Coach Kellie Harper fired

[turbovol]

Harper steadied the program, for sure. She just couldn't get over the hump. There was definitely roster management and improvement in different areas this year. The rotation was smaller and smarter, the team played better defense (not great defense, but better), and we reduced our turnovers a bit. But she didn't get the roster where it needed to be to be a really good team--we simply were not athletic enough as a team. And then there was this: White didn't hire her, and when an AD didn't hire you and you aren't setting the sport on fire, you're going to be more vulnerable. I hope she lands on her feet. Maybe the Bama coach will have a bad year next year and they'll look for someone new.

 

[Mafiaboss]

Okay…apparently I’m further out of touch with social media than I thought…

Is she saying that Kellie took the locker room from the players? Because Pat did that to her teams
several times. It sounds like the players were not bothered by not being able to use the fancy locker room? In a post from early last week, I said the players love the person not the coach.

 

[VolFuture]

Is she saying that Kellie took the locker room from the players? Because Pat did that to her teams
several times. It sounds like the players were not bothered by not being able to use the fancy locker room? In a post from early last week, I said the players love the person not the coach.

She’s using metaphor “lost the locker room” like in fighting or lack of respect to her

 

[Lucy]

I think Kellie is a a great person and did her best to represent the university well at all times. Coaching however was never what it could have been. Almost never used timeouts to stop a run and calm down her team, substitute pattern was random with no apparent rhyme or reason, no regular offense, lazy on defense without consequence, horrendous use of the box out for rebounds, and atrocious use of in bounds plays Wish she had been wildly successful but not even in the ball park. Many middle and high school coaches would have been fired for less. And let's not even get into high school recruiting failure.

That said I hope she finds another job and get it all figured out to become very successful on down the road. I believe Coach Caldwell appears to be a much stronger X's and O's coach and our program will see quick improvement in on court performance.
GBO

Very weird about the to thing. Dawn was recently praised on tv for not using her tos to stop runs as she was letting her players figure it out and making sure she had some at the end of the game. But I guess that is different?

 

[Go aeiou]

Very weird about the to thing. Dawn was recently praised on tv for not using her tos to stop runs as she was letting her players figure it out and making sure she had some at the end of the game. But I guess that is different?

...

 

[glv98]

Very weird about the to thing. Dawn was recently praised on tv for not using her tos to stop runs as she was letting her players figure it out and making sure she had some at the end of the game. But I guess that is different?

Also those who have watched Marshall games say CKC is not much of a timeout user. As many coaches these days aren't. Harper was replaced by someone who doesn't take conventional time outs and who subs even more than she did. Go figure. Some of the sins most hammered on here may not have actually been the problem.

 

[PRG]

Harper steadied the program, for sure. She just couldn't get over the hump. There was definitely roster management and improvement in different areas this year. The rotation was smaller and smarter, the team played better defense (not great defense, but better), and we reduced our turnovers a bit. But she didn't get the roster where it needed to be to be a really good team--we simply were not athletic enough as a team. And then there was this: White didn't hire her, and when an AD didn't hire you and you aren't setting the sport on fire, you're going to be more vulnerable. I hope she lands on her feet. Maybe the Bama coach will have a bad year next year and they'll look for someone new.

The thing I hate is Kellie was finally getting multiple top ranked recruits. Two next year and one more the next ! And a promise from a once in a lifetime recruit (Chastain) ! Everyone keeps saying…. She had 5 years !
She had two months the first year and the season was stopped the next year with a World wide pandemic! That’s 40% of her time here…. Everyone says recruiting, recruiting, well we will see how Caldwell does and it better be sooner than later ? And can she keep Spear and the high ranked players Kellie had coming?

 

[Mafiaboss]

She’s using metaphor “lost the locker room” like in fighting or lack of respect to her

Thank you! Makes sense now.

 

[glv98]

The thing I hate is Kellie was finally getting multiple top ranked recruits. Two next year and one more the next ! And a promise from a once in a lifetime recruit (Chastain) ! Everyone keeps saying…. She had 5 years !
She had two months the first year and the season was stopped the next year with a World wide pandemic! That’s 40% of her time here…. Everyone says recruiting, recruiting, well we will see how Caldwell does and it better be sooner than later ? And can she keep Spear and the high ranked players Kellie had coming?

