game."
Tigers preparing for UK’s Howard to be a handful
When Missouri last faced Wildcats guard Rhyne Howard, the sophomore from Tennessee dropped 25 points. The Tigers though, with the help of 30 points from Cunningham, came out on top and bounced Kentucky from the SEC Tournament last march.
Howard, who earned National Freshman of the Year honors a year ago, will arrive at Mizzou Arena Thursday averaging 23.2 points and 6.5 rebounds a game on the season while leading a Kentucky squad that appears poised to compete at the top of the SEC. No longer just the upstart freshman she was just a year ago, the Tigers know just what kind of talent they’ll be facing.
“Rhyne Howard is as good as advertised,” Pingeton said. “She’s absolutely gotta be one of the best in the country. I thought she was really good last year as a freshman and now she’s elevated her game to another level.”
Torched already by the likes of Arkansas’ Chelsea Dungee and Mississippi State’s Jordan Danberry, the Tigers have shown themselves to be vulnerable against talented guards since SEC play began. In Howard, Missouri will likely face its greatest challenge yet. Shooting 44% from the field and 39% from beyond the 3-point line, Howard has exhibited an ability to score from anywhere and if given the chance, she’ll make herself a problem for all five Tigers on the floor.
Pingeton, per usual, refused to divulge much of her game plan for attempting to contain Howard, but from her comments and from those of Missouri’s players, it’s clear the plan is to limit Kentucky’s sophomore guard and to force the rest of the Wildcats to step up in her place.
“She’s a heck of a player,” Smith said. “We know how to expose her weaknesses. We want to make her pick up the ball and get it out of her hands and put the pressure on the rest of the team a bit more.”
Offensive efficiency a must
With freshmen like AIjha Blackwell and Hayley Frank receiving hefty minutes and the Tigers without a reliable veteran scoring option, Missouri’s offense has grown both stagnant and inefficient at times this season.
On Wednesday, Pingeton lamented the wasted possessions that have cost the Tigers all season and cost them once again against Texas A&M, shifting the blame on her team’s offense after three games in which it scored fewer than 57 points in each contest.
“We had 15 possessions where we took early contested threes off one pass or we forced the action or we didn’t make that one extra pass,” Pingeton said. “We had eight really good clean looks from behind the three-point line. Six layups we missed. That’s a lot of possessions that we’ve got to do a better job executing with.”
In short, the Tigers need to clean it up on offense.
