I’ll relax when we actually have a coach that can recruit a high school player (4 or 5 star player), can add one or two good players from the portal, can develop players, can teach good team defense, can team some kind of offense and can demand respect of their players and the locker room. I see none of that from any of CKH teams. It’s not anything personal against Kellie. I just think we have not gotten what we need from her and her assistants. If we don’t make a change soon, it will get worse. This is a proud program and some of you think what we are getting is okay. It’s really not.
You're not really following the Lady Vols, their recruiting, or their player development are you. First, no one who follows the Lady Vols can deny that this staff has had excellent results in the portal (although I will admit that I would have liked seeing another big for next year). Second, Kaniya Boyd, who is on campus now and is a 4* 2024 guard will soon be followed by 5* 2025 wing Nyla Brooks and things are looking up for a 5* 2025 guard, as well. Third, as far as developing players, I would suggest you obviously are unwilling to recognize the improvement in Rickea Jackson, Tamari Key, Karoline Striplin, and Kaiya Wynn, just on this current team. Also Jas Powell has shown significant improvement year-to-year under this staff. And, although neither Tess Darby or Sara Puckett will ever be elite, or particularly strong, defenders, to deny that they have each improved in that area is to, once again, deny reality, at least in my opinion.
Would I like to see better in game coaching decisions in a number of situations? Clearly, yes. Do I have a problem with some of the substitution patterns employed? Again, yes. I think my greatest problem with Kellie is the scheduling that she does. The strength of the early schedule, when combined with her proclivity to use the early games as a shake out period to find the capabilities of her various lineups can be maddening. If you want to use in game play to work out the rough spots in your team structure, schedule like some of the other SEC coaches, notably in Louisiana, and schedule easier teams, at least at first. If you want to increase the difficulty of the schedule, do it strategically after a period of, what I would call "warm-up games".
To say you see none of the qualities, particularly with regard to the respect of the players and "locker room" (whatever that is), that you profess to want simply displays your unwillingness to look at the staff and team in an objective manner, probably because you have an already predetermined objective in mind. Just saying.
Jim