Missouri women’s basketball has found its new head coach.
Kellie Harper, the former coach at Tennessee and Missouri State, was announced as the Tigers’ fifth head coach in program history Tuesday. She succeeds Robin Pingeton, who spent 15 seasons with the program and stepped away from the program at the end of the 2024-25 campaign.
Harper, 47, was most recently the coach at Tennessee but was fired at the end of the 2023-24 season after four straight NCAA Tournament appearances. She made two Sweet 16s with the Lady Vols and two Round of 32 berths. Harper had a 108-52 overall record during her time in Knoxville.
Before her move to UT, she was the head coach at Missouri State for six seasons, taking the Bears to five postseason appearances. She took Missouri State to the NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 in the 2018-19 season when it also won the Missouri Valley Conference title.
Harper, a native of Sparta, Tennessee, and former three-time national championship-winning UT point guard, also previously was the coach at NC State (2009-13) and Western Carolina (2004-09). In 20 seasons as a college head coach, she has an overall record of 393-260.
“I am incredibly honored to be the next head coach at Mizzou,” Harper said in a news release. “Missouri is a special place, and I know firsthand the passion and pride that surrounds this program.
Our family is excited to return to the state of Missouri. I look forward to working with our leadership and our student-athletes, building strong relationships throughout the community and winning championships in Columbia. The foundation is in place for success — and I can’t wait to get started.”
“We are absolutely thrilled to welcome Kellie Harper and her family to Mizzou,” Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch said in a news release.
“Kellie is a proven winner and dynamic leader who understands the ‘Will to Win’ necessary to succeed at the sport’s highest level. She is nationally respected, and her experience in the SEC, her deep ties to the state of Missouri, and her ability to recruit and develop championship-level players make her the ideal leader for our program. We are incredibly excited about the future of Mizzou Women’s Basketball under her leadership.”
Harper is just the fifth head coach in Mizzou program history, following Pingeton, Cindy Stein (1998-2010), Joann Rutherford (1975-98), and Alexis Jarrett (1974-75).
Mizzou has not been to the NCAA Tournament since the 2018-19 season when program star Sophie Cunningham was last on campus. Before that, the Tigers had made four straight March Madness berths.
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The Tigers have made three WNIT appearances since then, but have not had a winning conference record since 2019.
The transfer portal for women’s basketball opens Monday. Since Pingeton has left the program, a 30-day window has opened for current Missouri players to enter the portal. As of the time of publishing Tuesday, no Tigers players reportedly have announced their intent to leave the program.
Only 11 days passed between Veatch addressing the media regarding Missouri’s women’s basketball coaching search and a hire being made.
Harper was unattached this season. She now makes her return to the SEC with Missouri, where she’ll be tasked with a sizable rebuild of a struggling program.
This article originally appeared on Columbia Daily Tribune: Missouri women’s basketball to hire Kellie Harper as new head coach
