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COLUMBIA, Mo. — Before she completed her move to Columbia, new Missouri women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper knew she needed to get moving — with building her first roster, that is.

“People have asked me, ‘Have you found a house?’ � Harper told the Post-Dispatch last week. “No. Look, I gotta get a team first. Let me get my team, let me get my roster done, and then we’ll find somewhere to live.�

So goes the rapid-fire transition of a coaching change in the age of unrestricted player movement.

“This is the fifth program that I’ve taken over, so I’ve kind of done this a little bit,� Harper said. “I kind of know the ebbs and flows — however, this is the first time I’ve done it with the (transfer) portal. You come in right in the middle of chaos.�

She and Mizzou are up to 11 players on the roster for 2025-26, with five returners from last season and six arriving via the portal. The Tigers can carry up to 15 players, but reaching maximum capacity seems unlikely at this stage in the offseason. MU is more likely to roll with 12 or 13 players on the team next season.

Most of the transfers have geographic ties that make Mizzou a relatively short move for them. Guard Saniah Tyler, transferring from Kentucky, starred locally at Incarnate Word. Another guard, Shannon Dowell, hails from O’Fallon, Illinois, and played at Illinois State. Forward Jordana Reisma, from Wisconsin, played at Cleveland State. Guard Lisa Thompson is transferring from Rutgers but is from Joliet, Illinois. Guard Jayla Smith is a Purdue transfer from Indianapolis. Guard Sydney Mains played at Florida Atlantic but hails from Knoxville, Tennessee.

If it seems like the net for potential transfers cast by Harper was loosely the radius of a day’s drive from mid-Missouri, it’s because it sort of was. Consider it a byproduct of a crunched timeframe to scout and recruit transfers.

“It’s definitely narrowed our focus,� Harper said. “We couldn’t be as broad focused in some of the areas that maybe in other situations, other years, maybe I was able to. You gotta come in, you gotta get a team.�

In some cases, Harper was recruiting players who she knew from her time coaching Tennessee — like Tyler, the 2022 Post-Dispatch All-Metro player of the year, who had yet to establish herself as a starter at Kentucky.

“She is somebody that I recruited while at Tennessee and knew who she was, knew what she was about and obviously being in the conference, followed her,� Harper said. “But knowing her a little bit, (I) probably followed her a little closer. I told her she gets to come back home. She’s excited about that. ... I think we’re going to be able to see what she is really capable of. I think we saw that a few years ago, back when she was in high school. It’s still there. Just the right system is what she needs to see her shine.�

For a couple of other incoming transfers, MU will be hoping they can recapture some of their high school prowess at a new school and new system.

Smith, who was a rotation staple but rarely a starter at Purdue, had been Miss Indiana Basketball during her prep days. Thompson wound up being recruited over at Rutgers but had been a McDonald’s All-American nominee as a high school prospect.

Perhaps with that in mind, Harper will begin summer practices with individual development — plus the usual ramp-up of strength and conditioning — front of mind. Her debut team needs to build chemistry and familiarity as well as learn her system, but she wants to start with coaching up players on a more personal basis.

“In March next year — which seems like a long time away, which it is — would we rather have a better player or two more plays? We all want better players, so we’ll start that as early as we can.