First on the "performative thing," everyone, including Kellie staunchest critics should be well aware, that these 30 second TV snippets are not representative of what coaches do in the long build up to these games. In fact, pretty much all these televised scenes showed the coaches talking to their players in a relatively calm manner. There is a time for yelling, a time for rah rah, and a time for calm. Saying that this 30 second snippet proves that Kellie lacks passion or grit, is just dumb.
Second, I do understand “the fire Kellie” argument because the team did not match last seasons benchmarks. No movement forward with a “they don’t grow on trees” elite player is a problem. On the flipside, I was really struck by Kellie’s press conference where MMC told Kellie that the replay clearly showed that Moore’s TO came after the ball was in play. Kellie was visibly upset but, her main point was recalling the FL St game where she tried to call a TO, in a very similar situation, but did not get it, leading to a game losing TO.
If you go back to the missed double dribble at the end of the SC game, that is two final, big losses, that likely turned on a bad call.
The LVs had the most woulda, coulda, shoulda season ever. Had just a little luck gone their way in these last 2 losses, the narrative would have been entirely different. As Kellie, they were 2 wins away from being a host site, which would have made their path forward much easier.
Of course, athletics is a “close but no cigar” endeavor and, to use analogy, drowning 100 feet from the shore leads to the same outcome as drowning a mile out but, you still have to appreciate and recognize the effort to get that close.
Kellie’s best coaching outcome was keeping this team together and competing to the very end whereas her predecessor had a team destroyed by in fighting (both literal and figurative0. Her ability to maintain a team under adverse conditions will probably the main reason she survives this disappointing season.
Worth noting that Cora Hall is writing as through Kellie is back next season as well.
Looking forward, I keep forgetting about T. Cooper!! She was exactly the kind of guard that the LVs needed to match up with up with Sainya Rivers. One more quality, athletic guard in the mix and Kellie’s “coaching” suddenly gets a whole lot better.
Spear, Boyd, Cooper, Wells, Key, Puckett, Darby, Wynn, Hollingshead, and Striplin (assuming all come back) is not a bad core. A PG, a quality post, and one more athletic guard would make for a competitive team. No matter what, Boyd and Cooper will need to deliver.
For Kellie it is now or never and next season looks like a tougher road ahead.
