Kara Lawson emerges as a leading candidate for Duke job

#101
#101
Some of you guys are embarrassing yourselves.....
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#103
#103
Franklin Pierce said:
Lawson insinuated that UT has a racist athletics program. She probably wanted the UT job, but Fulmer was not going to hire anyone with zero college basketball coaching experience.
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I think her assessment is correct and the fan base is even worse. As much as I love UT, I’d have a hard time sending my child there. Some of you need to check your biases. You only care about these black kids when they’re wearing orange.
 
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#105
#105
Kara would have to resign from the Board of Trustees if she took the UT job. Maybe she didn’t want to do that back then
 
#106
#106
Hoosier said:
sure, that would have been fine --- but let's see, who knows how to win a National Championship? Kellie Jolly Harper - 3, Kara Lawson - 0
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Umm those are as players, not coaches, which is the reality that we’re in right now.

And let’s be honest here, Kellie was an important piece in those championships but she also had the luxury of a once in a generational talent on her team in Holdsclaw......Lawson had to play against a once in a generational talent in Taurasi.

Still wanted Kara here :)
 
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#107
#107
Orange007 said:
A couple of points...
1. We do not know whether Kara even wanted to be a part of the TN mess when Holly was fired. All signs indicated no at the time.
2. Kara has never been a head coach or even an assistant coach for any WCBB program. Kelly has experience and is also a 3 time national champion PG.
3. If Kara wanted more money from UT, then how would that have been warranted with no coaching experience? She had not yet coached for the Celtics and 3x3 USA bball is NOT the same as running a program. Kara increased her value for any Duke deal by going to the Celtics for coaching experience. Do not compare what Duke pays her now to what TN should have paid her then. Her experience level and contract value was not the same at the time of TN's search. What if TN football paid a coach with no experience top dollar? The same standard should apply here.
4. Kelly is doing a great job recruiting AND reestablishing TN. Give her time before you start asking for a coach without a single coaching win to take over the most loved program in the history of WCBB. That position makes zero sense on many levels.
5. If Kelly does not get the job done, then Kara would be in a prime spot to command top money for a return to Knoxville.

I support both Kelly and Kara 100%. They are two of Pat's best PGs and we all know that Pat would be rooting for both of them and not pitting their abilities against each other. We should be doing the same. Kara is a brilliant mind and will do big things. I wish her all the best. Just my thoughts.
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Agree, at least on 1,2,3, and 5. My comments in the thread were about defending Lawson primarily. She has a very high ceiling imo which has nothing to do with Harper. The criticism about her comments to the board by some were exaggerated and naive. That’s what should and does happen on most boards.

Let’s hope both do well and we do not burn a bridge to Lawson. If there were any hard feelings based on the last search, there is a strong possibility there will be a different AD involved in the next search anyway.
 
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#112
#112
Franklin Pierce said:
Lawson insinuated that UT has a racist athletics program. She probably wanted the UT job, but Fulmer was not going to hire anyone with zero college basketball coaching experience.
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This is from Jordan Horston...don’t tell me that these young people don’t feel like they’re loved in orange and tolerated outside of it.
 

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#116
#116
Ladyvol777 said:
I'm very proud to have Kellie Harper as the coach of the Lady Vol's. She will make us proud. I just hope we can play some basketball this season.
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Kellie will make us about as proud as Holly did. Kellie has an average win record as a head coach, and while she may win more games with TN, it'll be against teams she should beat, similar to Holly. I doubt she'll be able to recruit a team of top athletes who could contend for a national title. We may as well stop thinking the LV will return to the top echelon of women's college basketball anytime soon. UConn and now SC are really stacking their rosters with elite players, and will likely be the teams to beat for the foreseeable future. You don't replace - arguably THE BEST COACH EVER - with an ordinary coach. The replacement coach has to come with more than average toughness, an average ability to recruit, and an average ability to develop players. When players used to decide on TN, it was because of CPS. Players knew the pedigree, the mental fortitude, the expectations. They knew they would be made better. Now that's gone, which is why TN should've added name recognition as part of the selection criteria the second time around, which brings me to Tamika Catchings. Maybe she was offered, but declined. Catchings definitely checks the box for name recognition, but she also checks many other boxes. AND high school kids still list her as one of the WNBA greats who they model their game after. I can only imagine how many recruits would've lined up to play for her.
 
#118
#118
I think the big difference in opinions comes down to folks who like a "big name" and folks who value some type of experience. I don't think either position is wrong. That said, in the real world, you don't hire a CEO to run a company who has no experience. There are lots of super talented assistant coaches who have worked hard to become a head coach and did the dirty work. Look at Nikki at Miss St. Prime example. Best of luck to Kara. She is a super star personality. I hope she gets the right people around her to help her learn the inside game of coaching DI. That will be crucial.
 
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#123
#123
VolBall09 said:
This is a terrible argument. Women’s basketball barely existed when Pat started coaching. It certainly wasn’t anything close to the game we see today. For that we have Pat to thank. It was not at all uncommon for coaches to have little or no experience at that time.

Now it would be almost unheard of to see someone hired at a P5 school with no prior coaching success at the college level. The few times I can think of really haven’t gone very well.
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Apples to Apples comparison.
 
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