COLUMBIA - The future of Missouri women's basketball is in its guards.
The Tigers wrapped up a 24-8 season last weekend with an 80-70 loss to Florida Gulf Coast in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, ending one of the best regular seasons in program history.
The Tigers struggled offensively and had no answer for FGCU's quick attack.
Missouri graduates Jordan Frericks, Kayla Michael and Bri Porter (who did not play this season due to medical reasons), all forwards. The 2018-19 team will have senior Cierra Porter, redshirt junior Hannah Schuchts and sophomore Emmanuelle Tahane in the frontcourt.
Senior Sophie Cunningham and junior Amber Smith both have the height and skill-set to back down shorter players, but the other players on Missouri's roster play on the perimeter, face-up to the basket.
Additionally, head coach Robin Pingeton will have redshirt freshman guard Haley Troup available from transfer restriction and 6-foot true freshman wing Grace Berg to work with. She expects both to contribute right away.
"Haley Troup is going to make an immediate impact for us, I think she's a kid with deep range on her shot, she's deceiving, she can create off the bounce, a tremendous passer," Pingeton said. "And deceiving on the defensive end, she just understands angles and does a good job of taking away other people's strengths. We saw it this year when she was on our scout team.
"And then Grace Berg is going to come in and make an immediate impact for us. She's a top-40 recruit, a really athletic kid that's got a great perimeter game, really crafty around the rim. We've got a number of players that I think are going to have opportunities, and it's on them to see what they do in the offseason."
Pingeton also said Berg will not be the team's last signing of the 2018 class. The NCAA D-I scholarship limit for women is 15, and the Tigers will have 13 scholarships on the books, including Berg, at the start of the summer if there are no other departures. She also hopes to fill her vacant assistant coaching position in June.
Guard play gave Missouri trouble against Texas A&M and Florida Gulf Coast. The Tigers were able to stay in front of the Eagles' pace and space attack for most of the first quarter of Saturday's loss, but FGCU's speed, especially off the dribble, wore on Missouri as the game progressed and its defense was unable to get stops to close the gap down in the fourth quarter.
It was a bad matchup for the Tigers. Cunningham said Wednesday it was a game the team felt it should have won, but Missouri's bigs couldn't avoid early foul trouble. The Eagles used space to create driving lanes and one-on-ones with Frericks and Porter, and kept attacking when that interior height was on the bench to finish the game with a 36-28 advantage in paint points with no player taller than 5-foot-11.
It's a style of play - four out with nobody primarily occupying the paint - the team could employ in the coming season.
"We're really looking forward to the offseason, tweaking some things offensively to fit our personnel," Pingeton said. "We'll be a little more guard-oriented with our roster, but that can be a really fun style. I think it's hard to guard, and it will allow more freedom of movement for our wing players and ability to get to the paint, take advantage of some mismatches defensively. I think with the personnel we have returning we will be more of an up-tempo team."
Missouri played at one of the slowest paces in college basketball the past two seasons, according to herhoopstats.com. Its average of 66.8 possessions was 307th out of 349 teams, and its 66.5 possessions in 2016-17 was 313th out of 349 teams. Pingeton has experience running the kind of offense FGCU used at Illinois State, and is uncommon but still present across the college hoops landscape.
It may make an appearance in Columbia next season.