Cunningham named All-American by Associated Press

For years Missouri fans have been treated to a special brand of Midwest basketball excellence in Sophie Cunningham. NCAA Tournament let-downs aside, Cunningham’s career is pretty solidly the best the program has ever seen. Now, as she heads toward the greener (as in, more lucrative!) pastures of the WNBA, she’s getting one last award to take with her.

Mizzou Women’s Basketball senior guard Sophie Cunningham (Columbia, Mo.) was named to the Associated Press All-America Third Team, announced Monday. Cunningham is the program’s first AP All-American.

Cunningham has been scratching at this award for two years now — she was named an AP All-America Honorable Mention the past two years — and has been an All-SEC first-teamer for three straight years.

What’s even more impressive is how she finished the year after a tough start. Cunningham failed to score in double digits in four of the year’s first eight games, but was integral during the Tigers stretch run, reaching double digits in 16 of the team’s last 17 games — the lone exception being the season-ending loss to Iowa.

As a senior, Cunningham was the only player in the country to average 17.0 points, make 80 3-pointers, 150 free throws and record 200 rebounds. In conference play, she led the SEC in 3-point shooting (46.5 percent) and 3s per game (2.9). She reached 20 points in 16 games this season, including 10 times against SEC opponents, and 30 points four times.

The award likely won’t do too much to Cunningham’s draft stock... she’s likely a lock for the first-round in the WNBA Draft, and several recent mock drafts have her going in the Top 15.

Cunningham will have one more chance to show out (on national TV, no less) before next week’s draft.

Yesterday at Rock M

• Missouri Hoops Player Review: Xavier Pinson

More Links:

• Sean Williams at PowerMizzou broke down Mizzou football’s Top 10 offensive targets for the 2020 class (for premium subscribers only.) Gabe also offered his Monday morning thoughts as he does every week.
• In his weekly, “Matter on Mizzou,” column, Dave Matter zeroes in on all the teams that could use Drew Lock’s services in the coming NFL Draft.
• At ESPN, Todd McShay compared this year’s QB class to all the first-rounders that have come since 2016. Lock grades out as equal to (or better than) several QBs who have already earned starting NFL jobs.
• Even more Drew Lock content! Lock is set to visit two different NFL teams this week, including Washington.
• Mizzou softball dropped their rubber match against Tennessee, moving to 17-14 on the year.

• Mizzou volleyball junior Tyanna Omazic was named to the 2019 U.S. Women’s Collegiate National Team on Monday. Another star coming out of Wayne Kreklow’s program!