Season glance: The women’s first five

Yesterday we took a look at the first five matchups for the men’s basketball team. Now let’s switch over to the women’s team.

Head coach Robin Pingeton’s 14th season in Columbia didn’t go well for Missouri. After starting 5-1, the Tigers went 6-18 the rest of the way and just 2-14 in conference. Missouri’s incredibly young lineup gained a lot of experience, but not a lot of wins as a group.

The best win of the season was probably at Illinois, I guess. The two conference wins were against Georgia and Vanderbilt back-to-back, then the Tigers lost their final 12 games.

Hayley Frank finished her college career with a 442-point season, averaging 16.4 per game to go with 6.3 rebounds per contest, but missed a few matchups.

Sophomore Ashton Judd took a step forward from her freshman year, scoring 31 points against Indiana State, reaching 20 another four times, recording five double-doubles and averaging 13.4 points and 6.4 rebounds per game.

Freshman Grace Slaughter surged onto the scene, averaging 11.5 points per game after scoring in double digits in seven of her first nine games. She added double-digit scoring performances in 14 conference games.

Freshman Abbey Schreacke proved a useful piece with 7.6 points and 2.6 rebounds per game, while freshman Hannah Linthacum took the spot of injured junior Angelique Ngalakulondi and had averages of 3.2 points and 2.4 rebounds per game.

Judd, Slaughter, Schreacke, Linthacum and Ngalakulondi all return this year along with junior Averi Kroenke back from missing all of last season because of an injury.

Now let’s look forward.

I’m skipping the exhibition game against Truman State on Oct. 29, gotta be a Division I matchup to get a preview.

The Tigers open the season with one of their better non-power-conference opponents in the Catamounts.

Vermont ended last season 25-12 with a 12-4 record in American East Conference play.

After losing in the American East championship to top-seeded Maine, the Catamounts went to the WNIT and won three games before losing to Saint Louis in the Fab Four.

Graduate forward Anna Olson returns after being second on the team with 11.6 points per game to go with her team-high 6.1 rebounds per contest.

Junior guard Keira Hanson returns after playing in 36 of the Catamounts’ 37 games, but starting only eight, while starting senior guard Bella Vito returns as well.

Vermont returns a lot from a team that was much better than the Tigers last year. Could be a rough one to open the season, but it will be interesting to see where all the young Tigers are at developmentally as they start their second and third seasons.

Like the men’s schedule, the women return home for the opener at Mizzou Arena with an easier matchup in Game 2.

Southern finished last year 15-15 with a 13-5 record in Southwestern Athletic Conference play.

The Jaguars played a stacked non-conference schedule last year and went 1-8 against power-conference teams. The win came against Oklahoma.

They have a similar gauntlet early in the season, opening at Oklahoma before playing at Missouri, Iowa State, Nebraska, Colorado and Colorado State for a six-game road trip to start the year. Southern returns home to host NC State, then will play at Texas, at DePaul and at Illinois for the full non-conference slate.

That’s an incredible way to prepare a non-power-conference team for their conference tournament and the postseason, but that plan didn’t work out last year as the Jaguars lost to Alcorn State in the opening round of the SWAC Tournament.

Last year’s top two scorers were graduates and did not return, but third-leading scorer Aleighyah Fontenot and her 8.5 points and 2.8 rebounds are back. Starting forward Sky Castro also returns for the Jaguars.

Should be a good chance for the Tiger lineup to work on getting their rhythm back together and moving forward.

The Spartans were a pretty astounding 27-6 last year and 13-1 in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference, but against power-conference opponents, the results were a bit worse.

Norfolk State was 0-4 against power-conference teams and averaged a 23.25-point margin of defeat in those matchups, including losing to Stanford 79-50 in the first round of the NCAA Tournament after winning the MEAC Tournament.

This year’s non-conference schedule has been beefed up a bit for the Jaguars, with matchups against Missouri, Alabama, Washington State, Wyoming, Green Bay, Saint Louis, North Carolina and Auburn.

The Spartans had four players who started a majority of the games they played in last year and return all four.

Graduate guard Diamond Johnson led the team with 20.2 points per game last season to go with 5.4 rebounds per contest, but she missed 10 games due to injury. She started all 23 games she played in.

Senior forward Kierra Wheeler added 17.6 points and 9.7 rebounds per game last year, starting all 32 games she played in.

The pair were the key pieces of an offense that averaged 66.97 points per game.

Graduate guard Niya Fields is also back after starting all 33 games and scoring 6.4 points per game, while junior guard Da’naijah Williams and her 6.7 points per game return after starting 24-of-30 games she appeared in.

The Spartans are certainly a more experienced group than the Tigers, but I would expect those power-conference matchups to look similar for Norfolk State, so the Tigers should handle business.

The Tigers finish a three-game homestand with a Green Wave team that went 12-20 last year and 3-15 in American Athletic Conference play.

The Green Wave played only two power-conference opponents last year, facing Virginia and Virginia Tech in the Cayman Islands Classic and dropping both in late November.

This year, Tulane will face a few SEC opponents. After playing Missouri, the Green Wave will also face LSU and Florida for all three of the team’s scheduled power-conference opponents.

Tulane had six players start at least 20 games last year and two are back.

Redshirt senior guard Kyren Whittington returns after leading the team with 17.4 points per game to go with 3.4 rebounds. Junior forward Amira Mabry is also back after scoring 11.4 points per game and bringing down 6.0 rebounds per contest for second on the team.

This should be an easy one for the Tigers, but who knows with this group.

So that’s where we’re at with this team? Going on the road to face Western Illinois? Sure, why not.

At least the Leathernecks is a fun name.

Western Illinois was 18-12 last season with a 9-9 record in Ohio Valley Conference play.

The only game the Leathernecks played against a power-conference team last year was a 74-52 loss to Wisconsin in early November.

Missouri is one of two power-conference opponents for the Leathernecks this year along with Cincinnati.

Western Illinois returns three starters from last season, including sophomore guard Reagan McCowan from Lebanon, Mo., who was the team’s leading scorer at 19.4 points per game to go with a team-high 8.1 rebounds per contest.

Junior guard Addie Brownfield, from Boonville, Mo., also returns after averaging 10.3 points, 5.4 rebounds and a team-high 3.5 assists per game, while junior guard Allie Meadows returns after averaging 6.2 points, 3.9 rebounds.

There’s no reason Missouri should lose to a team like this, but there’s also no real reason the Tigers should play this game on the road.

I’m not high on this Missouri team, I’m expecting a rough year in the final season of Pingeton’s contract. There’s a lot of talent among the young players and an extra year of experience will hopefully show some big development. But I can’t imagine this team is ready to be more than a high-end bottom-half SEC team.

Still, even that should get you through these first five games 4-1.

Head on over to the Tiger Walk to discuss this story and so much more.