COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Women’s Basketball head coach Robin Pingeton was named The Associated Press Southeastern Conference Coach of the Year and sophomore Sophie Cunningham was selected Associated Press First-Team All-SEC, as announced by the AP on Wednesday.

Pingeton was a unanimous selection for AP SEC Coach of the Year. She has also been voted SEC Coach of the Year by the league’s coaches and named a Naismith Coach of the Year National Semifinalist after leading Mizzou to a 21-10 record and an 11-5 mark in conference play.

Pingeton is Mizzou Women’s Basketball’s first head coach to receive Coach of the Year honors since 1990 and the second coach to do so in program history, joining Joann Rutherford (1984, 1985 and 1990). Pingeton has earned conference Coach of the Year recognition three times in her career after being named Missouri Valley Conference Coach of the Year in 2004 and 2010 at Illinois State.

Despite losing All-SEC forward Jordan Frericks and key reserve Bri Porter in the frontcourt to preseason injuries, Pingeton has guided Mizzou to a historic campaign in 2016-17, leading the Tigers to back-to-back 21-win seasons for the first time since 1983-84 and 1984-85. Picked to place seventh in the SEC in the preseason poll, Mizzou finished third in the league with an 11-5 mark in conference play. Mizzou’s 11 conference wins are its most since 1990.

Under Pingeton, Mizzou now has five consecutive winning seasons for the first time since 1985-1990. The Tigers, who owned an 11-7 record four games into league action, won 10 of their final 13 games to clinch a double bye in the SEC Tournament and catapult into the Associated Press Top 25. During the home stretch, Mizzou put together a pair of five-game win streaks, MU’s longest streaks in conference play since 1990. It marked the first time in program history that Mizzou rattled off two separate win streaks of five or more in league play.

Pingeton and company won 15 home games during the 2016-17 season, knocking off three ranked opponents, No. 25 Kentucky, No. 25 Texas A&M and No. 6 South Carolina, along the way. Dating back to last season, the Tigers have won five consecutive games over ranked opponents at Mizzou Arena.

Cunningham joined Makayla Epps (Kentucky), A’ja Wilson (South Carolina), Victoria Vivians (Mississippi State) and Ronni Williams (Florida) on the AP’s All-SEC First Team. Cunningham is the first Tiger to receive a First Team All-Conference nod since Bri Kulas in 2014 and the 13th Tiger to do so in program history. Cunningham averages a team-best 17.7 points per game, which ranks second in the SEC. The sensational sophomore ended the regular season with four consecutive 20-point performances, averaging 26.5 points per game in the span while racking up a pair of National Player of the Week awards. During that stretch, she became the first Tiger since Sandie Prophete in 1989 to score 26 points in three straight games.

Cunningham has 10 20-point performances this season and has 20 such outings in just 61 career games. She scored at least 30 points on three different occasions during the current campaign, one of just two players in the SEC to do so in league play.

Cunningham ranks second in the SEC in free throw shooting, making 84.6 percent of her attempts. She also boasts a 48.3 field goal percentage and is the only player in the league shooting above 80 percent from the free throw line and 45 percent from the field.

— Mizzou Athletics —

COLUMBIA, Mo. – Mizzou Baseball has its longest winning streak since 2008 after defeating Eastern Illinois, 10-1, on Tuesday afternoon at Taylor Stadium. Mizzou has now won 11 consecutive games and is off to its best start to a season since 1985 at 11-1. Junior RHP Bryce Montes De Oca (Lawrence, Kan.) had a good outing in his first career start, going 5.0 innings while allowing just one earned run on a wild pitch with three strikeouts. He allowed just three hits and two walks.

Mizzou’s offense slugged 15 hits and has now broken the 10-hit mark in nine of 12 games this season. Mizzou scored three runs in the first, three more in the third and one more in the fourth as the offense scored early to give Montes De Oca an early lead, who earned his first career win. RHP Ryan Lee (Grandview, Mo.) was tremendous in relief, striking out a career-high seven over 3.0 innings while allowing just one hit and no walks.

Junior C Brett Bond (St. Louis, Mo.) led the offense with Mizzou’s first five-hit game since April 23, 2011, when Jonah Schmidt had five at Baylor. Mizzou scored six of its 10 runs with two outs on Tuesday.

Junior Robbie Glendinning (Scarborough, Australia) opened up scoring for Mizzou, jacking a solo shot to right center field in the bottom the of the first. Bond and Kameron Misner (Poplar Bluff, Mo.) continued the offensive production for Mizzou with a single and a double, respectively, but it was Trey Harris (Powder Springs, Ga.) who plated both runs with a deep single to right center field.

