Holly Warlick set to receive contract extension

[Rocket009]

Not sure about the recruiting part of your statement....they've had some of the best recruiting classes in the country over the past few years.......it just doesn't always look like it when the recruits get on the court.

You can recruit talented individuals, but that does't mean you are a good team recruiter. I think TN is lacking that part of the recruiting equation.

 

[Kevin G]

Sounds good to me...HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

 

[nwhoopfan]

It's hard to disentangle one from the other, but is Holly really that good of a recruiter? If she was anywhere other than Tennessee, how would she be doing? I think the school recruits itself, for whatever reason kids are still lining up there to try to restore UT to it's former glory.

Pretty much every men's coach at UCLA has recruited well. Results on the court have varied. It's going on 40 years now and they'll never get back to Wooden level of success, but I think some of their fan base keeps hoping...

 

[bballnut90]

All joking aside, she deserves it. I know some LVol fans delusionally think they should be FF locks almost every year, but the fact is that she's been recruiting gangbusters and the administration really needs to see what she can do with the plethora of talent she's amassed recently.

Frankly I think making occasional elite 8 or sweet 16 appearances should pretty much guarantee her extensions even beyond that...

I call BS.....she put together a very good class in 2017 and has a slew of midrange players for 2018, but it's hardly a gangbuster class despite what a lot of Tennessee fans are hoping for. She essentially struck out in 2015 and 2016, plus she has no verbals for 2019 yet. She has a very lopsided team headed for next year....we have three highly rated PGs, no highly rated posts, and no consistent perimeter shooters. I'd much rather her take smaller classes where players actually fit roles that are needed for the team.

Also worth noting, Tennessee is not a hard place to recruit to. They have better facilities, fan support, tradition, exposure and recognition than almost anyone else in the country. It isn't like Holly is recruiting all of these top players to a no name school. So many of the top kids who come to Tennessee have mentioned that it's been a lifelong dream to play for the program. They'd still be coming to Tennessee if a different coach were leading the charge. Tennessee for years was the gold standard in women's basketball, and players like Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings were/are two the most popular professional players in the world. I'm confident that anybody who Tennessee would hire to replace Holly could do a comparable or better job recruiting.



Aside from recruiting, Holly has badly underperformed in virtually every other coaching measure, including preseason team expectations, player development, handling the duties as head coach and overall eye test.

Team expectations: Look at the steady decline in results as well as how Tennessee has fared relative to preseason expectations:
2013: Preseason #20 and 4th in SEC. Finished in the Elite 8 with a #2 seed, won the SEC regular season. By far her best season in regards to overachieving. Team was severely underestimated in preseason due to lots of graduating seniors and Pat's retirement. Earned a relatively easy draw into the Elite 8 where they lost to #5 seed Louisville. Best tournament win was on the road against a #6 seed Oklahoma. Holly's best season. Most fans (including myself) were quite pleased with results.

2014: Preseason #4 and 1st in the SEC. Finished in the Sweet 16 as a 1 seed, won the SEC Tournament Championship and finished 2nd in the regular season. Not a bad year by any means, but Tennessee was blown out by Maryland in the Sweet 16 which left a bad taste in many fans mouths. Overall the team underachieved considering high expectations coming into the season. Not a bad season though.

2015 results: Preseason #4 and #2 in the SEC. Finished 30-6, #2 seed, Elite 8 finish, co-SEC Champions.....another year that didn't end in a Final Four but wasn't a bad year overall considering the loss of Harrison midseason and there's no shame in losing in the Elite 8. Tennessee did have an easy path to an Elite 8, facing a 15 seed, 10 seed, and 11 seed before losing to Maryland. They needed a 4th quarter miracle to force OT against the 11 seed in the Sweet 16 after trailing by double digits in the 4th. Their best tournament win was against a 10 seed, Pitt, in the 2nd round. Tennessee did finish lower than expectations once again.

2016 results: Preseason #4 in the country and #2 in the SEC. Finished 22-14, 7th in the SEC, #7 seed in the NCAA tournament, Elite 8 finish....this was arguably the most disappointing season under Holly. A team that was preseason #4 entered the tournament not ranked in the top 25, lost 14 games and finished with an 8-8 record in the SEC. The post season success was the only bright spot of the year, but Tennessee on paper had more talent than anyone in the country besides Connecticut this season (who went undefeated), yet the LVs were barely a top 25 team.

2017 results: Preseason #13/14 in the country and #3 in the SEC. Finished 20-12, 5th in the SEC, #5 seed in the NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Despite lower expectations, Tennessee still managed to underachieve, finishing the year out of the top 25 once again and losing in the 2nd round as expected.


2018 results: Preseason #13/18 in the country and #5 in the SEC. Finished 25-8, T4 in the SEC (#7 seed in tournament), #3 seed in NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Tennessee lost at home in the tournament for the 1st time ever and likely would've had 10 losses if they didn't luck into playing SC twice without A'ja Wilson. Underachieving wasn't as bad as the last 2 years, but after a strong start against a cupcake preseason schedule, Tennessee finished the year 10-8 in their last 18 games.

So in summary, you have 1 year of overachieving, 3 years of underachieving, and 2 years of badly underachieving.

Player Development:
She has not had 1 WBCA All American in her 6 years at Tennessee despite having the following top recruits come through Tennessee:
#1 recruit Mercedes Russell, no AA honors, never made 1st Team All-SEC, projected as 2nd round draft pick
#2 recruit Evina Westbrook, 1 year under her belt...made SEC All Freshman team
#3 recruit Diamond Deshields, no AA honors, made All-SEC, played 2 seasons and then quit. Projected as top 5 draft pick.
#3 recruit Cierra Burdick, no AA honors, made All-SEC(1st and 2nd team) as a senior, #14 pick in the draft
#4 recruit Ariel Massengale, no AA honors, never made All-SEC, #29 draft pick
#5 recruit Bashaara Graves, no AA honors, NFOY over Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd, named All-SEC 1st/2nd Team as a freshman and then didn't make an All-SEC team again until she made 2nd team as a senior. #22 draft pick.
#6 recruit Jaime Nared, no AA honors, All-SEC as a senior (1st and 2nd team), 2nd team All-SEC as a junior. Projected as a 2nd round draft pick.
#7 recruit Anastasia Hayes, 1 year under her belt...named SEC 6th Woman of the year
#8 recruit Jannah Tucker, played 1 year and transferred


Other top 30 recruits under Holly:
#13 recruit Taber Spani...played 1 season, didn't make it in the pros
#12 recruit Te'a Cooper....transferred after a disappointing freshman campaign
#24 recruit Meighan Simmons...never improved after a strong freshman season under Pat. Hasn't been able to stick in the pros
#21 recruit, Andraya Carter...never lived up to expectations and retired early
#29 recruit, Alexa Middleton...never was a strong contributor, transferred after junior season
#29 recruit, Isabelle Harrison....the only success story under Holly. Made great strides in college and has had a productive pro career.
#12 recruit Rennia Davis....played 1 season so far, SEC All-Freshman team


Out of all that talent, we've had a grand total of 1 successful pro player in Isabelle Harrison. I'm not sure we can even take credit for Diamond if she goes pro considering she transferred in and quit before using up her eligibility.


