The identity of Kellie Harper’s new team continues to grow
On Monday, March 31, Kellie Harper took to the stand as a part of her introductory press conference, introducing herself to both the media and the community as a whole. Four weeks and four (publicly known) new players later, Harper met with the media once again with the help of Grace Slaughter. Here’s what the duo had to say.
A roster is like a river
Like the Mighty Mississippi, the Mizzou WBB roster is in constant change. With eight players heading to the portal, one graduating, one retiring and one decommitting, the Tigers only have five players coming back from last year.
As a result Harper has been hitting the portal HARD, with four commits already announced and another confirmed on the way. With the way Harper was talking, however, it sounds like more are on the way.
“We feel good about where we’re at now, and I don’t know how many you guys think I have. Can’t remember what number that is,” Harper said. “We’re still looking, we’re still trying to bring in the few more pieces that make sense for us.” (editor’s note: we thought afterwards that we shouldn’t have TOLD her there were 10; we should have made her tell us how many there were!)
What we are seeing here is a classic confluence. According to Wikipedia, a confluence (also: conflux) occurs where two or more watercourses join to form a single channel.
Mizzou will have to find a way to create a confluence within the roster between the returning players and all the new players from the transfer portal. With multiple roster spots still open, Harper floated (haha, get it?) the idea of looking towards uncommitted HS seniors, citing that they are the future in which she will build this program on.
“We definitely want to move that way, where we are bringing in high school players. I think that’s going to be important for our culture,” Harper said. “For me, I think just the stability and the consistency of high school players coming in and doing what Grace is doing, I think that’s going to be really important moving forward.”
But for now, Mizzou fans should be looking towards the portal and dealing with an older, more experienced roster.
“Recruiting is fluid, so things are constantly changing. I’m not going to say there’s a definite [yes or no] right now, but we’re definitely focused heavily right now in the transfer portal.”
The full roster of Mizzou WBB players for the upcoming season can be found here:
Face of the Franchise
Of those five returners, the one with the highest impact will be upcoming junior Grace Slaughter. She already had a major role in her time as an underclassman, starting in a total of her 60/62 games played. Slaughter averaged 13.3 points and 3.5 rebounds on shooting splits of 47.9/42/84.6.
“I’ve kind of been a fan from afar. I’ve followed her career, enjoyed watching her play,” Harper said of her star. “I think she means a lot to this program, to this community, to this University, and obviously to our team and to our team moving forward, that’s a big deal. She’s super talented. We talk about her all the time. She has pro habits. This kid is in the gym every day, and our staff loves that.”
(Cal Tobias/Rock M)
Slaughter entered her freshman year immediately as the No. 3 option on the roster, learning under both Hayley Frank and Ashton Judd. Frank served as a mentor to Slaughter, continuing to play basketball as a pro player in Germany for the SaarLouis Lions.
She served as a co-leader with Ashton Judd this past year, first attending SEC Media Days before taking on a major role on the court, in the locker room and when speaking to the media. Now that Judd has left to spend her final year at Texas, many (myself included) would likely consider Slaughter as the face of Mizzou Women’s Hoops. But as a current-day sophomore, that’s a lot of pressure to put on one player.
“It’s something that you gotta embrace,” she said. “And I was super thankful just for my teammates, you know, the past couple years, I got to be a freshman with Hayley Frank and really just look up to her as a freshman and see how she kind of handled that role. So being able just to have good upperclassmen to look up to, and then I think there’s still room to grow in that role, to be more vocal. But at the same time, it’s a team sport, and there’s so many other individuals that help make it happen.”
While Slaughter still has two years remaining at Mizzou, she has already expressed interest in going pro. While the W is widely considered the most competitive professional organization, she has the modern skillset to succeed in the league. Harper has coached plenty of players who went onto have successful careers in the WNBA, including the recent selection of Rickea Jackson at Tennessee.
“[I] would love to get to play afterwards, and just understanding that coach Harper’s had that experience with other really talented players getting to go to the next level, understanding that that’s a type of development I would get to have here was also something super special.”
If this team hopes to turn around in the SEC, Slaughter is going to have to be the ringleader.
Going to work
Right now, things are slow-going within the program. All of the work is mostly individual through spring workouts, as many of the new transfers have yet to arrive on campus. These past several weeks have served as a learning opportunity, as Harper is working to juggle the returning players, the new staff and recruiting.
“[The biggest focus] was definitely the personnel. It was the people, and to be quite honest, is still the priorities for this team and for the program right now,” Harper said. “We wanted to meet with our players as quickly as possible. Meet with them individually as quickly as possible…making a lot of phone calls with trying to bring in the right staff. And then you jump right into recruiting. And you’re doing high school recruiting, but you’re also doing portal recruiting, so it was a lot of multitasking.”
Kellie Harper holds a press conference as she is introduced as MU’s new head women’s basketball coach on Monday, March 31, 2025, at Mizzou Arena. (CAL TOBIAS/ROCK M)
But as we look ahead to the summer, it allows the new transfers to get on campus and finally start to see what this team can look like beyond just a spreadsheet. In addition, a big emphasis with this much roster turnover is team bonding, making sure that this group becomes more than just teammates on the court. (Editor’s note: Look no further than ultimate culture team, Mizzou Gym, for some ideas, y’all.)
“Some of us returners were kind of talking just about how we really think that we can bring this team together this year,” Slaughter said. “I mean, summer is the time to build those relationships…I think as a leader, I’ll definitely focus on trying to be more vocal this season and making sure my teammates can hear me in different ways. Once again, I think we’re all just super excited to get everyone in here and get to work.”
“I think she’s right. We’re going to really work hard on building that cohesiveness,” Harper said. “You do that a lot in the summer. A lot of your on-the-court chemistry comes from your off-court relationships with your teammates. I think we have some ideas on how we can do some things that are going to help foster that tough relationship, but we have to be on the same page.”
She continued, “We have to be one. What we’re going to try to do is extremely challenging. In our league, they’re up for it, and the players are coming in. That’s why they’re coming here for this great challenge. So I’m just super excited about it. I’m excited to get started. It’s not going to be easy. We’re going to have a lot of adversity, and when you have that adversity, you’re going to rely on each other. And so that bond has to be great. There is no reason that the bond on this team can’t be as good as any bond you’ve ever had on the team. When you start with great people and you have a common vision, then, man, you can achieve so much.”
Well said, Coach.