Search For Lady Vols Basketball Coach

[Coach Jumper]

A bad hire and the Tennessee women's basketball program could crash and burn like former women's basketball powers Louisiana Tech and Old Dominion.

Exactly

 

[Coach Jumper]

To be honest. It doesn't matter what you pay. Paying Holly 5 million a year wouldn't make her a better coach. Finding a good one is more important than the cost. A coach who can coach will get more from this team than Holly. Once you find that person, then you raise the salary to keep said person. Women's basketball isn't CFB. There are plenty of talented coaches better than Holly for far less cost initially. You just have to be smart in the choice. Philip should be able to judge that now that he has the freedom to do so. He seems to have made a good choice in Pruitt.

You don't have to look. I'm right here

 

[Coach Jumper]

Men will not be considered for this job.

What an a-hole thing to say

 

[creekdipper]

A nice person who connects with players. Didn't we just hire someone with those qualities

I don't think we want an ugly person who doesn't connect to players.

Pat was an extremely nice person who connected to players. She was also respected by them and able to instill team discipline.

Kellie's team looked like they would walk through fire and run through brick walls for her.

A person who works at Thompson-Boling Arena told me that of all the visiting coaches, Tara VanDerveer and her staff were the nicest. She and assistants took time to talk with employees and seemed very gracious and expressed their gratitude, unlike many other coaches.

I don't think anyone here in his/her right mind would call VanDerveer soft just because she is a nice person. It's actually possible to be a winner and still be a nice person.

Some coaches, on the other hand, seem self-absorbed, snarky, egotistic, and intentionally abrasive. That may appeal to some players and fans, but it turns off others.

 

[Coach Jumper]

I don't know where you got this from, but obviously he would not make less for making the elite 8, than the sweet 16 lol.

You caught that too huh

 

[Creekdog]

I think Kellie's buyout may be 100 grand so you can see why they like that part. She is making 250 k another part they like because they can double or triple her salary and still be at what they were paying Holly. She is a very nice person and really connects with players. She may not be tough enough to win in the SEC but from a cost and public relations standpoint she is a huge winner. Giving her the job is a 50/50 proposition of success or failure. Of course you get better odds with coaches that make 8 times and much money but that gets you into 8 to 10 million a year in the red and Tennessee may not want to go there especially since there are a lot of sports that are red sports as well. The only two I can think of that make a profit are of course football the cash cow of all sports and men's basketball.

Absolutely agree. As I commented yesterday, Kellie making the Sweet 16 was mana from heaven for Fulmer. She is female, former LV, "reminds me of Pat" to many fans and cheap.

 

[Coach Jumper]

I don't think we want an ugly person who doesn't connect to players.

Pat was an extremely nice person who connected to players. She was also respected by them and able to instill team discipline.

Kellie's team looked like they would walk through fire and run through brick walls for her.

A person who works at Thompson-Boling Arena told me that of all the visiting coaches, Tara VanDerveer and her staff were the nicest. She and assistants took time to talk with employees and seemed very gracious and expressed their gratitude, unlike many other coaches.

I don't think anyone here in his/her right mind would call VanDerveer soft just because she is a nice person. It's actually possible to be a winner and still be a nice person.

Some coaches, on the other hand, seem self-absorbed, snarky, egotistic, and intentionally abrasive. That may appeal to some players and fans, but it turns off others.

Pat Summitt was nice and she was respected. Any coach can have that quality. The girls who play for me they love me. And when they need straighten it out I straightened him out. But there's no less love if you straighten them out correctly

 

[creekdipper]

What an a-hole thing to say

I think the poster was expressing an opinion re: the rumored preferences of some involved with the search. Others have said the same thing, just as some have opined that Fulmer/others involved will show preference to those from the Lady Vol tree.

It doesn't mean that the posters are asserting their own beliefs. None of us (as far as anyone knows) is officially involved with the search.

 

[creekdipper]

Pat Summitt was nice and she was respected. Any coach can have that quality. The girls who play for me they love me. And when they need straighten it out I straightened him out. But there's no less love if you straighten them out correctly

That's right, as I know from having been both a coach and a career educator.

Holly didn't appear to have those qualities (among other areas lacking, such as communication). She may have been a great assistant, but she wasn't cut out to be a head coach (at least not at this level).

The point is that we shouldn't take Holly's failings and project them upon others. Holly had some good qualities, too. We have our checklist, but it doesn't mean that we want the anti-Holly in every possible area.

