Holly Warlick post-game presser vs. South Carolina

[Bigorangefaninga]

Holly has THREE CONSECUTIVE WINS against that great coach, Dawn Staley.

And it is Extremely Odd that Wilson does not play against Tennessee in either game this season.

USC had nothing to gain or lose yesterday, either way they are 2 seed in tourney and most likely face UT in their first game of the tourney.

Yes Holly is 3 of the last 3 against USC, funny thing though is Staley still led them to the Championship game two years in a row with one of those resulting in NC while Holly hasnt even sniffed one! Even in final fours Lady Vols lose by 10 or more and are never even competitive. I guess as they say a blind squirrel can find an acorn every now and then!

Staley took USC from a bottom dwelling barely over 500 team with Walvius to a 734 win %. While Holly has took a program at 841% to a 744%.

People can keep sugar coating things, and either she is recruiting well and CANNOT coach, or she cannot recruit well because she is recruiting busts and they are not getting better why at the school. I mean we have Mercedes who was a number 1 national recruit and she is an also ran in womens basketball while UConn can sign the number 1 recruit and them be a stud over and over and not be a miss. You can recruit all you want, but out talenting a team can only get you so far and teams like Ms State show what a good coach can do even without having the recruiting resources a UT does!

 

[Pride85]

I'll be satisfied when she's finally gone which won't be too long from now one way or another. It's a shame that people like you support mediocrity and wallow in it. Holly Warlick is to Lady Vol Bball what Derek Dooley was to the football team.

You do realize that she has only 10 fewer wins than Pat Summit had after the same number of games, right? She may not be the best, but she is not the worst either.

 

[livefaith]

When assessing Holly's performance as a coach, I think it's wise to NOT include anything during the first 3 years she had some of Pat's players. Those players were recruited by Pat and trained under Pat's system. It is a much better indicator to look at Holly through the lens of JUST her players and JUST her system which started in the 2015-2016 season. IIRC, her winning percentage is closer to 66% than 76%. Her regular season SEC finishes are 7th, 5th, and 7th. She also has not yet beaten unranked Alabama in 4 tries.

Not sure of any Lady Vol fan who would find those #'s acceptable or be satisfied.

Mediocrity means different things at different schools.

 

[clkou]

You do realize that she has only 10 fewer wins than Pat Summit had after the same number of games, right? She may not be the best, but she is not the worst either.

Crunch those numbers again without Pat's classes and players and let me know what you get.

So far, you get 7th, 5th, and 7th regular place finishes in the SEC. 0 All Americans. No final 4's. And the cherry topper: 0-4 versus unranked Alabama.

 

[Bigorangefaninga]

You do realize that she has only 10 fewer wins than Pat Summit had after the same number of games, right? She may not be the best, but she is not the worst either.

You do know PAT was BUILDING a program pretty much from scratch while Holly isn't! That might one of the dumbest things I have seen someone on here say! Seriously context mean nothing to you? :lolabove:

 

[Volfan2012]

I guess any player has their faults but really hard for me to find very many with Davis in her freshman year. 12.1 ppg and 7.6 rpg on 49 percent shooting is really a terrific performance. She has averaged 2.2 turnovers per game but that is not terrible. She looks to be a player that could advance to first team SEC next season and even National honors.
I wish she had taken more shots this season. 284 shots produced 350 points which is 1.23 per attempt.
She has played about 120 less minutes than Nared but only trails by 3 rebounds and is only 43 less than Russell who has played 100 minutes more.
Davis has been remarkable and I'm excited about her future here at Tennessee.

 

[TNnative]

I'm still not convinced Holly is the answer but a winning % of approximately 76% isn't "mediocrity". At least be realistic about what you are complaining about.

Actually, it isn't mediocrity to a program that has never been to the final four. But when you have the history the Lady Vols have? 76% is ordering Vanilla at Baskin Robbins.

