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COLUMBIA, Mo. — For the first time in 15 years and second time this century, Missouri is hiring a women’s basketball coach.

No Mizzou athletics director since Mike Alden in the school’s pre-Southeastern Conference days has hired a new helm of the women’s team, which now puts current AD Laird Veatch in a position to make his first coaching hire of note since his arrival at MU about 10 months ago.

Veatch will be hiring a replacement for Robin Pingeton, whose long tenure as Missouri’s women’s hoops coach will come to an end upon the conclusion of this season, as has been expected for roughly a year. Pingeton and the athletics department jointly confirmed her decision to step down a handful of weeks before her contract was due to expire in April.

So now, Veatch will be on the hunt for a new coach who can return the Tigers to some degree of relevance in the SEC, which boasts some traditional women’s basketball powerhouses.

The job is an interesting one for that reason. Competition is stiff in the league, but without a hometown star like Sophie Cunningham in the mix, Missouri hasn’t really been among the serious women’s basketball programs from an investment standpoint.

Does that change now? There’s a new opportunity for Veatch and the MU donor base to invest in a new coach and revenue-sharing rules, making a competitive roster very possible to fund with the right amount of interest. But there are also other parts of the athletics department that will continue to need more cash, namely the football program that is Mizzou’s chief source of revenue.

The level of incoming investment into women’s basketball can dictate the caliber of coach Missouri eventually hires.

None of this — from the timing to the investment landscape — comes as a surprise to MU administration. Veatch has known from his arrival in Columbia that he would likely have to make a coaching change at this point in time, and the lack of an extension offered to Pingeton indicated he was prepared to do that.

Veatch has had time to come up with a shortlist himself, if that’s his style. Securing the services of a coach might have to wait until the NCAA Tournament is over, if Mizzou is after a coach whose program makes it that far.

In the meantime, here are three candidates who could fit the bill of what Missouri is looking for in its next women’s basketball coach:

Kellie Harper, former Tennessee coach

The last time Veatch hired a women’s basketball coach, back when he was the athletics director at Memphis, he turned to a former Tennessee player. Could he do the same this time?

Kellie Harper didn’t just play as a Lady Vol but coached at Tennessee for five seasons. The Lady Vols fired her in 2024 despite four straight NCAA Tournament appearances, seeking more postseason results.

Harper didn’t take a coaching job for this season, making her something of a free agent. She and her husband, Jon, have both coached at Missouri State, so there’s some familiarity with the state.

The key to hiring Harper would probably be investment — after a stint with one of the sport’s more famed programs in Tennessee, what kind of ambition does her next stop need to have?

Molly Miller, Grand Canyon

It didn’t take long after Pingeton’s announcement for some Mizzou fans to start pushing on social media for the school to hire Molly Miller away from Grand Canyon.

She has amassed an impressive 110-37 record with the Lopes after moving up from coaching her D-II alma mater Drury in Springfield, Missouri — her hometown.

Some of the Tigers’ best players in recent years have come from southwest Missouri, where Miller would certainly be a familiar figure. Making the jump from the Western Athletic Conference to the SEC would be a big one, but Miller has made the D-II to D-I leap already and found immediate success.

Charmin Smith, Cal

Poaching a sitting power conference head coach wouldn’t be easy, but Cal’s Charmin Smith could be a compelling candidate.

She hails from St. Louis, having played basketball at Ladue, and boasts both WNBA playing and coaching experience. She has been in Berkeley almost interrupted since 2007 but has been Cal’s head coach since 2019.

And in that role, she has steadily built up the program’s results. One league win turned into two, then four, then seven, and the Golden Bears are now 22-7 overall and 10-6 in their debut Atlantic Coast Conference campaign. That shows program-building ability, if that’s what MU is after.

Cal, like Grand Canyon, will likely be in the NCAA Tournament.