Awkward doesn’t even begin to describe this scenario. After the Tennessee Lady Vols beat the Texas A&M Aggies 77-37 to open the SEC Tournament Wednesday in Greenville, S.C., the SEC Network decided to put Kim Caldwell next to Kellie Harper for its SEC Now show.
Caldwell replaced Harper, who was fired as the Lady Vols head coach last year after five seasons with the program in which she 108-52, 53-24 in SEC play, made four straight NCAA Tournament appearances and reached the Sweet 16 twice. The only year she didn’t lead UT to the tourney was her first, and that was the COVID season where no selections were made.
Harper also started for the three-peat national champion Lady Vols under Pat Summitt, playing for them from 1995 to 1999. Simply put, she is a Lady Vol through and through, and getting fired last year had to be a huge gut-punch for her. Now, she is interviewing the person who replaced her had to make it worse.
To be fair, she was the ultimate professional, but Caldwell, answered more questions from Nikki Fargas, another former Lady Vol to win a national championship who went into coaching. Fargas spent three years with the UCLA Bruins and 10 with the LSU Tigers, making eight total NCAA Tournament appearances, before resigning in 2021.
As for Harper, she has made guest appearances on SEC Now and is part of the SEC Network’s coverage this week. She asked Caldwell about getting ready for a rematch with the Vanderbilt Commodores, who beat the Lady Vols by one in Nashville earlier in the year. The situation was clearly a bit odd.
Of course, Caldwell had nothing to do with the ousting of Harper, and after five years, it had become clear that Harper had hit a ceiling with the program. Being a part of the Summitt coaching tree had her committed to certain ideologies that just were outdated in today’s game, similar to Holly Warlick.
To be fair, Harper replacing Warlick was awful, as Warlick was the assistant coach the entire time Harper was there as a player, and since Warlick was a guard who was the Lady Vols’ first All-American, it’s likely she spent more time with Harper, another guard, than Summitt did. As a result, awkwardness is normal in these scenarios.
