willtalk said:
DFW said:
Saddle Up! said:
Kellie Harper, coach of the Missouri State Lady Bears, discussed in another thread, who made it to the Sweet 16 against Stanford. She's 41, a native of Tennessee, and won 3 NC's with the Lady Vols. 5 years at $750K/yr. Leading candidate to replace her is Jackie Stiles, who has been on her staff, and played for MSU.
Never be the coach to follow a legend. Holly would have been aces anywhere else in WBB.
Pity the fool who follows Geno (it won't be Chris, she's too smart), and pity the fool who follows Kim.
It's a no win job.
Not necessarily! Holly's problem was not following a legend. She was mediocre at best coach. Pat herself started to recognize that her system ( especially offense ) had to be adjusted to fit the evolving WCBB landscape. Holly was a coach who was only suited to be an assistant for someone like Pat. She tried to maintain Pat's system without the personality to do so. She was the mother hen on Summits staff and tried to continue that role as head coach. When it didn't work for her she did a turnaround and began to blame everyone but herself for her failures. Pat's system was archaic but she kept it afloat via her personality, but even she knew she had to change. Holly had neither the flexibility or the intellect to do so.
I think part of the problem was the nature of the transition meant there was not a clean break. I saw the Lady Vols a few times during Pat's final year on the bench, and it was very sad. Even if you were just watching on TV you could tell that Pat wasn't all there, or even very much there. She wasn't engaged with the game; she didn't lead during timeouts. I'm sure some days were worse than others at that point, but Pat really wasn't capable of coaching. Holly was doing all the coaching out of necessity.
This put Tennessee in a very awkward position on two fronts. First, you can't really fire a legend like Pat without a huge backlash, even if her advancing dementia has made it impossible for her to really do her job. Second, you're in an awkward position if you fire the loyal assistant who basically took over the head coaching role for Pat. Just sends a bad signal.
Besides, it's only clear with the benefit of hindsight that Holly wasn't that great of a choice.
And let's be honest: Even before the announcement about Pat's dementia, the program had slid down a few notches. They weren't a Final Four contender every year as they had traditionally been. They were no longer at the same level as UConn, Baylor, ND, Louisville nationally or even South Carolina in their own conference.
"Free your ass and your mind will follow." -- George Clinton