 

[madtownvol]

I guess any player has their faults but really hard for me to find very many with Davis in her freshman year. 12.1 ppg and 7.6 rpg on 49 percent shooting is really a terrific performance. She has averaged 2.2 turnovers per game but that is not terrible. She looks to be a player that could advance to first team SEC next season and even National honors.
I wish she had taken more shots this season. 284 shots produced 350 points which is 1.23 per attempt.
She has played about 120 less minutes than Nared but only trails by 3 rebounds and is only 43 less than Russell who has played 100 minutes more.
Davis has been remarkable and I'm excited about her future here at Tennessee.

100% correct. And I would say that is the consensus opinion around Davis, whose improvement curve this season has been astonishing. She is bound for greatness. So, a random poster can complain that she is not all that because of "the rotation on her shot" and a "feeling" but that is not consequential. I don't think Davis is going to lose much sleep over such complaints.

 

[clkou]

Davis has been remarkable and I'm excited about her future here at Tennessee.

To be clear, I'm not criticizing Davis or any of our players. My criticism is on the coaching staff. Someone made the comment that our 3 Freshman will save Holly the next 3 years. I think that is blatantly false. We will be about the same team or worse next year and every foreseeable year with this coaching staff IMO. I don't expect to get a different result when you do the same thing.

At the same time, I'm just not as high on this Freshman class as everyone else seems to be. That's not to say I'm CRITICAL of them. I just don't see anything that differentiates them from all of our other top classes.

The truth is we shouldn't even have to rely on 1 Freshman, let alone 3. Stewart didn't even start for UCONN as a Freshman. We used to not have as many Freshman start for us either. I miss those days.

I went ahead and crunched the turnover stats and sorted them by minutes elapsed per turnover committed. That's a number you want to be HIGHER. You want MORE time to elapse before you commit a turnover. Two of our 3 Freshman are by far and away the worst offenders and would commit on average over 5 a game each if they played a full 40 minutes. Davis is the best of the 3 Freshman, but of all the players who get regular minutes, the only player not a Freshman she's performing better than that department is Green so it's not like she's blazing a trail to excellence either. Dunbar is by far and away the best in this stat and another reason she should get more minutes IMO.

 

[Darth_Vol]

I guess any player has their faults but really hard for me to find very many with Davis in her freshman year. 12.1 ppg and 7.6 rpg on 49 percent shooting is really a terrific performance. She has averaged 2.2 turnovers per game but that is not terrible. She looks to be a player that could advance to first team SEC next season and even National honors.
I wish she had taken more shots this season. 284 shots produced 350 points which is 1.23 per attempt.
She has played about 120 less minutes than Nared but only trails by 3 rebounds and is only 43 less than Russell who has played 100 minutes more.
Davis has been remarkable and I'm excited about her future here at Tennessee.

I haven't been this impressed with a freshman since Bashaara Graves. Nobody develops talent like Holly....

 

[Putbacks]

Sarcasm noted. Agree.

If Davis were groomed and disciplined similarly to how Holdsclaw and Parker were, she could be jaw-dropping and become the "game changer" the 2017 class was accused of not having.

She still has some of the pieces, but....

 

[Volfan2012]

To be clear, I'm not criticizing Davis or any of our players. My criticism is on the coaching staff. Someone made the comment that our 3 Freshman will save Holly the next 3 years. I think that is blatantly false. We will be about the same team or worse next year and every foreseeable year with this coaching staff IMO. I don't expect to get a different result when you do the same thing.

At the same time, I'm just not as high on this Freshman class as everyone else seems to be. That's not to say I'm CRITICAL of them. I just don't see anything that differentiates them from all of our other top classes.

The truth is we shouldn't even have to rely on 1 Freshman, let alone 3. Stewart didn't even start for UCONN as a Freshman. We used to not have as many Freshman start for us either. I miss those days.

I went ahead and crunched the turnover stats and sorted them by minutes elapsed per turnover committed. That's a number you want to be HIGHER. You want MORE time to elapse before you commit a turnover. Two of our 3 Freshman are by far and away the worst offenders and would commit on average over 5 a game each if they played a full 40 minutes. Davis is the best of the 3 Freshman, but of all the players who get regular minutes, the only player not a Freshman she's performing better than that department is Green so it's not like she's blazing a trail to excellence either. Dunbar is by far and away the best in this stat and another reason she should get more minutes IMO.

