Mizzou center announces medical retirement from basketball
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Mizzou women's basketball team lost one of the tallest players on its roster, on Monday, as center Tionna Herron announced she will medically retire from the game of basketball.
In a statement on social media, Herron said the decision comes after she got injured in MU's first Southeastern Conference game of the year in the 2024-25 campaign. She landed awkwardly during that game against South Carolina and tore cartilage in her knee, which caused her to get surgery.
The extent of that procedure, along with her prior open heart surgery during her true freshman season, led her to the decision to focus on graduation, instead of basketball.
"I never thought this was how my college career would end, Herron said in a statement. "With everything I've gone through in these last three years, I'm grateful that I had the ability to learn more about myself through all of the adversity that I went through. To all the life long friends I've made through my career, thank you so much for always being the best teammates and all around human beings, and to all the coaches that have coached me to get where I am today, thank you so much for pouring in so much time, energy and effort into making me the best I could be. I might not have gotten to show it on the court, but I sure show it everyday of my life...I cry knowing that it's over but also knowing the future God has planned for me. Thank you to Mizzou for being the last stop of my journey. I enjoyed every second here in Columbia..."
Herron spent one season with the Tigers and ended up getting in 12 games. In those outings, before her injury, she averaged 1.8 points and 1.4 rebounds in 5.4 minutes per game.
MU was the third stop in her collegiate basketball journey, as she started her career at Kentucky. In the 2022-23 campaign, Herron was unavailable for the Wildcats after undergoing successful open heart surgery in Aug. of 2022.
After that, Herron transferred to Texas, where she played in 11 games and scored a season-high six points in 12 minutes against UT Arlington. The 6-foot-4 center averaged 1.5 points and 0.7 rebounds per game for the Longhorns.
