Last week, Missouri women’s basketball lost its starting center Jayla Kelly to the transfer portal. This leaves the team with multiple holes to fill as the portal remains red-hot. The news came just days after Robin Pingeton was re-hired for one more season at Missouri.

Kelly is a junior from Chesterfield, Missouri, and has developed her skills with every season she spent playing for the Tigers. The 6-foot-3 center appeared in 26 games for Missouri last season, averaging 3.2 points and 2.7 rebounds per game.

Kelly was ranked as the No. 72 prospect on ESPNW coming out of high school and was the No. 2 prospect in the state of Missouri. She ended up choosing Missouri over many top programs including Purdue, Northwestern, Saint Louis, and TCU.

Despite her lack of stats, Kelly was important to Missouri’s program. Her importance came with her size, and now, the Tigers are likely to face difficulty finding someone to replace the rising center. Kelly had plenty of potential throughout her entire time at Missouri but failed to have an outburst in production.

Kelly posted on Twitter thanking Missouri, the coaches, and the fans. Then she stated “I will be entering the transfer portal with 2 years of eligibility remaining. Thank you MIZ family.”

Kelly’s official announcement came just over a week after former Missouri women’s basketball guard, Lauren Hansen, entered the portal. Hansen was a significant loss for the program, averaging 12.9 points per game in a career season for Missouri.

Incoming freshman guard Hannah Linthacum could potentially fill the role of Kelly. Linthacum graduated from Jefferson City High School, where she is fresh off of a state quarterfinal appearance. With the recent departures, it is possible to see her in the rotation at the beginning of the year.

Pingeton will need to start taking a look at the transfer portal as the new era of college basketball continues to shine. Missouri has shown in the past that it is not afraid to take chances in the transfer portal, and there should be no different expectation this offseason.

Another forward who could make an attempt at filling Kelly’s role would be Tirzah Moore, from Oral Roberts University. Moore is currently ranked among the top talent in the transfer portal, and in her sophomore campaign last season, she averaged 12.9 points and 10.1 rebounds in her 27 games. Also named All-Summit league first team, the 6-footer would be a huge help on the glass.

Regardless of what the case may be, Pingeton is now in a time crunch to replace the missing pieces so the Tigers can get back in winning position. It has been laid out very clearly by MU’s Athletic Director Desiree Reed-Francois that if the Missouri Tigers don’t make the NCAA tournament next season, it will be time to move on from Pingeton.

Edited by Matt Guzman | mguzman@themaneater.com
Copy edited by Grace Knight