Russell Smith reporting Kellie Jolly-Harper has been hired

#53
#53
KJH is the new norm at UT. Pat was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, will never happen again. Good luck to Kelly, will be interesting to see if her husband is on the staff, then we'd have two husband-wife teams leading LV programs.
 
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#54
#54
I hope by "bye" that that means they are thrown out of here? purty please!
 
#56
#56
Volle said:
KJH is the new norm at UT. Pat was a once-in-a-lifetime thing, will never happen again. Good luck to Kelly, will be interesting to see if her husband is on the staff, then we'd have two husband-wife teams leading LV programs.
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He will be because they have made a great team for 15 years or so. She will wear the pants but he will be an assistant who reports to a AAD . No co head-coaches.
 
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#58
#58
It's not final yet,but I will give her a chance if she is hired.She will have to be able to recruit players that can get it done,especially gaurds .This IMO is what got HW gone.She never recruited a take over type guard and the one that was(maybe) quit on her!
 
#62
#62
I am looking forward to seeing who Kellie hires as her assistants, and I'd love for one of them to be Kyra Elzy, and for at least one of them to be an offense expert.

One thing is for certain, and that is when that first game of next season rolls around we'll see an improved team. And Thompson-Boling Arena will explode in thunderous applause the first time Kellie Jolly Harper is introduced as coach. The fans are going to go crazy with excited support. That'll be fun to be a part of, and I can't wait!
 
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#63
#63
volfanIND said:
If the ‘top’ candidates are not interested and the AD has only limited options, you can’t fault him for going with the best opportunity. I sit and laugh at the fact that people on here actually believe that current top 5 coaches of teams would be interested in coming here. Yeah right. They want to build their own empire, not live off someone else’s. All the money in the world wouldn’t bring them here. At the end of the day you have to hire people who actually want the job.
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Good post. I am hoping that she keeps Reeves as recruiting coordinator. I have not coached, but to me coaching is coaching with the difference being the ranking of the players. I hope the current players and incoming recruits will not react negatively to her being from a mid major school.
 
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#66
#66
She's only 41...seems to have done well with a few "slip" years here and there. I think it could be a great hire. Tennessee recruits itself so if shes an X and O coach...it will work out well.
 
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#67
#67
OldNSlow said:
I am not sure I agree with that.
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Anyone with a pulse is an improvement over Holly. Kellie wasn't my first, second or third choice, but she may surprise her doubters. I'm willing to give her the chance to show what she's got. Assuming no transfers, replacing Holly with Kellie is worth at least 3 more SEC wins compared to last year. They should be challenging for the conference title.
 
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#68
#68
zjcvols said:
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Harper just won the Kay Yow award (national by fellow coaches) for her coaching success at Missouri State and reaching the Sweet 16 with four upsets to get there. As the LV coach she will be able to attract the top women basketball recruits. She will get them back to the final teams in less than 3 years. It was tough to recruit top players with a second division school, but she somehow did a Rick Barnes and developed what she could get into the "Sweet 16". Harper will restore LV basketball back to where it was with Pat Summit.
 
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#70
#70
volfanIND said:
If the ‘top’ candidates are not interested and the AD has only limited options, you can’t fault him for going with the best opportunity
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I know its way more fun to vilify PF and dog the hire as cheap and easy, but I'll bet there was a big old helping of best we could do in the mix as well. I've always thought it was delusional to think that the LV job is the Mecca for all coaches far and wide. Same delusions that constantly tout the great "talent" on the current roster just waiting around for the new coach to develop.

PF probably found the "star hires" either too expensive, not interested, or whatever the Walz craziness was. I believe Kara Lawson meant what she said about not wanting to coach right now and was always only advising. Next step would be mid-majors, assistants, and up and comers. Either there was a lack of interest there or it was determined that a beloved former LV with uneven experience was a better option. Arguable that fan interest (general fan not internet nuts like us) would be sparked by a familiar face, plus the hire buys favor with the pain in the ass cult of Maria.

It's possible KJH could work out and I pray to the basketball gods she does. I would really hate to see her LV legacy get trashed a la Holly. I wish I was less underwhelmed but the hire is a gamble and does have a best we could do at the time feel. I could not truly argue with critics who say if she was not a VFL, even given her nice tourney run this year, KJH would never have been considered. That's scary.
 
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#72
#72
lvocd said:
I am looking forward to seeing who Kellie hires as her assistants, and I'd love for one of them to be Kyra Elzy, and for at least one of them to be an offense expert.

One thing is for certain, and that is when that first game of next season rolls around we'll see an improved team. And Thompson-Boling Arena will explode in thunderous applause the first time Kellie Jolly Harper is introduced as coach. The fans are going to go crazy with excited support. That'll be fun to be a part of, and I can't wait!
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might be at the Spring game this Saturday
 
#73
#73
That guy is the only one associated with UT media reporting the Harper hire? I've been looking on Twitter but can't find anything else from UT journalists confirming it.
 
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