New Missouri women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper doesn’t want to be patient rebuilding the Tigers.
“I wanna do that this year, right?” Harper said. ... "I'm not trying to look years down the road. I'm trying to figure out how we're gonna do it this year.”
UM System President Mun Choi has lofty ambitions.
“Doesn't a banner in here sound really good?,” Choi said. “That's not a wish, it's an expectation. And please know that we have very high expectations."
Mizzou athletic director Laird Veatch doesn’t expect Harper to want to rebuild slowly.
“She's clearly a competitor, right?” Veatch said. “And I'm sure she's going to have less patience than anyone to turn a program.”
On Monday morning in the practice facility inside Mizzou Arena, Missouri officially introduced Harper as the fifth head coach in program history. Her contract officially goes into effect Tuesday, ushering in a new era for women's basketball in Columbia.
Expectations, evidently, are high on all fronts.
But, the problem with wanting to reach the mountaintop and to get there via the quickest route? That takes a significant monetary commitment in the current college athletics landscape.
So, how will Mizzou stack up?
Harper, returning to the coaching ranks after a season out of that world, seems to be encouraged by where Mizzou’s commitment stands. Indeed, it doesn’t seem as if she would have taken a job that wasn’t prepared to financially commit to the modern necessities.
“I don’t know if it’s fortunately or unfortunately — it's a big part, because that's where we're at in athletics,” Harper said. “And so I had to feel and know that the support was going to be there for women's basketball, and support not just in being here, in showing up, but the support financially (that will) give us an opportunity to be competitive in not just our league, but region and then nationally.”
In the coming weeks, a revenue sharing bill is expected to pass through the courts and allow universities to allocate approximately $20.5 million in direct name, image and likeness payments to their athletes. How schools will divide the money up between sports will be on a case-by-case basis. Veatch has gone on record saying Mizzou will opt in at the full amount.
Veatch, in the past, has had no qualms saying that the university’s primary focus will be its main revenue generator: Football. Men’s basketball likely falls second on the totem pole. MU’s athletic director has not disclosed how Mizzou plans to spread the money, meaning it’s ultimately unknown what kind of money Harper will have to work with.
As for spending compared to other SEC teams …
“I would say we are highly competitive,” Veatch said. “We are not going to outspend everybody, but we're also not going to be at the lower end either, right? We are going to be competitive, ...
