The Missouri women’s basketball team has seen plenty of success within the confines of Mizzou Arena under coach Robin Pingeton. The Tigers are 42-7 at home since the start of the 2015-16 season.
Once SEC play begins, however, Mizzou will face a daunting road schedule that includes teams such as Tennessee, South Carolina and Mississippi State. With that in mind, Sunday’s contest at West Virginia figures to be one of Missouri’s most important nonconference games.
The Mountaineers should represent the Tigers’ toughest road opponent before the start of conference play. The two teams are tied just outside the top 25 in the AP poll with 59 votes each, and both see themselves as contenders for an NCAA Tournament spot.
Throw in the conference pride associated with the SEC/Big 12 Challenge, and this game takes on yet another level of importance.
“I think [fundamental work is] going to be huge for our team going into the game against West Virginia,” redshirt senior Lauren Aldridge said. “We’re going to have to be able to do all the little things right to beat an extremely athletic, extremely talented team.”
The Tigers will have had an entire week to prepare for the Mountaineers after returning from the Gulf Coast Showcase in Florida last weekend. Missouri claimed fifth place in the tournament after redshirt junior Hannah Schuchts lifted the Tigers over Duke with 25 points in the fifth place game.
“It was one exciting game, but it’s time to move on the next one,” Schuchts said. “We don’t really have any time to relax or think about the wins, so we’re definitely just focused on preparing for that [West Virginia] game.”
Schuchts echoed Aldridge’s emphasis on practicing fundamentals before Sunday’s matchup.
“We’ve done a lot of fundamental stuff [in practice], and we know that they’re really an athletic team,” Schuchts said. “We’ve got to do a lot of pass fakes, playing off two feet. They jump the passing lanes a lot, so [we have to] make sure we’re poised and playing under control.”
West Virginia is off to a 4-1 start to its season, with a close loss to No. 14 Iowa standing out from four dominant wins over mid-major teams. It boasts four players who are averaging double figures in scoring, including Naomi Davenport, an all-Big 12 second teamer from last season.
“[She’s a] really talented young lady,” Pingeton said of Davenport. “She’s got size, she’s got athleticism, she’s really good at going to the rim, she can pop from the three, she can shoot it deep… she’s going to be a handful.”
Rebounding has been a point of emphasis for Missouri all season given the roster’s lack of height, and Pingeton still sees some room to grow in the category.
“I thought we did a decent job [of rebounding in Florida], but a lot of room for improvement,” Pingeton said. “[Thursday] in practice we really got after it, and we spent a lot of time on rebounding because we understand that that’s going to be an important part of our defensive gameplan… We’re not a great rebounding team yet, but I think we understand the toughness, the discipline that we have to have.”
The Tigers and Mountaineers are scheduled to tip off at 4 p.m. CST on Sunday. The SEC/Big 12 challenge consists of 10 matchups between the two conferences, most of which are also set for Sunday.
_Edited by Bennett Durando | bdurando@themaneater.com_