For instance, Holly was loyal. Lane Kiffin was not. We don't want to hire a hotshot coach who will up and leave in a couple of years before the rebuilding job is done just because a higher-paying job opened up.

 

[Creekdog]

Well there is room for two Assistants if she is hired don't know who they will be. Her husband is certainly one so someone isn't staying if she is hired and she has two other people at Mo State one was a former player and I think Stiles was a former head coach somewhere. So somebody is leaving of the three we have now and i expect it will be more than one.

That entire sideline entourage needs to be removed. The program needs to be scrubbed clean of all Holly influence and of people who might still be in her ear or she theirs. I might give Reeves a maybe.

 

[Coach Jumper]

That's right, as I know from having been both a coach and a career educator.

Holly didn't appear to have those qualities (among other areas lacking, such as communication). She may have been a great assistant, but she wasn't cut out to be a head coach (at least not at this level).

The point is that we shouldn't take Holly's failings and project them upon others. Holly had some good qualities, too. We have our checklist, but it doesn't mean that we want the anti-Holly in every possible area.

For instance, Holly was loyal. Lane Kiffin was not. We don't want to hire a hotshot coach who will up and leave in a couple of years before the rebuilding job is done just because a higher-paying job opened up.

This is what bothered me most about Coach Holly warlick. She didn't have assertive and Leadership qualities and the people she put around her didn't have those qualities. You have to have at least one alpha in the mix for your Alpha athletes otherwise you will fail. I believe Jeff walz is an alpha I've started him enough to think so. I've seen the picture of Kelly Jolly next to Pat Summitt when both of them are pointing and staring..... it's a different stare

 

[Coach Jumper]

That entire sideline entourage needs to be removed. The program needs to be scrubbed clean of all Holly influence and of people who might still be in her ear or she theirs. I might give Reeves a maybe.

I can take that staff as it is and Crush what Holly did last year

 

[unfrozencvmanvol]

Gruden to the hill. Soon.

 

[Rudy123]

Running it by the players should be a must. But as far as Evina, her opinion or approval shouldn’t carry no more weight than any others. Her play this year was mediocre. Not sure, because she didn’t want to play for CHW or the Lady Vols.

If he ran it by the players then the other players, their parents, the high school coach & their church members would all know whom Fulmer was considering
What if SAID coach doesn’t want to be out in the open???? Remember Saban to O Bama & Petrine to Arkansas?
What if you thought the hire was good but the girls in team, for some reason did not want a male coach? You as A D hire him & the girls publicly complain that you did not do as they wished

 

[livefaith]

Just be patient and wait until something of substance happens before you get all bent out of shape about “lack of information“. The athletic department doesn’t owe it to anyone to keep us apprised of their every move. Maybe they have contacted Walz and are just keeping a tight lid on it, you can’t believe everything you hear in the media. We all have BVS, and if you haven’t learned how to deal with a coaching search yet, then you must’ve been sleeping under a rock for the past 10 years.

Mods. Please sticky this before the next Bleacher Report article creates a hand wring fest.

 

[Rudy123]

That's right, as I know from having been both a coach and a career educator.

Holly didn't appear to have those qualities (among other areas lacking, such as communication). She may have been a great assistant, but she wasn't cut out to be a head coach (at least not at this level).

The point is that we shouldn't take Holly's failings and project them upon others. Holly had some good qualities, too. We have our checklist, but it doesn't mean that we want the anti-Holly in every possible area.

For instance, Holly was loyal. Lane Kiffin was not. We don't want to hire a hotshot coach who will up and leave in a couple of years before the rebuilding job is done just because a higher-paying job opened up.

I am glad Holly is gone. Her post game interviews were embarrassing. She wasn’t a strong enough leader to take blame when it fell on her, she blamed others. She could not adjust while in game and make game winning strategy
In the whole scheme of things though, her coaching record was good. It was not dismal
and below 500
Not Tennessee standards but not dismal either

 

[glv98]

If he ran it by the players then the other players, their parents, the high school coach & their church members would all know whom Fulmer was considering
What if SAID coach doesn’t want to be out in the open???? Remember Saban to O Bama & Petrine to Arkansas?
What if you thought the hire was good but the girls in team, for some reason did not want a male coach? You as A D hire him & the girls publicly complain that you did not do as they wished

Please tweak your sarcasm meter. The post about "running it by the players, especially Evina" was a totally tongue in cheek reference to Evina's apparent sin of a mumbled, emotional answer wretched out of her moments after the sad conclusion of the first half of her so far wasted career. No one actually thinks the team will be consulted, nor that any one player has more sway in the matter. The players will have their say after the hire with who stays and who goes.