Mizzou extended its lead in the third as Chris Cornelius (St. Louis, Mo.) knocked one to the opposite side pushing two across the dish. Senior Kirby McGuire (Round Rock, Texas) followed with an RBI single into left. After EIU tacked on a run in the top of the fourth inning on a wild pitch, Mizzou answered with a run on an RBI groundout by Samples. That made the score 7-1 after four innings.

Bond’s fifth hit went for an RBI single in the eighth inning and that was part of a three-run eighth as Harris laced a two-run double. Evan Stoll (Chesterfield, Mo.) pitched a shutout ninth to seal the win.

Mizzou welcomes Western Carolina to Taylor Stadium Wednesday at 4 p.m.

— Mizzou Athletics —

Kim Anderson was never quite embraced by most Missouri fans, even after starring for the Tigers in the 1970s and serving two stints as an assistant to beloved coach Norm Stewart.

His won-loss record may have had a lot to do with that.

Unable to get his alma mater on track, Anderson was relieved of his job Sunday after less than three seasons in charge. Athletic director Jim Sterk said in a statement that he asked Anderson to step down after the SEC Tournament, where the No. 14 seed Tigers play Auburn on Wednesday night.

“This decision has been very difficult for me personally because of the tremendous respect I have for Kim,” Sterk said. “I know how hard he and his staff have worked to turn the program around over the last three years. However, the lack of on-court success has resulted in a significant drop in interest surrounding our program, and we could not afford for that to continue another year.”

Anderson took over a program in disarray after leading Central Missouri to the Division II national championship, but he went just 26-67 with the Tigers. That included a 7-23 mark this season.

Their loss to Auburn in their regular-season finale Saturday was the program-record 35th straight road defeat. It left the Tigers 2-16 in the SEC, tying a program and conference record for losses.

“Missouri is a special institution to my family and I, and I am grateful for having had the opportunity to serve as the head coach at my alma mater,” Anderson said. “While we have faced significant challenges over the last three years and been unable to achieve the on-court results everyone would have liked, I do believe we have been able to stabilize the program.”

Anderson took over in 2014 when Frank Haith abruptly left for Tulsa, the program already having fallen off from the heights it achieved under Mike Anderson. He called returning to Columbia his “dream job,” but the task of rebuilding the once-proud program turned into a nightmare.

Kim Anderson won just nine games his first season. He won 10 the next. And his inability to lure top talent from the St. Louis and Kansas City areas made things just as bleak in Year 3.

After opening the season with an overtime loss to Xavier, Missouri later was stunned at home by North Carolina Central and Lipscomb. More losses followed in quick succession.

Things have been even worse off the court.

Just before Haith left, the school received a verbal notice of inquiry from the NCAA — Anderson said he wasn’t aware of the investigation when he was hired. And last August, the NCAA accepted the school’s self-imposed sanctions over infractions involving its men’s basketball program, but tacked on an additional year of probation through this August.

The NCAA infractions committee panel’s findings over what it said were roughly $11,400 in improper inducements and benefits given to players and a recruit by two boosters came nearly seven months after Missouri admitted NCAA violations dating to 2011.

Hoping to blunt NCAA punishment, the school announced in January 2016 that it was vacating its 23 wins from 2013-14, banning itself from the 2016 postseason and stripping itself of one scholarship last season and a second scholarship no later than 2017-18.

The school, while agreeing to pay a $5,000 fine, also permanently banned one unidentified donor who the NCAA said provided impermissible benefits to three players and one recruit in 2013-14. The benefits included compensation for work not done at a business through a summer intern program, along with housing, $520 cash, local transportation, iPads, meals and use of a local gym.

The NCAA concluded that a second booster also provided impermissible benefits to 11 basketball players and three members of a player’s family. Missouri has said those benefits included reduced rates at a hotel along with meals and a boat ride, and that a student manager provided transportation.

More off-the-court troubles could be looming.

In November, a former tutor resigned and publicly said she can document at least a dozen instances of serious academic fraud involving men’s and women’s athletes during a 16-month period.

Yolanda Kumar said she felt pressured to keep athletes academically eligible — particularly football and men’s basketball players — and at least two academic coordinators for athletes in revenue-generating sports encouraged, promoted and supported her activities.

The school has said it is investigating the allegations.

— Associated Press —