Head Coaching Duties:
Regularly in press conferences, Holly seems confused and unable to articulate what went wrong. She commonly says phrases similar to, "I told them to do this and they didn't listen" and never takes blame or comes up with valid reasons for what went wrong. A coach in her position needs to have better public speaking skills and she needs to be able to articulate what went wrong when her teams routinely lose to less talented teams.

Holly does not hold her players accountable or demand their best efforts. You never see her call out individual players in press conferences, bench players who put forth poor efforts, and most of all she seems to lack any backbone.

When Diamond Deshields quit, Holly immaturely post a smiley face on Twitter before deleting the post and then deleting her Twitter all together. What other head coach have you seen pull a similar stunt? I don't care how much she disliked Diamond or had issues with her, it is incredibly immature to post anything along those lines on social media. As the head coach of one of the most followed programs in the country, Holly should know how to handle this better.

Eye Test:
Here is the biggest issue IMO. Even in her best years, none of her teams ever looked like they could compete for a championship. They simply have never looked like a true Final Four team or title contender. More over, every year this team gets worse. This board has always roasted Tennessee, even during our championship years, but anyone can see the quality of play has declined immensely the last 4-5 years. Once in a while we get some spurts of great basketball (2018 Notre Dame first half, 2016 Sweet 16 vs. Ohio State), but overall the lack of effort put forth by Tennessee players has been noticeable since Holly took over. You rarely see anyone give 100%, you don't see players scrapping for loose balls or crashing the glass like players did under Pat. Holly has also not been able to figure out how to break a zone defense in the last 3 years. I am unsure why any coach would play anything BUT zone against Tennessee when they've had zero outside shooting and almost all of their offense comes in the paint or in the midrange game. On offense there are zero picks set, and plays are not run. Everything is jam the ball inside to Russell even if it's not there. If she's taking the play off and isn't posting, pass the ball around on the perimeter and have a perimeter player go one on one and settle for a tough jumper late in the shot clock. Or drive to the basket and hope for a foul. Pat was never an offensive mastermind, but her teams played much better offense than Holly's do, and her players always gave best effort so Tennessee regularly had 2nd and 3rd opportunities if they didn't get a good look on the first try.


Next year unless something massive changes, we are going to be a borderline top 25 team IMO. We have zero proven post players, even highly touted ones. This is the first time in my lifetime that Tennessee is going to have 0 top 5 post players on the roster. Tennessee's strength as a program has always been in having strong forwards and centers. We don't have any next year unless we play Davis primarily as a post.

Our guards show promise, but Holly is not going to help them improve skills they've struggled with (avoiding turnovers, perimeter shooting, making smart passes, shot selection, running plays, etc). I am hopeful that players will improve, but all results have shown this is unlikely to happen under Holly.

Additionally, more than ever you can see how important quality coaching is in today's landscape. Geno, Muffet, Dawn, Vic, Rueck, Tara etc have all proven year after year that good coaches make good teams and they help their players reach their potential. There's a reason we've consistently seen these coaches competing in the Final Four while we haven't seen coaches like Holly, Mulkey, Aston, McGuff, and McCallie reach Final Fours despite having more than enough talent to compete for championships. It really does come down to coaching, and from everything we've seen the last 6 years, Holly hasn't shown any ability to be a strong coach or leader.

 

[Gus Mahler]

It's hard to disentangle one from the other, but is Holly really that good of a recruiter?

Good point. People forget she basically whiffed two years ago.

 

[bballnut90]

It's hard to disentangle one from the other, but is Holly really that good of a recruiter? If she was anywhere other than Tennessee, how would she be doing? I think the school recruits itself, for whatever reason kids are still lining up there to try to restore UT to it's former glory.

Pretty much every men's coach at UCLA has recruited well. Results on the court have varied. It's going on 40 years now and they'll never get back to Wooden level of success, but I think some of their fan base keeps hoping...

I don't think she is. Tennessee is not a hard place to recruit to....anyone in her role should be able to land a couple of highly rated players each year. She also isn't landing kids who fit needed roles on the team. Why does our roster have 3 highly rated PGs next year but no highly rated posts? Why haven't we recruited any top 3pt shooters the last several years despite being awful from three the past 4 seasons? Why is our roster extremely lopsided with underclassmen next season? Recruit players that fit needs on your team rather than stockpiling players.

 

[Gus Mahler]

I call BS.....she put together a very good class in 2017 and has a slew of midrange players for 2018, but it's hardly a gangbuster class despite what a lot of Tennessee fans are hoping for. She essentially struck out in 2015 and 2016, plus she has no verbals for 2019 yet. She has a very lopsided team headed for next year....we have three highly rated PGs, no highly rated posts, and no consistent perimeter shooters. I'd much rather her take smaller classes where players actually fit roles that are needed for the team.

Also worth noting, Tennessee is not a hard place to recruit to. They have better facilities, fan support, tradition, exposure and recognition than almost anyone else in the country. It isn't like Holly is recruiting all of these top players to a no name school. So many of the top kids who come to Tennessee have mentioned that it's been a lifelong dream to play for the program. They'd still be coming to Tennessee if a different coach were leading the charge. Tennessee for years was the gold standard in women's basketball, and players like Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings were/are two the most popular professional players in the world. I'm confident that anybody who Tennessee would hire to replace Holly could do a comparable or better job recruiting.



Aside from recruiting, Holly has badly underperformed in virtually every other coaching measure, including preseason team expectations, player development, handling the duties as head coach and overall eye test.

Team expectations: Look at the steady decline in results as well as how Tennessee has fared relative to preseason expectations:
2013: Preseason #20 and 4th in SEC. Finished in the Elite 8 with a #2 seed, won the SEC regular season. By far her best season in regards to overachieving. Team was severely underestimated in preseason due to lots of graduating seniors and Pat's retirement. Earned a relatively easy draw into the Elite 8 where they lost to #5 seed Louisville. Best tournament win was on the road against a #6 seed Oklahoma. Holly's best season. Most fans (including myself) were quite pleased with results.

2014: Preseason #4 and 1st in the SEC. Finished in the Sweet 16 as a 1 seed, won the SEC Tournament Championship and finished 2nd in the regular season. Not a bad year by any means, but Tennessee was blown out by Maryland in the Sweet 16 which left a bad taste in many fans mouths. Overall the team underachieved considering high expectations coming into the season. Not a bad season though.

