MU women's basketball welcomes Pingeton as new coach
Robin Pingeton, formerly of Illinois State, will lead the Tigers.
Published April 9, 2010
Missouri announced the hiring of former Illinois State coach Robin Pingeton as the new coach of the women's basketball team Thursday morning. Pingeton will be the fourth coach in the history of the program.
Pingeton's resume includes 15 years of coaching experience at St. Ambrose and Illinois State. In seven years at Illinois State, Pingeton brought the program back into the spotlight with multiple Missouri Valley Conference titles and two NCAA Tournament berths.
Pingeton's experience was not the only thing that landed her the job. Athletics Director Mike Alden introduced Pingeton and explained the administration's method behind finding a new coach.
"We wanted to make sure to recruit someone who could lock down the borders of the state of Missouri," Alden said. "Then, we wanted someone that had the ability to recruit on the national landscape."
In addition to recruiting ability, Alden added academic integrity and a history of winning to the list of criteria.
Winning games is nothing new for Pingeton. In her last three seasons at the helm of Illinois State, she posted an 81-23 record. A 28-win total last year was tied for highest in school history and gave the Redbirds their third straight Missouri Valley Conference regular season title.
Alden gave his list of search criteria, and Pingeton added her own core of values when introducing herself.
"I'm a Christian that happens to be a coach," Pingeton said. "My values are very important to me. I think you have to do things the right way and treat people the right way."
Pingeton stressed the high potential of the program and her excitement about coaching at a larger, more competitive university.
"We think this place is a goldmine," Pingeton said. "A place where you could make exciting things happen over time. It's been our dream to come to an institution where you could truly compete for a national championship."
Although she said Missouri has a lot of promise, Pingeton recognized her starting point and knows there is much work to be done.
"It's going to be a journey," Pingeton said. "We've got some work to do. And we look forward to making changes in a hurry. I'm not a very patient person. I like to move along pretty quickly."
The new hire spoke of recruiting as early as this weekend to get the ball rolling. As for the players already on the roster, Pingeton held a locker room meeting with the team and later addressed the players in attendance at the ceremony.
"Last night's meeting was special," Pingeton said. "I felt like it might be a little guarded, but I feel like we just dropped our guard from the start and embraced each other. We're looking forward to working with you guys."
Pingeton and the coaching staff plan to get to work just as fast as they found out about the job opportunity, which was less than a week ago. Despite the whirlwind that the last few days have been, Pingeton said she was excited to get underway.