Overall this season all have done a decent job to be starters at this level is not an easy transition. I can say that the truth will be told about Holly's player development skills if all these freshman aren't a lot better in year two.
Graves was better as a freshman than she was any other season. This year Davis was excellent with Westbrook and Hayes having ups and downs. All need improvement in their games so the final verdict on all comes in the next season we as fans expect better players it always happens at UConn must start happening here as well.

 

[Volfan2012]

I haven't been this impressed with a freshman since Bashaara Graves. Nobody develops talent like Holly....

Yes this is true and of course there is a lot of concern if this freshman class will ever get any better. The only player I can remember getting better under Holly is Harrison to a large extent. We tend to think it want happen but we keep hoping Holly has gotten better although we never see it on the court with any consistency.

 

[Franklin Pierce]

USC had nothing to gain or lose yesterday, either way they are 2 seed in tourney and most likely face UT in their first game of the tourney.

Yes Holly is 3 of the last 3 against USC, funny thing though is Staley still led them to the Championship game two years in a row with one of those resulting in NC while Holly hasnt even sniffed one! Even in final fours Lady Vols lose by 10 or more and are never even competitive. I guess as they say a blind squirrel can find an acorn every now and then!

Staley took USC from a bottom dwelling barely over 500 team with Walvius to a 734 win %. While Holly has took a program at 841% to a 744%.

People can keep sugar coating things, and either she is recruiting well and CANNOT coach, or she cannot recruit well because she is recruiting busts and they are not getting better why at the school. I mean we have Mercedes who was a number 1 national recruit and she is an also ran in womens basketball while UConn can sign the number 1 recruit and them be a stud over and over and not be a miss. You can recruit all you want, but out talenting a team can only get you so far and teams like Ms State show what a good coach can do even without having the recruiting resources a UT does!

Nothing in your post refutes the Fact that Holly and the Lady Vols have Defeated Staley and Usc-JR Three Consecutive times.

The absolute best Usc-JR can do this season against Tennessee is have a 1-3 record in the past four games played between the two teams.

 

[Nute Gunray]

Unfortunately, I think Holly is here until she resigns or recruiting dries up... and that’s the paradox, the LadyVols brand recruits itself, thus keeping an average coach in place. This year’s freshman class will keep her employed for at least 3 more years.

Sad but true. I wish Holly could build on the last two victories to strengthen her coaching skills.

 

[Tnphil]

You do know PAT was BUILDING a program pretty much from scratch while Holly isn't! That might one of the dumbest things I have seen someone on here say! Seriously context mean nothing to you? :lolabove:

Yep....Not even a apples to oranges comparison. More like apples to donuts. Pat started the program when it wasn't much more than a PE class playing in front of 200 people. Holly took over a top national brand that Pat built from day 1.

 

[alaVOL]

I'm still not convinced Holly is the answer but a winning % of approximately 76% isn't "mediocrity". At least be realistic about what you are complaining about.

It is when you lead the what was the top women's BB program. Are y'all blind?

 

[teacherdean]

Nothing in your post refutes the Fact that Holly and the Lady Vols have Defeated Staley and Usc-JR Three Consecutive times.

The absolute best Usc-JR can do this season against Tennessee is have a 1-3 record in the past four games played between the two teams.

Great Holly has beat Dawn Staley THREE CONSECUTIVE times, give Holly a cookie 🍪 and a feel good trophy 🏆, but has Holly been to a final 4 and has she won a National Championshi? If the Lady Vols could make it to a final 4 and challenge for a championship, then we will really have something to brag about.

 

[Darth_Vol]

Yes this is true and of course there is a lot of concern if this freshman class will ever get any better. The only player I can remember getting better under Holly is Harrison to a large extent. We tend to think it want happen but we keep hoping Holly has gotten better although we never see it on the court with any consistency.

I'm still not sure a lot of our fans realize how good Westbrook is either. She has the skill and talent to be the best pure point guard who ever played here. Sadly, I have no faith this coaching staff could ever get her there....

 

[blackv]

Davis is a very good player. With holly coach who knows.