2015 results: Preseason #4 and #2 in the SEC. Finished 30-6, #2 seed, Elite 8 finish, co-SEC Champions.....another year that didn't end in a Final Four but wasn't a bad year overall considering the loss of Harrison midseason and there's no shame in losing in the Elite 8. Tennessee did have an easy path to an Elite 8, facing a 15 seed, 10 seed, and 11 seed before losing to Maryland. They needed a 4th quarter miracle to force OT against the 11 seed in the Sweet 16 after trailing by double digits in the 4th. Their best tournament win was against a 10 seed, Pitt, in the 2nd round. Tennessee did finish lower than expectations once again.

2016 results: Preseason #4 in the country and #2 in the SEC. Finished 22-14, 7th in the SEC, #7 seed in the NCAA tournament, Elite 8 finish....this was arguably the most disappointing season under Holly. A team that was preseason #4 entered the tournament not ranked in the top 25, lost 14 games and finished with an 8-8 record in the SEC. The post season success was the only bright spot of the year, but Tennessee on paper had more talent than anyone in the country besides Connecticut this season (who went undefeated), yet the LVs were barely a top 25 team.

2017 results: Preseason #13/14 in the country and #3 in the SEC. Finished 20-12, 5th in the SEC, #5 seed in the NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Despite lower expectations, Tennessee still managed to underachieve, finishing the year out of the top 25 once again and losing in the 2nd round as expected.


2018 results: Preseason #13/18 in the country and #5 in the SEC. Finished 25-8, T4 in the SEC (#7 seed in tournament), #3 seed in NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Tennessee lost at home in the tournament for the 1st time ever and likely would've had 10 losses if they didn't luck into playing SC twice without A'ja Wilson. Underachieving wasn't as bad as the last 2 years, but after a strong start against a cupcake preseason schedule, Tennessee finished the year 10-8 in their last 18 games.

So in summary, you have 1 year of overachieving, 3 years of underachieving, and 2 years of badly underachieving.

Player Development:
She has not had 1 WBCA All American in her 6 years at Tennessee despite having the following top recruits come through Tennessee:
#1 recruit Mercedes Russell, no AA honors, never made 1st Team All-SEC, projected as 2nd round draft pick
#2 recruit Evina Westbrook, 1 year under her belt...made SEC All Freshman team
#3 recruit Diamond Deshields, no AA honors, made All-SEC, played 2 seasons and then quit. Projected as top 5 draft pick.
#3 recruit Cierra Burdick, no AA honors, made All-SEC(1st and 2nd team) as a senior, #14 pick in the draft
#4 recruit Ariel Massengale, no AA honors, never made All-SEC, #29 draft pick
#5 recruit Bashaara Graves, no AA honors, NFOY over Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd, named All-SEC 1st/2nd Team as a freshman and then didn't make an All-SEC team again until she made 2nd team as a senior. #22 draft pick.
#6 recruit Jaime Nared, no AA honors, All-SEC as a senior (1st and 2nd team), 2nd team All-SEC as a junior. Projected as a 2nd round draft pick.
#7 recruit Anastasia Hayes, 1 year under her belt...named SEC 6th Woman of the year
#8 recruit Jannah Tucker, played 1 year and transferred


Other top 30 recruits under Holly:
#13 recruit Taber Spani...played 1 season, didn't make it in the pros
#12 recruit Te'a Cooper....transferred after a disappointing freshman campaign
#24 recruit Meighan Simmons...never improved after a strong freshman season under Pat. Hasn't been able to stick in the pros
#21 recruit, Andraya Carter...never lived up to expectations and retired early
#29 recruit, Alexa Middleton...never was a strong contributor, transferred after junior season
#29 recruit, Isabelle Harrison....the only success story under Holly. Made great strides in college and has had a productive pro career.
#12 recruit Rennia Davis....played 1 season so far, SEC All-Freshman team


Out of all that talent, we've had a grand total of 1 successful pro player in Isabelle Harrison. I'm not sure we can even take credit for Diamond if she goes pro considering she transferred in and quit before using up her eligibility.


Head Coaching Duties:
Regularly in press conferences, Holly seems confused and unable to articulate what went wrong. She commonly says phrases similar to, "I told them to do this and they didn't listen" and never takes blame or comes up with valid reasons for what went wrong. A coach in her position needs to have better public speaking skills and she needs to be able to articulate what went wrong when her teams routinely lose to less talented teams.

Holly does not hold her players accountable or demand their best efforts. You never see her call out individual players in press conferences, bench players who put forth poor efforts, and most of all she seems to lack any backbone.

When Diamond Deshields quit, Holly immaturely post a smiley face on Twitter before deleting the post and then deleting her Twitter all together. What other head coach have you seen pull a similar stunt? I don't care how much she disliked Diamond or had issues with her, it is incredibly immature to post anything along those lines on social media. As the head coach of one of the most followed programs in the country, Holly should know how to handle this better.

Eye Test:
Here is the biggest issue IMO. Even in her best years, none of her teams ever looked like they could compete for a championship. They simply have never looked like a true Final Four team or title contender. More over, every year this team gets worse. This board has always roasted Tennessee, even during our championship years, but anyone can see the quality of play has declined immensely the last 4-5 years. Once in a while we get some spurts of great basketball (2018 Notre Dame first half, 2016 Sweet 16 vs. Ohio State), but overall the lack of effort put forth by Tennessee players has been noticeable since Holly took over. You rarely see anyone give 100%, you don't see players scrapping for loose balls or crashing the glass like players did under Pat. Holly has also not been able to figure out how to break a zone defense in the last 3 years. I am unsure why any coach would play anything BUT zone against Tennessee when they've had zero outside shooting and almost all of their offense comes in the paint or in the midrange game. On offense there are zero picks set, and plays are not run. Everything is jam the ball inside to Russell even if it's not there. If she's taking the play off and isn't posting, pass the ball around on the perimeter and have a perimeter player go one on one and settle for a tough jumper late in the shot clock. Or drive to the basket and hope for a foul. Pat was never an offensive mastermind, but her teams played much better offense than Holly's do, and her players always gave best effort so Tennessee regularly had 2nd and 3rd opportunities if they didn't get a good look on the first try.


Next year unless something massive changes, we are going to be a borderline top 25 team IMO. We have zero proven post players, even highly touted ones. This is the first time in my lifetime that Tennessee is going to have 0 top 5 post players on the roster. Tennessee's strength as a program has always been in having strong forwards and centers. We don't have any next year unless we play Davis primarily as a post.

Our guards show promise, but Holly is not going to help them improve skills they've struggled with (avoiding turnovers, perimeter shooting, making smart passes, shot selection, running plays, etc). I am hopeful that players will improve, but all results have shown this is unlikely to happen under Holly.

Additionally, more than ever you can see how important quality coaching is in today's landscape. Geno, Muffet, Dawn, Vic, Rueck, Tara etc have all proven year after year that good coaches make good teams and they help their players reach their potential. There's a reason we've consistently seen these coaches competing in the Final Four while we haven't seen coaches like Holly, Mulkey, Aston, McGuff, and McCallie reach Final Fours despite having more than enough talent to compete for championships. It really does come down to coaching, and from everything we've seen the last 6 years, Holly hasn't shown any ability to be a strong coach or leader.

