Warlick was the right hire at the time. I think she deserved the chance for the job. It's too bad that she ended up not being a good fit.
I'm sure I'll get grief from VN for this, but...I was not a fan of hiring Kellie. She was a journeyman coach without a stellar CV. She had that one good run with MoSt to the S16, but that was really the highlight of her career. That accomplishment should have set her up as a candidate for an up-and-coming P5, but not Tennessee. They should have gone big and went for either one of the current coaching greats, or a HC that was on their way to becoming great. And they should have been prepared to pay top dollar for it the way LSU and Texas did.
Whenever the time comes that a new coach is to be hired, I hope that they have "best coach, period." as their top priority.
I actually thought Harper was a good choice given how the school seemed less than willing to put out big $$ for a name coach, and also how when Waltz name came up a lot of people were upset at the idea since the LVs were a brand that had so much tradition with women's excellence. That's just my two cents as an observer of here but also VN but less frequent.
I said at the time of her hire she wasn't a bad choice and I was willing to give her some grace in that maybe her time at NCSU had been a learning experience she could use to her advantage.
Frankly the lack of recruiting success should be more concerning than some of the losses. Holly got rid of Elzy when they LVs didn't get any recruits one year and brought in Reeves, who brought in two very good classes. Harper already made staff changes and brought in two new assistants, one of whom has the recruiting reputation, but that failed to pay off this year.
Harper has painted herself into a corner right now though and I'm not sure how she gets out besides winning. She built a win now team with the portal and honestly their talent level drops significantly after Horston, Jackson, Key and Powell are gone. She will basically be forced to portal shop again, which I am still not convinced is a good way to build a program. I too thought on paper UT would be a top 10/maybe 5 team with this roster but clearly there are problems.