Michael VoepelMar 18, 2025, 04:38 PM ET
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- Michael Voepel is a senior creator who covers the WNBA, girls’s school basketball and different school sports activities. Voepel started masking girls’s basketball in 1984, and has been with ESPN since 1996.
Former Tennessee participant and trainer Kellie Harper has been employed as the brand new trainer for Missouri girls’s basketball, the varsity introduced Tuesday.
Harper shall be returning to the Display-Me State the place she spent 2013-19 at Missouri State. She took the Bears to the Candy 16 in 2019 and used to be then employed to interchange Holly Warlick at Tennessee.
Harper went 108-52 in 5 years with the Woman Vols, making the NCAA Candy 16 two times. She used to be fired after ultimate season when Tennessee went 20-13 general and 10-6 within the SEC and misplaced within the NCAA event 2d spherical to eventual Ultimate 4 crew NC State.
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“Missouri is a different position, and I do know firsthand the eagerness and satisfaction that surrounds this program,” Harper stated in a observation. “Our circle of relatives is happy to go back to the state of Missouri. I sit up for operating with our management and our student-athletes, construction robust relationships right through the group and profitable championships in Columbia. The root is in position for luck — and I will’t wait to get began.”
Harper’s ties to the SEC, in addition to her training enjoy within the state, made her an “excellent” candidate, consistent with Missouri athletic director Laird Veatch.
“Kellie is a confirmed winner and dynamic chief who understands the ‘Will to Win’ vital to be successful on the game’s easiest point,” Veatch stated within the college’s observation. “She is nationally revered, and her enjoy within the SEC, her deep ties to the state of Missouri and her skill to recruit and increase championship-level gamers make her the perfect chief for our program.”
Harper, 47, additionally used to be head trainer at Western Carolina from 2004 to 2009 and at NC State from 2009 to 2013. For her 20-season Department I training profession, Harper is 393-260 for a .602 profitable share and has 9 NCAA event appearances. She spent this previous season as an analyst for the SEC Community.
Harper replaces Robin Pingeton, who resigned after 15 seasons at Missouri. The Tigers went 14-18 general and 3-13 this season. All the way through her Mizzou profession, Pingeton used to be 250-218. Pingeton took the Tigers to the NCAA event 4 instances from 2016 to 2019 with main Missouri profession scorer Sophie Cunningham. Cunningham is a WNBA veteran who joins the Indiana Fever this season.
Harper, a Tennessee local, performed level guard for trainer Pat Summitt from 1995 to 1999, profitable 3 nationwide championships with the Woman Vols.
