I credit Fleser for talking to Warlick about the coaching issue. Here are the FACTS: UT's offense has been dog-ass terrible for more than a DECADE. What are averaging this year--in the 50s? Some games it doesn't look like we'll reach 50. UConn scored 106 points tonight--106. Our offense sux--the scheme/sets sux, the coaching sux, the decision-making by our players sux. PS couldn't coach team offense and Warlick is worse. How many points did we score in our Elite Eight game against Maryland. Answer: 48.
Here's another fact: Warlick hasn't been "doing this" all her life. She was 2nd assistant for many, many years. That's a cheerleader, be a pal of the players job--a far cry from head coach at Tennessee. I saw her the first couple of years--she could barely talk she was so nervous. Over her head. And let's flip the discussion: What exactly has Warlick done that would suggest she's a /good/ coach? What good teams has she beaten? I think the answer is none--zero. Oregon State this year? It remains to be seen if they are a strong team; they are not exactly a perennial power. How has Warlick done against Notre Dame? I think we've played the Irish every year she's been head coach--and McGraw has schooled HW and our staff and our team ALL FOUR YEARS. Not just won the games--schooled us. Warlick and the Vols did beat up some very mediocre SEC teams regularly in recent years, team with less talent that us, gotten pretty good seeds in the NCAA tourney, won a couple of tournament games against unranked teams at home--and that is the extent of her achievement, if you can call it that. Then we lose to the first good team we play. And we can't even beat up on SEC teams anymore--losses to florida and arkansas. Every time we play a stout team, we lose--and yet HW wants us to believe that she's a good coach.
The Vols have been badly coached for years. Look at the numbers--the numbers prove the point. Our team shooting percentage, our turnovers, our assists--all WAY below what ND and UConn achieve every year, WAY below. Bad passing and turnovers and team offense have been a problem for years. When the players change but the problems remain the same, year after year, what does that tell you? It tells me that we have weak coaching. We constantly blow leads; no matter who we play, it's usually a close game because we are not efficient or fundamentally sound enough to put any team away. In a word, we vastly UNDERACHIEVE.
As for the pressure excuse, it is just that--an excuse. You got out and you play. DeShields is a second year player with big talent; we have a bench full of highly recruited players and more talent than nearly every team we play. Most of our players are experienced, in the 2nd, 3rd or 4th year players. If they can't deal with a little game pressure, they should all quit basketball and take up sewing. The pressure excuse is just another example of what a weak-minded, soft program we've become. The basketball program has become totally weak-minded from top to bottom--and I mean it. Recall the Louisville Elite Eight game two/three years. Mighty Tennessee is playing Louisville--a team that has won ZERO in its history. And what happened? The Vols utterly choked. We were playing nervous, scared, panicky basketball before the the first half was two-thirds over. We folded--just like we fold in most games we play. Recall last year's Maryland game and most of our games this year--the same pattern: We start out playing pretty solid and then begin a slow collapse. We have leads and then instead of growing them, we start to fold and the the lead disappears. Notre Dame game the other night--the same thing. This is a team with no character and no toughness.
If Warlick had the chops and ambition to be a head coach, she would have left and become a head coach a long time ago. Instead, she stayed for more than 25 years and played the role of best friend of PS. That's fine--but that damn sure doesn't make you head-coaching material. The team stats, the consistent losses against any solid teams, the poor, fundamentally UNSOUND basketball that we play, and that we've played for several years--they are all telling.
