There should be one steadfast, hard, just-can’t-break-it rule that absolutely cannot be broken when hiring Tennessee’s next women’s basketball coach.
No Lady Vols allowed.
Please understand that this isn’t a sexist stance. It’s just that I don’t think another Lady Vols’ fan can go down that path again. Imagine having to question, doubt and eventually divorce oneself of a childhood idol. Former Lady Vol coaches Holly Warlick and Kellie Harper should be remembered as players, not coaches.
Harper, who was fired by Tennessee on Monday, joins Warlick in an unenviable duo. Instead of treasuring their time at Tennessee, there will always be at least a little twinge of what could have been. Just…one…more…year…
Neither expected to fail. Neither meant to let such a loyal fan base down.
The Lady Vol fan base doesn’t need that again, which brings us to Duke’s Kara Lawson. She was, like Warlick and Harper, a successful Lady Vol who decided that coaching was in her best interest – for some reason – when she accepted the head coaching position at Duke before the 2020 season. Now, Lady Vol status aside, that’s not enough of a career to even be considered for the Tennessee job.
Lawson is 68-33 and took the Blue Devils to the Sweet 16 this season so she’s a bit of a hot commodity. If Tennessee athletic director Danny White believes that Lawson is the answer, she’d surely be interested, right? Lawson once served as a Board of Trustees member for UT. She can’t be Devil Blue through and through just yet? It’s too easy. Just make the call…
Nope. Not even close. Warlick and Harper coached decades before landing the Tennessee job. Warlick was Pat Summitt’s go-to assistant while Harper was a head coach for 15 seasons before the Lady Vols came calling. Warlick provided a natural transition. Harper won coaching awards before being anointed as the coach who could return Tennessee to championship glory.
And for those that would like to point out that they didn’t work out, every candidate on Tennessee’s list should have much, much more experience than Lawson. Then, there’s my earlier tenet.
The Lady Vol fan base is strong, but torn. Can it take another five years of sub-par play? At what point are the Lady Vols losing a generation of fans? That’s why Lawson is pretty risky.
The Lady Vols have stayed relevant by having one of their own in place since Summitt’s final season ended in 2012. It’s time to stop just getting by and start competing for championships again. And if the latter can’t be the case, then at least the Lady Vols’ fan base won’t have its collective hearts broken again by a former player couldn’t live up to incredibly high expectations. Therefore, I stand by my one rule in the Lady Vols’ hiring process.
No Lady Vols allowed.