 

[glv98]

In the whole scheme of things though, her coaching record was good. It was not dismal
and below 500
Not Tennessee standards but not dismal either

Holly did not get fired because of her record. She got fired because of the alarming downhill trend in quality of play, lack of competitiveness in the conference, and lack of player development the last four years.

As far as her record, it is generally accepted that it was heavily padded by the first three seasons in which she had Pat's players and a still heavy dose of Pat culture. No coincidence that the minute the last of the Pat players were gone, the program went into a steep decline. That's why Holly got fired, and IMO at least a season too late.

 

[Spook1]

That entire sideline entourage needs to be removed. The program needs to be scrubbed clean of all Holly influence and of people who might still be in her ear or she theirs. I might give Reeves a maybe.

Wrong on the "entire sideline entourage needs to be removed". Sharonna Reaves is a part of that sideline and she is the one responsible for the great recruiting classes...so you want to dump her too!

 

[CED23]

I don't know where you got this from, but obviously he would not make less for making the elite 8, than the sweet 16 lol.

1)It's public info from Louisville University Personnel Committe minutes when they approves it. All UL coaches contracts are public via that route.
http://louisville.edu/president/athletic-association/minutes/2018/ulaa-personnel-6-12-2018/ Page 21 is Walz's Contract

2)The bonuses are additional they add on top of each other
Ie...Walz in 2019 made it to to the Elite - he got the Sweet 16 50K, additional 20K for Elite 8, so total Walz got 70K for NCAA Tourney
Ie...Walz 2018 made it to Final 4 - he got 50K for Sweet 16, 20K more for Elite 8, and 100K more for Final, so total was 170K for Tourney

 

[glv98]

Wrong on the "entire sideline entourage needs to be removed". Sharonna Reaves is a part of that sideline and she is the one responsible for the great recruiting classes...so you want to dump her too!

Were they really "great recruiting classes" or were they just on paper potential? We have not seen "great recruits" be successful on the floor for a while now. I get so sick of hearing about our endless "talent" when none of that has actually been proven in real live games.

Of course we've all argued endlessly that they "would" be great if not for Holly messing them up and that may be true, God knows I hope so. But it's also been argued that Reaves has been recruiting the wrong kind of players, going all in for athletic prowess over little things like being able to shoot, handle the ball, and make great in game decisions. We know Reaves can sign high school players who ranking services rate very highly, but can she recruit players who can actually win college games? Not yet.

 

[Creekdog]

Wrong on the "entire sideline entourage needs to be removed". Sharonna Reaves is a part of that sideline and she is the one responsible for the great recruiting classes...so you want to dump her too!

As I said, maybe she would stay. Would not be opposed to that. All will be the new coach's call anyway.

 

[teacherdean]

Whomever Fulmer hires, he had better first get the approval of the players, especially Evina Westbrook.

Seriously!!! Maybe we should let Westbrook sat in on the interviews and negotiate the new coach’s salary.

 

[Coach Jumper]

Were they really "great recruiting classes" or were they just on paper potential? We have not seen "great recruits" be successful on the floor for a while now. I get so sick of hearing about our endless "talent" when none of that has actually been proven in real live games.

Of course we've all argued endlessly that they "would" be great if not for Holly messing them up and that may be true, God knows I hope so. But it's also been argued that Reaves has been recruiting the wrong kind of players, going all in for athletic prowess over little things like being able to shoot, handle the ball, and make great in game decisions. We know Reaves can sign high school players who ranking services rate very highly, but can she recruit players who can actually win college games? Not yet.

Just has talent can be improved through coaching it can be destroyed and unimproved by the same type of influence, coaching

 

[Magherr]

We know that AD Fulmer formally requested from Missouri State University for permission to talk with Kellie Jolly Harper as a candidate to become the LV basketball coach. Is there any other information on the pursuit by AD Fulmer. I read yesterday that Walz of Louisville had not been contacted nor was there any information regarding such. Hopefully, we will learn more soon.

Kelly Harper was a great player, I would guess a nice person, but her husband is “Co-Coach”. Seriously!!!