By Adam Vachon, Her Hoop Stats
 
On April 13, just two weeks into her tenure as Missouri State head coach, Beth Cunningham was faced with a roster of just six returning players. Gone were two-time MVC Defensive Player of the Year and 2021 Jackie Stiles MVC Player of the Year Brice Calip, the 2021 MVC Defensive Player of the Year Jasmine Franklin, and several other key pieces from last year’s veteran-laden team that went 25-8, won a First Four game in the NCAA tournament, and took Ohio State to the brink in the first round. Some may characterize this as a rebuilding year for the Lady Bears, but expectations are high anytime the words ‘Missouri State’ are on the front of your jersey. Cunningham wouldn’t have it any other way.    
 
“I embrace the challenge,” Cunningham said. “I want to be somewhere that expects to be good. It’s something that's important to me.”
 
Cunningham is no stranger to high expectations, having served as associate head coach at Notre Dame under Muffet McGraw from 2012-2020 and most recently as an assistant at Duke under Kara Lawson. And while the Lady Bears lost plenty of talent from last season’s squad, Cunningham is quick to point out that she and her coaching staff are not starting from scratch, a credit to the program’s winning culture fostered by support from Missouri State’s administration and the Springfield, Mo., community.  
 
“The thing that I really valued in looking at this job was that they've consistently been good for long stretches at a time,” Cunningham said. “And so it's really that winning culture. And that goes beyond just the coaching staff and the players. It's the winning culture of how this program is supported from the president to our athletic director on down and in the community… This program had things in place that [at] a lot of places you have to go [and] you have to build those things. And I looked at it as being able to come in somewhere where a lot of those things have been established and are in place. It's just trying to continue to grow it and get better and build on top of that right now.”
 
One player familiar with Missouri State’s winning culture is Sydney Wilson, a versatile 5-foot-11 guard entering her fifth season with the program. Whether in a reserve or starting capacity, Wilson has played an important role in Missouri State’s three NCAA tournament appearances since 2019. She does a little bit of everything to help her team win, basically the Lady Bears’ Swiss Army Knife. That includes occasionally playing center last season when the team’s frontcourt was depleted due to injuries. Wilson also stuffed the stat sheet during the 2021-22 campaign; she was one of just five players in the Valley to average at least 10 points, five rebounds, and one steal (minimum 15 games played). Two of those six players – Calip and Southern Illinois’ Abby Brockmeyer – are past winners of conference Player of the Year.   
A key pickup for Cunningham in the offseason was point guard Aniya Thomas, a graduate transfer from Kansas. A lightning-fast playmaker with a knack for getting to the rim, Thomas averaged 8.5 points per contest and started in over half of the games last season for a Jayhawks squad that advanced to the second round of the NCAA tournament. In addition to pushing tempo, Thomas should also shore up a Lady Bears perimeter defense that lost Calip. 
 
“She wants to play fast,” Cunningham said. “Super athletic. Phenomenal on-ball defender. I think [she] can really get downhill… and can make the reads and the passes and things like that.”
 
Seven of the roster’s 12 players are underclassmen, and only one player from last year’s team (Wilson) averaged more than 15 minutes per game. Given this lack of experience, Cunningham will lean on Thomas and Wilson to provide the veteran leadership necessary to replicate the program’s past success.   
 
“They've played a lot of games at a high level,” Cunningham said. “They know what it takes to get to the NCAA tournament. They've been there. They've done it. Syd's won a lot of championships and been in the postseason a lot. So I think those experiences are invaluable, and they've got to just do the best they can to just have phenomenal leadership for us every day.”
 
Providing additional depth in the Lady Bears backcourt will be junior Paige Rocca and sophomore Taylor Woodhouse. Rocca, whom Cunningham described as “one of the best passers on the team,” could also provide a sorely-needed 3-point threat for Missouri State, a team that ranked 311th in 3-point percentage in the 2021-22 season. The same goes for Woodhouse, who knocked down 39% of her shots from long range in her senior year of high school.  
 
“[Woodhouse] probably shoots the ball about as well as anybody on our team as far as someone who's been able to hit open shots for us,” Cunningham said. “That's something that is really going to be valuable to us.”
 
Ifunanya Nwachukwu, a 6-foot-2 senior forward, is the top returner in the Lady Bears’ frontcourt. The Lagos, Nigeria, native averaged 14.8 minutes per game last season, the bulk of those minutes following season-ending injuries to Abby Hipp and Jasmine Franklin during non-conference play. Nwachukwu rose to the challenge of filling in for Hipp and Franklin. Her development throughout the season was something to behold, culminating in a 17-rebound effort in the Lady Bears’ first-round game against Ohio State in the NCAA tournament.
 
“I'm so proud of just the person she's become and the player, too,” Wilson said. “Early on in the season, she didn't really get a lot of minutes because we still had Jas [Franklin], Abby [Hipp], and Abi [Jackson]…But, once we lost [Franklin and Hipp to injuries], it's like, ‘Hey you guys, you got to step in that position to help us out.’ And she started flourishing; each game she got better and better.”
 
In addition to Thomas, Cunningham signed three other transfers – Kennedy Taylor, Capria Brown, and Indya Green. Taylor, who saw limited minutes for a loaded Colorado squad that advanced to the Pac-12 championship and the NCAA tournament, is a 6-foot-3 sophomore whom Prepgirlshoops.com ranked as the second-best high school player from Kansas in the class of 2021. Brown, a junior from Dayton, is a combo guard whom HoopGurlz tabbed as the No. 59 recruit in 2020. Green is a JUCO All-American with a turnaround jumper that Brown describes as unguardable.  
 
Sophomore Isabelle Delarue will look to compete for an expanded role after seeing limited action on last year’s experienced squad. Despite not seeing much time on the court, Delarue made the most of her opportunities, earnin MVC Newcomer of the Week honors after back-to-back double-digit scoring efforts against Loyola Chicago and Valparaiso.
Missouri State rounds out its roster with a trio of promising freshmen – Jaiden Bryant, Khloe Moad, and Jade Masogayo. Wilson described Bryant, who helped lead Incarnate Word Academy in St. Louis to three state championships, as a “strong, physical guard who can get to the rim very quickly.” Moad, a 6-foot-2 forward from Ash Grove, Mo., can stretch defenses with her ability to knock down the three. Masogayo, an athletic 6-foot-3 forward from Fort Worth, Texas, who earned District 4-6A Defensive Player of the Year honors, should bolster the Lady Bears’ interior defense.
 
“Jade Masogayo…I think her style of play and her strengths really fit our system and our style and how we want to play on both ends of the floor,” Cunningham said. 
 
One big question is whether Missouri State can maintain its historically stingy defense without several of its defensive stalwarts from last season, including Franklin and Calip, winners of the last three MVC Defensive Player of the Year honors. The Lady Bears have led the Valley in defensive rating (points allowed per 100 possessions) in three of the past four seasons, including last year when they ranked ninth in the nation. Cunningham believes she has the players to do so. 
 
“I think we've got the personnel that can be successful in the system and the style that we're putting into play on the defensive end,” Cunningham said. “And, I think we can be a really good defensive team. And I think to go along with that, I think we could be a really good rebounding team. I think those two things are really, really important for us.”
 
Is this the dawn of a new era of mid-major success at Missouri State? The components are there – a coach with experience at the game’s highest levels, veterans with big-game experience, and a mix of talented returners and newcomers eager to make their mark. Fans will get their first look at what the next chapter of Missouri State basketball will bring when the Lady Bears host intrastate rival Missouri in the season opener on November 7.