My favorite Mizzou memory of Sophie Cunningham isn’t any of the huge wins in front of huge crowds or any of the unflappably clutch shots (though the one with 0.6 seconds left to beat South Carolina was particularly bonkers). It was after a particular home game, in which the Columbia native and star hooper sat to sign autographs. The line was impossibly long. And as kids approached her, you could see some of their eyes enlarge, as if they couldn’t actually believe who they were meeting.
Cunningham is a basketball legend at Mizzou (she averaged 17 points per game in her four-year career) and this week she enters her sixth WNBA season (all with the Phoenix Mercury).