All true, but I think there were just too many disappointments, esp in big games. Just couldn't build momentum. Lots of misfortune.

What's shocked me about the whole thing is that we couldn't get a hire who would immediately move the program forward and instead would require a really tricky rebuild. I hope like hell it works, and wish like hell the AD hadn't hung completely unrealistic expectations on the new coach in the pressor. As someone said, this ain't a longshot, this is a moonshot.

The next couple of weeks in the portal will give us an idea of how long the actual process will take. Patience will be required.

 

[Mafiaboss]

Also those who have watched Marshall games say CKC is not much of a timeout user. As many coaches these days aren't. Harper was replaced by someone who doesn't take conventional time outs and who subs even more than she did. Go figure. Some of the sins most hammered on here may not have actually been the problem.

One size doesn’t fit all. It depends on the bb IQ of the players, what’s going on on the court at the time, and the skills of the players. Some fans getting anxious during a run is not proof a TO is needed.

 

[VolBall09]

Also those who have watched Marshall games say CKC is not much of a timeout user. As many coaches these days aren't. Harper was replaced by someone who doesn't take conventional time outs and who subs even more than she did. Go figure. Some of the sins most hammered on here may not have actually been the problem.

CKC was usually winning. A lot less timeouts needed when you’re the team ahead.

Now, when your team classically digs a 15-20 point hole every second quarter all season long?

Maybe start using a timeout there.

 

[Mafiaboss]

All true, but I think there were just too many disappointments, esp in big games. Just couldn't build momentum. Lots of misfortune.

What's shocked me about the whole thing is that we couldn't get a hire who would immediately move the program forward and instead would require a really tricky rebuild. I hope like hell it works, and wish like hell the AD hadn't hung completely unrealistic expectations on the new coach in the pressor. As someone said, this ain't a longshot, this is a moonshot.

The next couple of weeks in the portal will give us an idea of how long the actual process will take. Patience will be required.

You don’t have a clue if she will or won’t move the program forward this coming season.

 

[glv98]

One size doesn’t fit all. It depends on the bb IQ of the players, what’s going on on the court at the time, and the skills of the players. Some fans getting anxious during a run is not proof a TO is needed.

That's what some of us always argued when KJH was blasted for not calling the "magical time out". Fact is, many coaches have moved away from it. I suspect there's an analytic out there that's shown these coaches a t.o. is actually not likely to stop a run.

You don’t have a clue if she will or won’t move the program forward this coming season.

Right. No one really does, and that's the point. and why it's such a big gamble. Common sense says gambling on an unknown future may be a big problem in recruiting, which is by far the most important piece to her success. We'll all have a clue soon, based on our portal activity the next few weeks.

Reality is the odds are really, really long for immediate success. But I'll be glad to be wrong.

 

[VolBall09]

That's what some of us always argued when KJH was blasted for not calling the "magical time out". Fact is, many coaches have moved away from it. I've suspected there's an analytic that's shown these coaches a t.o. is actually not likely to stop a run.

Well, there are clues, the biggest one will be whether there are major pickups in the portal the next few weeks. But the fact no one really knows how this will turn out is the point and why it's such a gamble. Gambling on an unknown may turn out to be a big problem in recruiting which is the most important thing. We'll soon see.

Many coaches aren’t losing by 20 in the second quarter.

 

[NOLACHUCKEYTOM]

Very weird about the to thing. Dawn was recently praised on tv for not using her tos to stop runs as she was letting her players figure it out and making sure she had some at the end of the game. But I guess that is different?

Probably just an old school thing with me on timeouts. Basketball is probably the sport where momentum comes into play most often. Only real defense against the momentum that a coach has is timeout or slow down the offense. Dawn used timeouts quite a bit in the early days but now SC has so much talent why wouldn't they play through it? Back when I coached in the dark ages I used them but always kept one in my pocket for the end of the game. Like I said I really think Coach Harper seems to be a fine young woman but I just thought she was was a terrible in-game coach and a poor recruiter of high school kids. Now I promise that I am not going to say another word about Coach Harper except a congrats when she gets a new job, Time to look to the future and wish our new coach well and support her because it isn't going to be easy!