Wow. Tremendous post.

 

[JordyG]

I think it's the right move. In the last couple of classes. There is very good talent. A chance to build the roster further with the next class.

So how many more MacDonald's AA's does Holly need, none of which will make 1st team AA, in order to make E8? I've never seen another D1 coach do less with more than Holly.

 

[stwainfan]

So how many more MacDonald's AA's does Holly need, none of which will make 1st team AA, in order to make E8? I've never seen another D1 coach do less with more than Holly.

A couple of things about this years team. There were seniors and freshman. There wasn't much in between the classes. Also the three freshman were expected to play big roles right away. The new freshman class. Will probably not have any of them starting right away.

 

[JordyG]

A couple of things about this years team. There were seniors and freshman. There wasn't much in between the classes. Also the three freshman were expected to play big roles right away. The new freshman class. Will probably not have any of them starting right away.

No, I'm talking specifically about Holly's inability to develop even the most highly ranked HS recruits into AA's. To me this, besides her inability to understand and teach modern offenses, is her greatest fault. Something that won't be cured or fixed by injecting more Mickey D's into the lineup.

 

[Bayareahusky]

I think Holly is probably as good a coach as TN can get right now. The game has changed over the last 10 years. Competition is much stronger, other schools have passed TN in organization, recruiting and coaching. They just need to adjust their expectations and they will be much happier. Be happy with 20 win seasons and a few wins in the SEC tournament each year. Win a few games in the NCAA tournament and be ecstatic.[/QUOTE]

I am overjoyed by the thought that the VolNation blowhards heads are exploding today.

Maybe I am in the minority but I think almost anyone is better than Holly is.... I have thought that from Year 1.... too many obvious mistakes.... it is so apparent that she does not get her team ready for play... and her game coaching is always on display and subpar..... I am amazed that many on Vol Nation ask the question "Who out there can do better than Holly?".... I was only a high school coach.... but i can see that the team does not respond to her coaching... and she has the same canned answers at the press table relative to why can't the team win....

 

[DefenseBB]

A couple of things about this years team. There were seniors and freshman. There wasn't much in between the classes. Also the three freshman were expected to play big roles right away. The new freshman class. Will probably not have any of them starting right away.

I respect your willingness to come on this forum and I enjoy your insight among all our LV snark (mine included). However, I thought @bballnut90 nailed it above. I understand your assessment on the team being very young but with both Russell and Nared both making the U22 team last summer as 2 of 12 members the team should have been better and that falls squarely on Ms “I don’t know” shoulders. Next years squad is void of post players. And as much as Holly was a 3 time All-American at guard, her most successful players have been frontcourt or wings-Burdick, Harrison, Deshields, Russell and Nared. So having her team reliant on guard play next year seems ripe for disaster to me. Add in the bulk of the team will be sophomores and freshman next year, I am confused by what your main point is. Do you think the extension is warranted and Holly is a good coach?

 

[stwainfan]

I respect your willingness to come on this forum and I enjoy your insight among all our LV snark (mine included). However, I thought @bballnut90 nailed it above. I understand your assessment on the team being very young but with both Russell and Nared both making the U22 team last summer as 2 of 12 members the team should have been better and that falls squarely on Ms “I don’t know” shoulders. Next years squad is void of post players. And as much as Holly was a 3 time All-American at guard, her most successful players have been frontcourt or wings-Burdick, Harrison, Deshields, Russell and Nared. So having her team reliant on guard play next year seems ripe for disaster to me. Add in the bulk of the team will be sophomores and freshman next year, I am confused by what your main point is. Do you think the extension is warranted and Holly is a good coach?

Thanks. I think it's interesting to point out. That the records of both Pat and Holly . Are very close in the same period of time as head coach. Yes I think giving Holly a extension is the right move now. This team will be real young. As you pointed out mostly sophomores and freshman. I think making a change can present some problems. These players were recruited by this staff. It could lead to transfer. I think this next team will be the strongest at guard. That Holly has has as head coach. I think Westbrook will improve a good bit. As far as the post position. I think Davis can play the stretch four. A lot of teams are doing that now. I think we we will see if Kasi and Green in the post.

 

[RockyMTblue2]

@stwainfan the , is just to the left of the . on your keyboard. But it does have a sorta Hemingwayesque feel.

 

[meyers7]

I call BS.....she put together a very good class in 2017 and has a slew of midrange players for 2018, but it's hardly a gangbuster class despite what a lot of Tennessee fans are hoping for. She essentially struck out in 2015 and 2016, plus she has no verbals for 2019 yet. She has a very lopsided team headed for next year....we have three highly rated PGs, no highly rated posts, and no consistent perimeter shooters. I'd much rather her take smaller classes where players actually fit roles that are needed for the team.

Also worth noting, Tennessee is not a hard place to recruit to. They have better facilities, fan support, tradition, exposure and recognition than almost anyone else in the country. It isn't like Holly is recruiting all of these top players to a no name school. So many of the top kids who come to Tennessee have mentioned that it's been a lifelong dream to play for the program. They'd still be coming to Tennessee if a different coach were leading the charge. Tennessee for years was the gold standard in women's basketball, and players like Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings were/are two the most popular professional players in the world. I'm confident that anybody who Tennessee would hire to replace Holly could do a comparable or better job recruiting.



Aside from recruiting, Holly has badly underperformed in virtually every other coaching measure, including preseason team expectations, player development, handling the duties as head coach and overall eye test.

Team expectations: Look at the steady decline in results as well as how Tennessee has fared relative to preseason expectations:
2013: Preseason #20 and 4th in SEC. Finished in the Elite 8 with a #2 seed, won the SEC regular season. By far her best season in regards to overachieving. Team was severely underestimated in preseason due to lots of graduating seniors and Pat's retirement. Earned a relatively easy draw into the Elite 8 where they lost to #5 seed Louisville. Best tournament win was on the road against a #6 seed Oklahoma. Holly's best season. Most fans (including myself) were quite pleased with results.

2014: Preseason #4 and 1st in the SEC. Finished in the Sweet 16 as a 1 seed, won the SEC Tournament Championship and finished 2nd in the regular season. Not a bad year by any means, but Tennessee was blown out by Maryland in the Sweet 16 which left a bad taste in many fans mouths. Overall the team underachieved considering high expectations coming into the season. Not a bad season though.

