K Lawson question

#1
W

Wahoooo

Well-Known Member
Joined
Jan 13, 2024
Messages
234
Likes
654
#1
I truly do not know the answer, so anyone who knows, please share.

Why did UT administration not pursue K Lawson for the Lady Vol BB HC?

Do they know something we don’t or has someone at UT offended K Lawson to the point she will never return?

I was always impressed with her BB IQ when she was a TV analyst. Seemed to have the same intensity that Pat had.
 
  • Like
Reactions: savannahfan, VOLcanicFan, RespectAPA and 1 other person
#3
#3
Wahoooo said:
I truly do not know the answer, so anyone who knows, please share.

Why did UT administration not pursue K Lawson for the Lady Vol BB HC?

Do they know something we don’t or has someone at UT offended K Lawson to the point she will never return?

I was always impressed with her BB IQ when she was a TV analyst. Seemed to have the same intensity that Pat had.
Click to expand...
This story has been rehashed on this board. With the caveat that Fulmer's decision making process has never been made fully public, he was apparently leaning toward Kara until he interviewed Kellie, who was fresh from a S16 appearance with Missouri St.

Fulmer said that Kellie knocked her interview "out of the ball park" and he was also reported to have had some reservations over Kara's lack of college coaching experience.

When Kellie was fired five years down the road, Kara did not fit the profile of a Danny White hire, which is the surprise hire where he sees a rising star before anyone else. So, if Kara did not have enough experience for Fulmer, she was too much of known entity for White likes to be seen as the discoverer of talent that no one else had seen.
 
  • Like
Reactions: 1reVOLver, golfballvol, savannahfan and 5 others
#6
#6
mtsuraider06 said:
Kara burned bridges with the BOT.

That’s why she was not hired. Also, it was Kellie’s job to lose and the interview was a prerequisite. It was hers unless she turned it down.
Click to expand...
No she did not burn any bridges! She completed her term on the board in 2024, years after she made the comments that upset the culture warriors
 
  • Like
Reactions: TNRazor, 1reVOLver, LadyVol1908 and 3 others
#8
#8
A lot of people saying we should’ve hired Kara instead of Kellie. I get it, but Kellie did have the coaching experience at the time. BUT even if Kara had been hired, would Danny have kept her? He seems to only want his hires here 🙄
 
  • Like
Reactions: madtownvol
#9
#9
Wahoooo said:
I truly do not know the answer, so anyone who knows, please share.

Why did UT administration not pursue K Lawson for the Lady Vol BB HC?

Do they know something we don’t or has someone at UT offended K Lawson to the point she will never return?

I was always impressed with her BB IQ when she was a TV analyst. Seemed to have the same intensity that Pat had.
Click to expand...
When Holly Warlick was fired after the 2019 season, Kara Lawson had never coached at any level. She went from a playing career to a successful television career. She had begun to assist with the USA basketball 3x3 team, but that was her only coaching experience. At the time, she sat on the UT Board of Trustees, and desired to be a candidate for the job despite her lack of coaching experience at any level.

Citing the lack of head coaching experience that Warlick had as one of the primary issues with her tenure at Tennessee, the search committee was only going to seriously consider candidates that had been head coaches previously.

Later that summer, Lawson transitioned from the broadcast booth to the bench as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics. The next spring, she was hired at Duke. Upon being hired at Duke, she was asked to relinquish her seat on the board of trustees, because UT policy is that no active employee of another university can serve on this university’s Board of Trustees. She responded negatively to that request and accused Tennessee leadership of racism in that situation and its hiring practices for top executives, coaches and other leadership positions. She has burned bridges with Tennessee, including with many of the donors and boosters that would be necessary to maintain a successful program.
 
  • Like
Reactions: LVBB_Legacy, mcannon1, savannahfan and 5 others
#10
#10
DeerPark12 said:
When Holly Warlick was fired after the 2019 season, Kara Lawson had never coached at any level. She went from a playing career to a successful television career. She had begun to assist with the USA basketball 3x3 team, but that was her only coaching experience. At the time, she sat on the UT Board of Trustees, and desired to be a candidate for the job despite her lack of coaching experience at any level.

Citing the lack of head coaching experience that Warlick had as one of the primary issues with her tenure at Tennessee, the search committee was only going to seriously consider candidates that had been head coaches previously.

