COLUMBIA, MO. • Missouri women's basketball coach Robin Pingeton was rewarded Tuesday for her team's unexpected success this season: The Southeastern Conference named Pingeton its coach of the year, as voted by the SEC coaches. The No. 23 Tigers finished the regular season 21-9 and earned the No. 3 seed in this week's SEC tournament with an 11-5 record in the conference.
She's the program's first coach to win conference coach of the year since Joann Rutherford, who was the Big Eight coach of the year in 1984, 1985 and 1990. Pingeton was named Missouri Valley Conference coach of the year at Illinois State in 2004 and 2010.