National Accolades = Top 25 Ranking, Right? Not so fast.

Tuesday was a big day for Mizzou Women’s Hoops, as the Tigers continued to rack up well-deserved honors for their performance against previously undefeated, but still No. 1 team in the nation, South Carolina. They’ve received so much recognition, one would think the Tigers would certainly be ranked by now, especially after they took a then-No. 4 ranked Baylor team on the road down to the wire about a month ago. Well, friends, you’re mistaken. The Tigers remain on the outside looking in, for now at least.

The morning started out with a pair of Co-SEC Player of the Week awards for Hayley Frank and Lauren Hansen.

If you watched the game — I watched it twice; it was that good — Frankie and Hansen scored 21 points each in the Tigers’ OT win over No. 1 South Carolina. Frankie was an awesome 7-of-8 from the field and 3-for-4 from beyond the arc, while Hansen grabbed a career-high seven boards.

Aside from their team-high points, it was these two ladies’ contributions in the waning minutes of OT that ultimately got the W for Mizzou in the end. According to MUTigers.com:

After Frank’s layup with 40 seconds remaining cut the South Carolina lead to one, the Tigers had one possession to take the lead. Hansen received a screen from Frank and drove to the bucket for a lay-in with 0.1 seconds remaining on the clock to give Mizzou the historic victory.

In the afternoon, Coach Pingeton was honored as Coach of the Week by Women’s Hoop Dirt and ESPN writer, Mechelle Voepels (more on her below). The incredible person Coach P is, she doesn’t want all the credit, though, and bestowed this honor upon a lot of people.

Here’s what Women’s Hoop Dirt had to say about Coach P’s coaching masterclass:

Coach Pingeton and Missouri picked up a historic win this week, taking down the No. 1 team in the nation on a last second layup in overtime. The Tigers entered Thursday’s matchup against top-ranked South Carolina with just eight players available due to COVID protocols, but held a six point lead at the half. Though South Carolina was able to force overtime, junior guard Lauren Hansen knocked down a layup with 0.1 seconds remaining in the extra period to propel Mizzou to a stunning 70-69 victory. The win marked Missouri’s first ever against a No. 1 ranked opponent (0-8 previously). Now 12-2 (1-0 SEC) on the season, the Tigers will look to extend their winning streak to five when they host Auburn on Thursday night.

And finally, members of the National Basketball Writers Association honored Mizzou as its team of the week.

Here’s more from the USBWA on Mizzou’s selection as their Team of the Week (as well as how it’s decided upon):

Missing its top player and fielding a shortened roster, Missouri upset No. 1 South Carolina, beating the Gamecocks right before overtime expired, just the tenth time in the 46-year history of the AP women’s poll an unranked squad took down the top squad. As a result, Haley Frank and Lauren Hansen, with 21 points each and Hansen the game-winning layup with 0.1 seconds remaining, became Southeastern Conference co-players of the week, just the third time co-SEC weekly honorees came from the same squad, the others being LSU in 2000 and South Carolina in 2002. It was the Tigers’ first-ever win over a No. 1 team.

**The pool of candidates is drawn from the weekly conference citations as well as at-large additions involving an expanded governing panel focusing on women’s basketball, headed by vice-president Mel Greenberg.

One other pertinent piece of Mizzou Women’s Hoops info came out on Monday in the form of ESPN writer Mechelle Voepel’s Power Rankings. Did Mizzou make her rankings? OF COURSE NOT. She didn’t even put them in her Top 25. But Mizzou did find itself heavily mentioned in the piece, so it’s just an honor to be mentioned among all the teams she deemed worthy? [dramatic sigh]

On the site this week, Lauren will be addressing why Mizzou deserves to be ranked, by the way, but I can’t help but bring it up here as well. I’m infuriated, y’all.

That’s enough from me up top.

On to the links.

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Yesterday at Rock M

• A new Dive Cuts talked about the defense and its surprising struggles.
• Newer hoops analyst Matt W analyzed some film from the Kentucky game.
• Nate the Great started our annual tradition of position postmortems. First up? Quarterback.

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More Links:

Hoops

• Way to go, Mr Shot Blocker!

Men’s Hoops SID, Courtney Day, would like to remind us that this ranks 18th nationally among freshmen, and 11th among true freshman. But he’s done this in FIVE games.

• The Kansas City Star staff wrote, after the huge upset, 2 Missouri Tigers women’s basketball players share weekly SEC honors, while Lila Bromberg wrote about how their momentum towards March is building.
• The Missourian’s Nate Marcus also covered the SEC weekly honors for Hayley Frank and Lauren Hansen.

Other Mizzou Sports

• In a new Ten Hochman video, he asked if the College Football Playoff should be expanded to 12 teams.
• Mizzou Diving finished in the Top 5 at the Tennessee Diving Invitational, according to the Missourian’s Anthony Kristensen. Sarah Rousseau and Kayla Wilson finished 7th and 10th, respectively, in the women’s 3-meter finals.
• It’s Meet Week for Mizzou Gymnastics! On Friday at 7pm, the Tigers will take on SEMO, Ball State and Illinois State.

• The hallway is looking mighty fresh in the women’s golf facility.

• This is interesting. Don’t leave the SEC, folks. It’ll cost ya.

Former Mizzou Players in the Wild

• The G-League’s long awaited return is this evening, so let’s check in on when Dru and Tilly are scheduled to play, huh? Dru and the SkyForce take on the Wolves Thursday at 6:30, while Tilly and the Magic play on Friday at 6. These games can likely be found on ESPN+.
• Quin Snyder’s Utah Jazz took on the New Orleans Pelicans on Monday and won, 115-104. Jordan Clarkson played 24 minutes and scored 14 points on 5-10 shooting (3-6 from 3) with 2 rebounds, 1 foul, and 1 turnover. He was +5.
• MPJ seems to be progressing nicely after his recent back surgery. After another setback due to health and safety protocols, he’s returned to getting up shots pregame. The Denver Post’s Mike Singer talked with him before Monday’s game in Dallas.
• Chase Daniel FOR THE WIN.

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