Missouri women’s basketball portal scorecard. Grading Kellie Harper’s transfers

There will be a lot of newcomers for Missouri women’s basketball next season, primarily arriving in a five-player freshman class. Second-year head coach Kellie Harper and her staff also added three new players via the transfer portal, with Michigan shooting guard McKenzie Mathurin , Indiana point guard Nevaeh Caffey and Arizona shooting guard Tanyuel Welch making the move to Columbia. The Tigers lost five players via the transfer portal: Chloe Sotell (Maryland), Shannon Dowell (California), Hannah Linthacum ( Missouri State), Lisa Thompson (Utah State) and Ma’Riya Vincent (Wichita State).

So, the offseason turnover — unless MU picks up a late addition in the summer — is complete, and the Tigers are rolling toward Year 2 of Harper’s tenure with a 13-player roster. From a pure numbers standpoint, Missouri has a better chance at making the NCAA Tournament next year. The field is, after all, growing by eight spots to 76 teams.

If that had been implemented last season, two of those places would have gone to SEC teams. And the Tigers don’t need to make too much of a Year 2 leap under Harper to find themselves in the at-large conversation. A handful more conference wins in MU’s 17-17 season, which included a 4-12 SEC mark, may have been enough to get on the bubble.

But, as we’ll get into below, Mizzou is going to be fielding a team with some young players in extremely important and prominent roles. Here’s how we’d grade Mizzou’s transfer portal business in Harper’s first full offseason with Missouri: Who was Missouri women’s basketball’s best portal addition? Caffey’s return to the Show-Me State could immediately pay dividends.