2015 results: Preseason #4 and #2 in the SEC. Finished 30-6, #2 seed, Elite 8 finish, co-SEC Champions.....another year that didn't end in a Final Four but wasn't a bad year overall considering the loss of Harrison midseason and there's no shame in losing in the Elite 8. Tennessee did have an easy path to an Elite 8, facing a 15 seed, 10 seed, and 11 seed before losing to Maryland. They needed a 4th quarter miracle to force OT against the 11 seed in the Sweet 16 after trailing by double digits in the 4th. Their best tournament win was against a 10 seed, Pitt, in the 2nd round. Tennessee did finish lower than expectations once again.

2016 results: Preseason #4 in the country and #2 in the SEC. Finished 22-14, 7th in the SEC, #7 seed in the NCAA tournament, Elite 8 finish....this was arguably the most disappointing season under Holly. A team that was preseason #4 entered the tournament not ranked in the top 25, lost 14 games and finished with an 8-8 record in the SEC. The post season success was the only bright spot of the year, but Tennessee on paper had more talent than anyone in the country besides Connecticut this season (who went undefeated), yet the LVs were barely a top 25 team.

2017 results: Preseason #13/14 in the country and #3 in the SEC. Finished 20-12, 5th in the SEC, #5 seed in the NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Despite lower expectations, Tennessee still managed to underachieve, finishing the year out of the top 25 once again and losing in the 2nd round as expected.


2018 results: Preseason #13/18 in the country and #5 in the SEC. Finished 25-8, T4 in the SEC (#7 seed in tournament), #3 seed in NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Tennessee lost at home in the tournament for the 1st time ever and likely would've had 10 losses if they didn't luck into playing SC twice without A'ja Wilson. Underachieving wasn't as bad as the last 2 years, but after a strong start against a cupcake preseason schedule, Tennessee finished the year 10-8 in their last 18 games.

So in summary, you have 1 year of overachieving, 3 years of underachieving, and 2 years of badly underachieving.

Player Development:
She has not had 1 WBCA All American in her 6 years at Tennessee despite having the following top recruits come through Tennessee:
#1 recruit Mercedes Russell, no AA honors, never made 1st Team All-SEC, projected as 2nd round draft pick
#2 recruit Evina Westbrook, 1 year under her belt...made SEC All Freshman team
#3 recruit Diamond Deshields, no AA honors, made All-SEC, played 2 seasons and then quit. Projected as top 5 draft pick.
#3 recruit Cierra Burdick, no AA honors, made All-SEC(1st and 2nd team) as a senior, #14 pick in the draft
#4 recruit Ariel Massengale, no AA honors, never made All-SEC, #29 draft pick
#5 recruit Bashaara Graves, no AA honors, NFOY over Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd, named All-SEC 1st/2nd Team as a freshman and then didn't make an All-SEC team again until she made 2nd team as a senior. #22 draft pick.
#6 recruit Jaime Nared, no AA honors, All-SEC as a senior (1st and 2nd team), 2nd team All-SEC as a junior. Projected as a 2nd round draft pick.
#7 recruit Anastasia Hayes, 1 year under her belt...named SEC 6th Woman of the year
#8 recruit Jannah Tucker, played 1 year and transferred


Other top 30 recruits under Holly:
#13 recruit Taber Spani...played 1 season, didn't make it in the pros
#12 recruit Te'a Cooper....transferred after a disappointing freshman campaign
#24 recruit Meighan Simmons...never improved after a strong freshman season under Pat. Hasn't been able to stick in the pros
#21 recruit, Andraya Carter...never lived up to expectations and retired early
#29 recruit, Alexa Middleton...never was a strong contributor, transferred after junior season
#29 recruit, Isabelle Harrison....the only success story under Holly. Made great strides in college and has had a productive pro career.
#12 recruit Rennia Davis....played 1 season so far, SEC All-Freshman team


Out of all that talent, we've had a grand total of 1 successful pro player in Isabelle Harrison. I'm not sure we can even take credit for Diamond if she goes pro considering she transferred in and quit before using up her eligibility.


Head Coaching Duties:
Regularly in press conferences, Holly seems confused and unable to articulate what went wrong. She commonly says phrases similar to, "I told them to do this and they didn't listen" and never takes blame or comes up with valid reasons for what went wrong. A coach in her position needs to have better public speaking skills and she needs to be able to articulate what went wrong when her teams routinely lose to less talented teams.

Holly does not hold her players accountable or demand their best efforts. You never see her call out individual players in press conferences, bench players who put forth poor efforts, and most of all she seems to lack any backbone.

When Diamond Deshields quit, Holly immaturely post a smiley face on Twitter before deleting the post and then deleting her Twitter all together. What other head coach have you seen pull a similar stunt? I don't care how much she disliked Diamond or had issues with her, it is incredibly immature to post anything along those lines on social media. As the head coach of one of the most followed programs in the country, Holly should know how to handle this better.

Eye Test:
Here is the biggest issue IMO. Even in her best years, none of her teams ever looked like they could compete for a championship. They simply have never looked like a true Final Four team or title contender. More over, every year this team gets worse. This board has always roasted Tennessee, even during our championship years, but anyone can see the quality of play has declined immensely the last 4-5 years. Once in a while we get some spurts of great basketball (2018 Notre Dame first half, 2016 Sweet 16 vs. Ohio State), but overall the lack of effort put forth by Tennessee players has been noticeable since Holly took over. You rarely see anyone give 100%, you don't see players scrapping for loose balls or crashing the glass like players did under Pat. Holly has also not been able to figure out how to break a zone defense in the last 3 years. I am unsure why any coach would play anything BUT zone against Tennessee when they've had zero outside shooting and almost all of their offense comes in the paint or in the midrange game. On offense there are zero picks set, and plays are not run. Everything is jam the ball inside to Russell even if it's not there. If she's taking the play off and isn't posting, pass the ball around on the perimeter and have a perimeter player go one on one and settle for a tough jumper late in the shot clock. Or drive to the basket and hope for a foul. Pat was never an offensive mastermind, but her teams played much better offense than Holly's do, and her players always gave best effort so Tennessee regularly had 2nd and 3rd opportunities if they didn't get a good look on the first try.


Next year unless something massive changes, we are going to be a borderline top 25 team IMO. We have zero proven post players, even highly touted ones. This is the first time in my lifetime that Tennessee is going to have 0 top 5 post players on the roster. Tennessee's strength as a program has always been in having strong forwards and centers. We don't have any next year unless we play Davis primarily as a post.

Our guards show promise, but Holly is not going to help them improve skills they've struggled with (avoiding turnovers, perimeter shooting, making smart passes, shot selection, running plays, etc). I am hopeful that players will improve, but all results have shown this is unlikely to happen under Holly.

Additionally, more than ever you can see how important quality coaching is in today's landscape. Geno, Muffet, Dawn, Vic, Rueck, Tara etc have all proven year after year that good coaches make good teams and they help their players reach their potential. There's a reason we've consistently seen these coaches competing in the Final Four while we haven't seen coaches like Holly, Mulkey, Aston, McGuff, and McCallie reach Final Fours despite having more than enough talent to compete for championships. It really does come down to coaching, and from everything we've seen the last 6 years, Holly hasn't shown any ability to be a strong coach or leader.

