Kellie Harper Deserved Better
100 wins as a coach at the alma mater. A solid five year record of 108-52, and 53-24 in the conference. Four NCAA tournament appearances. For most schools, that’s really good. But, that was not good enough for Tennessee. Five years into her nine year contract, women’s basketball coach Kellie Harper has been dismissed. Harper won three titles as a player under the late legendary coach Pat Summit. It was only logical to bring her back to lead the program. However, Tennessee felt the need to “rejuvenate” the program after not being able to get past the Sweet 16 under Harper.
I’m sorry, but what are we doing here? There are a lot of programs that would love to have this stretch in the early part of a coaches tenure. This isn’t jumping the gun. This isn’t making a change because you feel like you have to. This is just straight up wrong.
A Different Situation
This isn’t the same type of scenario when Vanessa Nygard was fired after going 2-10 with the Phoenix Mercury and losing the room. That was justified. This on the other hand, is not. Kellie Harper I firmly believe was on the right path to succeed. That last game they lost in the tournament was not a blow out. The Lady Vols were in that game until the end. They played hard for their coach. It takes some time to get a program established, and you are under a microscope with a program like Tennessee, right wrong or otherwise.
The program was in a good place. Keep using the transfer portal, the recruiting trail, and naturally the best form of recruiting is performance. Vols basketball still has a vaunted history and reputation. Sure, they aren’t the constant dominant force they used to be, but it’s hard to replace a legend in any sport. The future was looking bright. But as we know, the wrong decisions are made in sports more often than not. The timing of this could not be any worse.
Domino Effect
Now Kim Caldwell is leaving Marshall to take over at Tennessee. It’s the first time the school has gone outside the program since Summit stepped down. Two programs that are coming off great years with high potential will have to start from scratch. And then of course, student athletes will move around and have to start over as well if they aren’t happy with the direction of the program. This is a lose lose lose situation for everybody.
But that isn’t the most alarming part here. Don’t get me wrong, this is bad. However, this is the continuation of a disturbing trend. This is the second year in a row where a women’s basketball coach after being told they were a part of the future of the program at their alma maters, and were then unceremoniously let go after five years. Lindsay Whalen to end the 2023 season was also removed from her position at Minnesota after they lost in the Big 10 tournament. Whalen won four titles with the Minnesota Lynx in the WNBA and cemented herself as a legend of the game. She in part ended her playing career to take the head coaching job. Granted, her record wasn’t as good as Harper. 71-76 overall and 38-52 in conference play. But again, it takes time to develop a program and a good group of recruits offered some optimism for the future. Whalen was also making it a priority to keep the local talent in state.
In both situations, there was a path to success. In both situations, the athletic departments felt like this was an opportunity they could not pass up. Five years later, it all changes? This is more disturbing than any other storyline here. So what do we do about this? It seems to me that athletic departments need to do a better job of managing expectations and not pivot at the first sign of trouble. Women’s basketball continues to surge in the sports landscape. If some college or even professional coaches are given more leeway for doing far worse, then it’s only fair to trust the process and support new women sports coaches in anyway possible. To that point, Kellie Harper should still have a job.