Kellie Harper knew it wasn’t going to be easy but maybe the SEC could’ve given her a little bit of grace. The former-Tennessee-turned-Missouri head coach opened this new year with four straight Top 25 matchups. It started with a home game against No. 2 Texas (an 89-71 loss) followed by road trips to No. 11 Kentucky (a 74-52 loss) and No. 7 Vanderbilt (a third loss, 99-68), and wraps up with a home matchup against No. 21 Alabama.
Welcome back, I guess?
But in spite of the uphill climb towards a first SEC win, which would be just Missouri’s sixth conference win in three years, this is exactly what Harper signed up for.
“I understand how difficult this. I get it. I’m not new to that,” she told Knox News’ Cora Hall in October. “…I do think having that experience and understanding exactly what we’re up against is really important for our team.”
In a way, it’s a return to her roots. It was Harper’s tenure just down the road at Missouri State that opened the door for her to take the Tennessee job in 2019. As head coach of the Lady Bears, Harper went 118-79 and 78-30 in conference, making the NCAA Sweet Sixteen just before heading to Knoxville.
Most women’s basketball fans know what happened next…
The lofty (and sometimes legitimate) expectations of the Lady Vols program were too much for the former UT alum. In spite of two Sweet Sixteen runs, Tennessee still looked overmatched when stacked against top SEC programs like South Carolina. A Kamilla Cardoso buzzer-beating-banked-three-pointer in the SEC Tournament semifinals all but broke the spirit of the program. Harper was let go shortly after and took a year off, working with the SEC Network as a studio analyst.
And while the itch to return to coaching (“the tightness in my neck”, that she referred to in her introductory press conference at Missouri), she did think about remaining on TV and spending more time with her family and away from the game. But Missouri promised a return to the region where she had some of her best coaching successes and a place that allowed her the chance to truly build in the long term.
So, if a Tigers fan sees a fourth straight loss on Monday night, they shouldn’t be too discouraged. Mizzou is the only team in the country that has had to have a slate like this so far this year.
“I think our team can see a difference in [the last] three games,” Harper said after the loss to Vanderbilt this past weekend. “It’s an extremely difficult stretch but it’s the SEC. Everybody is gonna have a stretch like this.”
While Alabama isn’t quite Vanderbilt or Texas, the Crimson Tide have proven themselves to be capable in conference play. Their 64-51 upset win over No. 6 Kentucky was an eyebrow raiser, even if the Wildcats were playing without their 6’5 senior Teonni Key.
Sarah Ashlee Barker and Aaliyah Nye rode off into the WNBA but head coach Kristy Curry reoriented Bama’s production around Essence Cody and Jessica Timmons.
In short, it’s going to be another challenge for a rebuilding-from-the-ground-up Missouri team that is led by a talented junior in Grace Slaughter (18.3 PPG, 7.4 RPG) but thin in the frontcourt and off the bench. The key, Harper told reporters after the loss to Vanderbilt, is to maintain a good attitude during a run like this.
“You’ve gotta be able to hurt a little bit tonight and you gotta be able to bounce back tomorrow,” she said, matter-of-factly.
A win for the Tigers against Alabama could be special on a number of fronts. It would mean Missouri’s first SEC victory under Kellie Harper, the program’s first win over a top 25 win since 2022, and announce the programs return as a meaningful contributor to the conference.
But, for Harper, a win would also honor the legacy of her former head coach, Pat Summitt. Monday night’s matchup is a ‘We Back Pat’ game, an initiative that helps bring awareness to the fight against Alzheimers via the Pat Summitt Foundation.
“I know we’re doing it for her foundation and whatnot but each year we’re a year further removed from her,” Harper explained. “There’s a lot of history there that maybe some of these younger players don’t know. And for somebody that that was such a big deal, any time we can bring her name up and talk about her and what she stood for and who she was, I think it’s important in our game for people to know that.”
No time like the present to take a rebuilding program with a herculean task of finishing a four game Top 25 gauntlet and try to pull an upset in your own arena. If you were to ask Harper, it’s how her Pat probably would’ve drawn it up.