Excellent post. I've been saying this for awhile. Warlick should get a lifetime guaranteed contract. And I'm sure Eric would agree.

 

[CocoHusky]

I call BS.....

Damn!
I haven't see a case more thoroughly put together since @CamrnCrz1974 was in his prime!

 

[dogged1]

I call BS.....she put together a very good class in 2017 and has a slew of midrange players for 2018, but it's hardly a gangbuster class despite what a lot of Tennessee fans are hoping for. She essentially struck out in 2015 and 2016, plus she has no verbals for 2019 yet. She has a very lopsided team headed for next year....we have three highly rated PGs, no highly rated posts, and no consistent perimeter shooters. I'd much rather her take smaller classes where players actually fit roles that are needed for the team.

Also worth noting, Tennessee is not a hard place to recruit to. They have better facilities, fan support, tradition, exposure and recognition than almost anyone else in the country. It isn't like Holly is recruiting all of these top players to a no name school. So many of the top kids who come to Tennessee have mentioned that it's been a lifelong dream to play for the program. They'd still be coming to Tennessee if a different coach were leading the charge. Tennessee for years was the gold standard in women's basketball, and players like Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings were/are two the most popular professional players in the world. I'm confident that anybody who Tennessee would hire to replace Holly could do a comparable or better job recruiting.



Aside from recruiting, Holly has badly underperformed in virtually every other coaching measure, including preseason team expectations, player development, handling the duties as head coach and overall eye test.

Team expectations: Look at the steady decline in results as well as how Tennessee has fared relative to preseason expectations:
2013: Preseason #20 and 4th in SEC. Finished in the Elite 8 with a #2 seed, won the SEC regular season. By far her best season in regards to overachieving. Team was severely underestimated in preseason due to lots of graduating seniors and Pat's retirement. Earned a relatively easy draw into the Elite 8 where they lost to #5 seed Louisville. Best tournament win was on the road against a #6 seed Oklahoma. Holly's best season. Most fans (including myself) were quite pleased with results.

2014: Preseason #4 and 1st in the SEC. Finished in the Sweet 16 as a 1 seed, won the SEC Tournament Championship and finished 2nd in the regular season. Not a bad year by any means, but Tennessee was blown out by Maryland in the Sweet 16 which left a bad taste in many fans mouths. Overall the team underachieved considering high expectations coming into the season. Not a bad season though.

2015 results: Preseason #4 and #2 in the SEC. Finished 30-6, #2 seed, Elite 8 finish, co-SEC Champions.....another year that didn't end in a Final Four but wasn't a bad year overall considering the loss of Harrison midseason and there's no shame in losing in the Elite 8. Tennessee did have an easy path to an Elite 8, facing a 15 seed, 10 seed, and 11 seed before losing to Maryland. They needed a 4th quarter miracle to force OT against the 11 seed in the Sweet 16 after trailing by double digits in the 4th. Their best tournament win was against a 10 seed, Pitt, in the 2nd round. Tennessee did finish lower than expectations once again.

2016 results: Preseason #4 in the country and #2 in the SEC. Finished 22-14, 7th in the SEC, #7 seed in the NCAA tournament, Elite 8 finish....this was arguably the most disappointing season under Holly. A team that was preseason #4 entered the tournament not ranked in the top 25, lost 14 games and finished with an 8-8 record in the SEC. The post season success was the only bright spot of the year, but Tennessee on paper had more talent than anyone in the country besides Connecticut this season (who went undefeated), yet the LVs were barely a top 25 team.

2017 results: Preseason #13/14 in the country and #3 in the SEC. Finished 20-12, 5th in the SEC, #5 seed in the NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Despite lower expectations, Tennessee still managed to underachieve, finishing the year out of the top 25 once again and losing in the 2nd round as expected.


2018 results: Preseason #13/18 in the country and #5 in the SEC. Finished 25-8, T4 in the SEC (#7 seed in tournament), #3 seed in NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Tennessee lost at home in the tournament for the 1st time ever and likely would've had 10 losses if they didn't luck into playing SC twice without A'ja Wilson. Underachieving wasn't as bad as the last 2 years, but after a strong start against a cupcake preseason schedule, Tennessee finished the year 10-8 in their last 18 games.

So in summary, you have 1 year of overachieving, 3 years of underachieving, and 2 years of badly underachieving.

Player Development:
She has not had 1 WBCA All American in her 6 years at Tennessee despite having the following top recruits come through Tennessee:
#1 recruit Mercedes Russell, no AA honors, never made 1st Team All-SEC, projected as 2nd round draft pick
#2 recruit Evina Westbrook, 1 year under her belt...made SEC All Freshman team
#3 recruit Diamond Deshields, no AA honors, made All-SEC, played 2 seasons and then quit. Projected as top 5 draft pick.
#3 recruit Cierra Burdick, no AA honors, made All-SEC(1st and 2nd team) as a senior, #14 pick in the draft
#4 recruit Ariel Massengale, no AA honors, never made All-SEC, #29 draft pick
#5 recruit Bashaara Graves, no AA honors, NFOY over Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd, named All-SEC 1st/2nd Team as a freshman and then didn't make an All-SEC team again until she made 2nd team as a senior. #22 draft pick.
#6 recruit Jaime Nared, no AA honors, All-SEC as a senior (1st and 2nd team), 2nd team All-SEC as a junior. Projected as a 2nd round draft pick.
#7 recruit Anastasia Hayes, 1 year under her belt...named SEC 6th Woman of the year
#8 recruit Jannah Tucker, played 1 year and transferred


Other top 30 recruits under Holly:
#13 recruit Taber Spani...played 1 season, didn't make it in the pros
#12 recruit Te'a Cooper....transferred after a disappointing freshman campaign
#24 recruit Meighan Simmons...never improved after a strong freshman season under Pat. Hasn't been able to stick in the pros
#21 recruit, Andraya Carter...never lived up to expectations and retired early
#29 recruit, Alexa Middleton...never was a strong contributor, transferred after junior season
#29 recruit, Isabelle Harrison....the only success story under Holly. Made great strides in college and has had a productive pro career.
#12 recruit Rennia Davis....played 1 season so far, SEC All-Freshman team


Out of all that talent, we've had a grand total of 1 successful pro player in Isabelle Harrison. I'm not sure we can even take credit for Diamond if she goes pro considering she transferred in and quit before using up her eligibility.


Head Coaching Duties:
Regularly in press conferences, Holly seems confused and unable to articulate what went wrong. She commonly says phrases similar to, "I told them to do this and they didn't listen" and never takes blame or comes up with valid reasons for what went wrong. A coach in her position needs to have better public speaking skills and she needs to be able to articulate what went wrong when her teams routinely lose to less talented teams.