 

[madtownvol]

Hmmm, Nared has improved over her four years. Meme Jackson has made a significant advance from her freshman season. Russell (though she is not Britney Griner) is a much better all round player. Middleton was on a good improvement curve. I could go on but the idea that Izzy Harrison is the only player who ever improved under the current coaching staff is a tad selective.

As for Evina, one big upsides of that SC game is that she looked pretty close to her normal self (Pre knee problem). I suspect that she has some kind of tendonitis and if so, there is always a risk that injury could flare up once she starts going 100%. Hopefully, she has turned the corner because the LVs do need her passing and scoring punch (and the leadership she brings).

 

[clkou]

I actually thought Middleton got worse as time went on. Nared seems to me basically the same player when she got here - so did Burdick, Massengale, and Graves. We rely on her (Jamie) more but it's not like I look back and think, "wow look how far she has come". Russell has improved some but she came in arguably the #1 player in the country and certainly the best of this class having sat out a year, so, to me, for her to reach her potential, she should be a 1st team pre-season All American. She wasn't and I don't think she will be at seasons end either.

That's really what it boils down to me. It just feels like no one is reaching their perceived potential except Izzy. I guess an argument could be made that several of our players were overrated coming in but there's been too many IMO for it to be isolated. The more likely explanation is the coaching staff is consistently delivering talent but undermining with development.

 

[LA Vol]

EW practiced without the brace on Saturday. Maybe she wears it during games as a precaution. They haven't really cut back her minutes and she wasn't limping yesterday. The LVs are a better team with her on the floor. If she can continue to regain her confidence and add 8-10 points a game, that could really give the LVs a boost.

 

[Volfan2012]

I think Nared has improved in her on court intensity and leadership but she is still the same shooter she was when she got here. 38 percent then and now. 25 percent three point shooter so no she is the same player as far as her ability to produce offensively.
Russell is better because she got bigger and stronger so her progress goes more to the fitness instructor than anyone else.
Jackson may be a little better although her decision making is very suspect and that needs to change..
Dunbar probably didn't have the talent for this league. She has offensive ability but could never defend well enough to get any minutes.
When you talk improvement you hope for something like UConn gets. Some of their players looked bad as freshmen totally different as sophomores.
That is the standard you must hold your coach to if your going to be an elite program.

 

[Texas]

To be clear, I'm not criticizing Davis or any of our players. My criticism is on the coaching staff. Someone made the comment that our 3 Freshman will save Holly the next 3 years. I think that is blatantly false. We will be about the same team or worse next year and every foreseeable year with this coaching staff IMO. I don't expect to get a different result when you do the same thing.

At the same time, I'm just not as high on this Freshman class as everyone else seems to be. That's not to say I'm CRITICAL of them. I just don't see anything that differentiates them from all of our other top classes.

The truth is we shouldn't even have to rely on 1 Freshman, let alone 3. Stewart didn't even start for UCONN as a Freshman. We used to not have as many Freshman start for us either. I miss those days.

I went ahead and crunched the turnover stats and sorted them by minutes elapsed per turnover committed. That's a number you want to be HIGHER. You want MORE time to elapse before you commit a turnover. Two of our 3 Freshman are by far and away the worst offenders and would commit on average over 5 a game each if they played a full 40 minutes. Davis is the best of the 3 Freshman, but of all the players who get regular minutes, the only player not a Freshman she's performing better than that department is Green so it's not like she's blazing a trail to excellence either. Dunbar is by far and away the best in this stat and another reason she should get more minutes IMO.

I found this post imparting very logical, useful information until the assertion of Dunbar playing more minutes, which then shocked me as I find this assertion laughable. She is such a liability on defense that she would need to score a 3 every 2 trips down the floor with 0 total turnovers for the season to even try to keep pace with the opposing team. It was Dunbar who checked in while the Vols were up 23 that led to instantaneous blitzkrieg on offense by ND. More recently I’ve seen her switch wings while playing ZONE defense to follow an offensive player cutting across the baseline with the result of immediate score. Not only is she a liability on defense, she is an energy boost, to the opposite team! Teams have watched enough tape to know: Once Holly sends her in, be ready to pounce. Of course holly won’t be bright enough to recognize this, so the pattern continues.