Later that summer, Lawson transitioned from the broadcast booth to the bench as an assistant coach for the Boston Celtics. The next spring, she was hired at Duke. Upon being hired at Duke, she was asked to relinquish her seat on the board of trustees, because UT policy is that no active employee of another university can serve on this university’s Board of Trustees. She responded negatively to that request and accused Tennessee leadership of racism in that situation and its hiring practices for top executives, coaches and other leadership positions. She has burned bridges with Tennessee, including with many of the donors and boosters that would be necessary to maintain a successful program.
Click to expand...
Thats the story I heard at the time.

Did Kara stay on the board? That must have been frosty 🥶
 
  • Like
Reactions: krichunaka
#12
#12
glv98 said:
Thats the story I heard at the time.

Did Kara stay on the board? That must have been frosty 🥶
Click to expand...
No, she could not stay on the Board, as state regulations do not permit a full-time employee of another university to sit on the UT Board of Trustees or the state of Tennessee Board of Regents.
 
  • Like
Reactions: savannahfan
#13
#13
DeerPark12 said:
No, she could not stay on the Board, as state regulations do not permit a full-time employee of another university to sit on the UT Board of Trustees or the state of Tennessee Board of Regents.
Click to expand...
Interesting. And makes sense. But someone posted an article or something the other day that claimed she served out her term. You never know whats real anymore.
 
  • Like
Reactions: krichunaka
#14
#14
LadyVol1908 said:
Crazy that it’s considered a “burned bridge” for saying what was factual. Such a dog whistle.
Click to expand...
It wasn’t factual at that time, particularly not in her situation. She was asking for an exception to state law. It wasn’t just unprecedented, it was also impractical for a D1 head coach in another state to have time to serve on the Board of Trustees.

if she had felt that UT had a problem with hiring at the highest levels, she had ample opportunity during the three years she was on the BOT to bring it up and address it. Instead, she made it a public issue after she left.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Franklin Pierce and deafhoopsfan
#15
#15
DeerPark12 said:
It wasn’t factual at that time, particularly not in her situation. She was asking for an exception to state law. It wasn’t just unprecedented, it was also impractical for a D1 head coach in another state to have time to serve on the Board of Trustees.

if she had felt that UT had a problem with hiring at the highest levels, she had ample opportunity during the three years she was on the BOT to bring it up and address it. Instead, she made it a public issue after she left.
Click to expand...
This timeline seems off. Pretty sure her comments on diversity came in June 2020 and she was hired at Duke in July. Joann P stepped down on July 2nd, 2020.
 
#16
#16
DeerPark12 said:
It wasn’t factual at that time, particularly not in her situation. She was asking for an exception to state law. It wasn’t just unprecedented, it was also impractical for a D1 head coach in another state to have time to serve on the Board of Trustees.

if she had felt that UT had a problem with hiring at the highest levels, she had ample opportunity during the three years she was on the BOT to bring it up and address it. Instead, she made it a public issue after she left.
Click to expand...
Hey so could you clarify which part of the News Sentinel story is not factual:

Board Chairman John Compton said during Tuesday’s meeting, following Lawson’s hire last month as the Duke women’s basketball coach.

Compton said the provisions of the UT Focus Act allow for Lawson to remain on the board.

“Kara can continue as trustee, and after a conversation she and I have had, I am pleased to inform you she will be doing so,” Compton said during the meeting. “So, Kara, congratulations to you, and we look forward to your ongoing contributions to our Board.”

The Focus Act, which went into effect in 2018, prohibits certain individuals from serving on the board. Those prohibitions include employees of any public institution of higher education or any members of a governing body for any other public institution of higher education.

Duke is a private university in Durham, North Carolina.
Click to expand...

So, accordingly to you, the President of the UT board of Trustees, blatantly lied to a major local newspaper about the state policy and just hoped no one would notice (while it appears around the situation would have known he was lying).

That is what you are saying happened?
 
  • Like
Reactions: vols90, brittannica, choochoovol and 1 other person
#17
#17
The Kara Lawson saga, one of this board’s most enduring mysteries.

That’s why I have to chuckle every time someone innocently wanders by and says “hey by the way, has anyone ever wondered why Kara Lawson wasn’t hired?”
 
  • Like
Reactions: vols90 and JarFly
New Posts
You must log in or register to reply here.

Advertisement



Back
Top