Holly does not hold her players accountable or demand their best efforts. You never see her call out individual players in press conferences, bench players who put forth poor efforts, and most of all she seems to lack any backbone.

When Diamond Deshields quit, Holly immaturely post a smiley face on Twitter before deleting the post and then deleting her Twitter all together. What other head coach have you seen pull a similar stunt? I don't care how much she disliked Diamond or had issues with her, it is incredibly immature to post anything along those lines on social media. As the head coach of one of the most followed programs in the country, Holly should know how to handle this better.

Eye Test:
Here is the biggest issue IMO. Even in her best years, none of her teams ever looked like they could compete for a championship. They simply have never looked like a true Final Four team or title contender. More over, every year this team gets worse. This board has always roasted Tennessee, even during our championship years, but anyone can see the quality of play has declined immensely the last 4-5 years. Once in a while we get some spurts of great basketball (2018 Notre Dame first half, 2016 Sweet 16 vs. Ohio State), but overall the lack of effort put forth by Tennessee players has been noticeable since Holly took over. You rarely see anyone give 100%, you don't see players scrapping for loose balls or crashing the glass like players did under Pat. Holly has also not been able to figure out how to break a zone defense in the last 3 years. I am unsure why any coach would play anything BUT zone against Tennessee when they've had zero outside shooting and almost all of their offense comes in the paint or in the midrange game. On offense there are zero picks set, and plays are not run. Everything is jam the ball inside to Russell even if it's not there. If she's taking the play off and isn't posting, pass the ball around on the perimeter and have a perimeter player go one on one and settle for a tough jumper late in the shot clock. Or drive to the basket and hope for a foul. Pat was never an offensive mastermind, but her teams played much better offense than Holly's do, and her players always gave best effort so Tennessee regularly had 2nd and 3rd opportunities if they didn't get a good look on the first try.


Next year unless something massive changes, we are going to be a borderline top 25 team IMO. We have zero proven post players, even highly touted ones. This is the first time in my lifetime that Tennessee is going to have 0 top 5 post players on the roster. Tennessee's strength as a program has always been in having strong forwards and centers. We don't have any next year unless we play Davis primarily as a post.

Our guards show promise, but Holly is not going to help them improve skills they've struggled with (avoiding turnovers, perimeter shooting, making smart passes, shot selection, running plays, etc). I am hopeful that players will improve, but all results have shown this is unlikely to happen under Holly.

Additionally, more than ever you can see how important quality coaching is in today's landscape. Geno, Muffet, Dawn, Vic, Rueck, Tara etc have all proven year after year that good coaches make good teams and they help their players reach their potential. There's a reason we've consistently seen these coaches competing in the Final Four while we haven't seen coaches like Holly, Mulkey, Aston, McGuff, and McCallie reach Final Fours despite having more than enough talent to compete for championships. It really does come down to coaching, and from everything we've seen the last 6 years, Holly hasn't shown any ability to be a strong coach or leader.

I am very pleased that you are not the Tennessee AD. Great post.

 

[mbr33ct]

@stwainfan the , is just to the left of the . on your keyboard. But it does have a sorta Hemingwayesque feel.

Grammarly is a free download.

 

[CL82]

I call BS.....she put together a very good class in 2017 and has a slew of midrange players for 2018, but it's hardly a gangbuster class despite what a lot of Tennessee fans are hoping for. She essentially struck out in 2015 and 2016, plus she has no verbals for 2019 yet. She has a very lopsided team headed for next year....we have three highly rated PGs, no highly rated posts, and no consistent perimeter shooters. I'd much rather her take smaller classes where players actually fit roles that are needed for the team.

Also worth noting, Tennessee is not a hard place to recruit to. They have better facilities, fan support, tradition, exposure and recognition than almost anyone else in the country. It isn't like Holly is recruiting all of these top players to a no name school. So many of the top kids who come to Tennessee have mentioned that it's been a lifelong dream to play for the program. They'd still be coming to Tennessee if a different coach were leading the charge. Tennessee for years was the gold standard in women's basketball, and players like Candace Parker and Tamika Catchings were/are two the most popular professional players in the world. I'm confident that anybody who Tennessee would hire to replace Holly could do a comparable or better job recruiting.



Aside from recruiting, Holly has badly underperformed in virtually every other coaching measure, including preseason team expectations, player development, handling the duties as head coach and overall eye test.

Team expectations: Look at the steady decline in results as well as how Tennessee has fared relative to preseason expectations:
2013: Preseason #20 and 4th in SEC. Finished in the Elite 8 with a #2 seed, won the SEC regular season. By far her best season in regards to overachieving. Team was severely underestimated in preseason due to lots of graduating seniors and Pat's retirement. Earned a relatively easy draw into the Elite 8 where they lost to #5 seed Louisville. Best tournament win was on the road against a #6 seed Oklahoma. Holly's best season. Most fans (including myself) were quite pleased with results.

2014: Preseason #4 and 1st in the SEC. Finished in the Sweet 16 as a 1 seed, won the SEC Tournament Championship and finished 2nd in the regular season. Not a bad year by any means, but Tennessee was blown out by Maryland in the Sweet 16 which left a bad taste in many fans mouths. Overall the team underachieved considering high expectations coming into the season. Not a bad season though.

2015 results: Preseason #4 and #2 in the SEC. Finished 30-6, #2 seed, Elite 8 finish, co-SEC Champions.....another year that didn't end in a Final Four but wasn't a bad year overall considering the loss of Harrison midseason and there's no shame in losing in the Elite 8. Tennessee did have an easy path to an Elite 8, facing a 15 seed, 10 seed, and 11 seed before losing to Maryland. They needed a 4th quarter miracle to force OT against the 11 seed in the Sweet 16 after trailing by double digits in the 4th. Their best tournament win was against a 10 seed, Pitt, in the 2nd round. Tennessee did finish lower than expectations once again.

2016 results: Preseason #4 in the country and #2 in the SEC. Finished 22-14, 7th in the SEC, #7 seed in the NCAA tournament, Elite 8 finish....this was arguably the most disappointing season under Holly. A team that was preseason #4 entered the tournament not ranked in the top 25, lost 14 games and finished with an 8-8 record in the SEC. The post season success was the only bright spot of the year, but Tennessee on paper had more talent than anyone in the country besides Connecticut this season (who went undefeated), yet the LVs were barely a top 25 team.

2017 results: Preseason #13/14 in the country and #3 in the SEC. Finished 20-12, 5th in the SEC, #5 seed in the NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Despite lower expectations, Tennessee still managed to underachieve, finishing the year out of the top 25 once again and losing in the 2nd round as expected.


2018 results: Preseason #13/18 in the country and #5 in the SEC. Finished 25-8, T4 in the SEC (#7 seed in tournament), #3 seed in NCAA tournament, 2nd round finish. Tennessee lost at home in the tournament for the 1st time ever and likely would've had 10 losses if they didn't luck into playing SC twice without A'ja Wilson. Underachieving wasn't as bad as the last 2 years, but after a strong start against a cupcake preseason schedule, Tennessee finished the year 10-8 in their last 18 games.

So in summary, you have 1 year of overachieving, 3 years of underachieving, and 2 years of badly underachieving.

Player Development:
She has not had 1 WBCA All American in her 6 years at Tennessee despite having the following top recruits come through Tennessee:
#1 recruit Mercedes Russell, no AA honors, never made 1st Team All-SEC, projected as 2nd round draft pick
#2 recruit Evina Westbrook, 1 year under her belt...made SEC All Freshman team
#3 recruit Diamond Deshields, no AA honors, made All-SEC, played 2 seasons and then quit. Projected as top 5 draft pick.
#3 recruit Cierra Burdick, no AA honors, made All-SEC(1st and 2nd team) as a senior, #14 pick in the draft
#4 recruit Ariel Massengale, no AA honors, never made All-SEC, #29 draft pick
#5 recruit Bashaara Graves, no AA honors, NFOY over Breanna Stewart and Jewell Loyd, named All-SEC 1st/2nd Team as a freshman and then didn't make an All-SEC team again until she made 2nd team as a senior. #22 draft pick.
#6 recruit Jaime Nared, no AA honors, All-SEC as a senior (1st and 2nd team), 2nd team All-SEC as a junior. Projected as a 2nd round draft pick.
#7 recruit Anastasia Hayes, 1 year under her belt...named SEC 6th Woman of the year
#8 recruit Jannah Tucker, played 1 year and transferred


Other top 30 recruits under Holly:
#13 recruit Taber Spani...played 1 season, didn't make it in the pros
#12 recruit Te'a Cooper....transferred after a disappointing freshman campaign
#24 recruit Meighan Simmons...never improved after a strong freshman season under Pat. Hasn't been able to stick in the pros
#21 recruit, Andraya Carter...never lived up to expectations and retired early
#29 recruit, Alexa Middleton...never was a strong contributor, transferred after junior season
#29 recruit, Isabelle Harrison....the only success story under Holly. Made great strides in college and has had a productive pro career.
#12 recruit Rennia Davis....played 1 season so far, SEC All-Freshman team


Out of all that talent, we've had a grand total of 1 successful pro player in Isabelle Harrison. I'm not sure we can even take credit for Diamond if she goes pro considering she transferred in and quit before using up her eligibility.


Head Coaching Duties:
Regularly in press conferences, Holly seems confused and unable to articulate what went wrong. She commonly says phrases similar to, "I told them to do this and they didn't listen" and never takes blame or comes up with valid reasons for what went wrong. A coach in her position needs to have better public speaking skills and she needs to be able to articulate what went wrong when her teams routinely lose to less talented teams.

Holly does not hold her players accountable or demand their best efforts. You never see her call out individual players in press conferences, bench players who put forth poor efforts, and most of all she seems to lack any backbone.

When Diamond Deshields quit, Holly immaturely post a smiley face on Twitter before deleting the post and then deleting her Twitter all together. What other head coach have you seen pull a similar stunt? I don't care how much she disliked Diamond or had issues with her, it is incredibly immature to post anything along those lines on social media. As the head coach of one of the most followed programs in the country, Holly should know how to handle this better.

Eye Test:
Here is the biggest issue IMO. Even in her best years, none of her teams ever looked like they could compete for a championship. They simply have never looked like a true Final Four team or title contender. More over, every year this team gets worse. This board has always roasted Tennessee, even during our championship years, but anyone can see the quality of play has declined immensely the last 4-5 years. Once in a while we get some spurts of great basketball (2018 Notre Dame first half, 2016 Sweet 16 vs. Ohio State), but overall the lack of effort put forth by Tennessee players has been noticeable since Holly took over. You rarely see anyone give 100%, you don't see players scrapping for loose balls or crashing the glass like players did under Pat. Holly has also not been able to figure out how to break a zone defense in the last 3 years. I am unsure why any coach would play anything BUT zone against Tennessee when they've had zero outside shooting and almost all of their offense comes in the paint or in the midrange game. On offense there are zero picks set, and plays are not run. Everything is jam the ball inside to Russell even if it's not there. If she's taking the play off and isn't posting, pass the ball around on the perimeter and have a perimeter player go one on one and settle for a tough jumper late in the shot clock. Or drive to the basket and hope for a foul. Pat was never an offensive mastermind, but her teams played much better offense than Holly's do, and her players always gave best effort so Tennessee regularly had 2nd and 3rd opportunities if they didn't get a good look on the first try.


Next year unless something massive changes, we are going to be a borderline top 25 team IMO. We have zero proven post players, even highly touted ones. This is the first time in my lifetime that Tennessee is going to have 0 top 5 post players on the roster. Tennessee's strength as a program has always been in having strong forwards and centers. We don't have any next year unless we play Davis primarily as a post.

Our guards show promise, but Holly is not going to help them improve skills they've struggled with (avoiding turnovers, perimeter shooting, making smart passes, shot selection, running plays, etc). I am hopeful that players will improve, but all results have shown this is unlikely to happen under Holly.

Additionally, more than ever you can see how important quality coaching is in today's landscape. Geno, Muffet, Dawn, Vic, Rueck, Tara etc have all proven year after year that good coaches make good teams and they help their players reach their potential. There's a reason we've consistently seen these coaches competing in the Final Four while we haven't seen coaches like Holly, Mulkey, Aston, McGuff, and McCallie reach Final Fours despite having more than enough talent to compete for championships. It really does come down to coaching, and from everything we've seen the last 6 years, Holly hasn't shown any ability to be a strong coach or leader.

Wow. Feel better getting that off your chest?

 

[bballnut90]

Wow. Feel better getting that off your chest?

Ha a little but we're still stuck with Holly! I just don't understand how anyone who supports Tennessee women's basketball can stand by this decision.

 

[CL82]

Ha a little but we're still stuck with Holly! I just don't understand how anyone who supports Tennessee women's basketball can stand by this decision.

Can you understand why UConn fans would?

 

[bballnut90]

Can you understand why UConn fans would?

Oh absolutely.

 

[HuskyNan]

@stwainfan the , is just to the left of the . on your keyboard. But it does have a sorta Hemingwayesque feel.

Grammarly is a free download.

English isn’t stwainfan’s first language. Could the Grammar Police please call off the dogs?

 

[sivad40]

I don't think she is. Tennessee is not a hard place to recruit to....anyone in her role should be able to land a couple of highly rated players each year. She also isn't landing kids who fit needed roles on the team. Why does our roster have 3 highly rated PGs next year but no highly rated posts? Why haven't we recruited any top 3pt shooters the last several years despite being awful from three the past 4 seasons? Why is our roster extremely lopsided with underclassmen next season? Recruit players that fit needs on your team rather than stockpiling players.

Holly has an adversion of her players taking 3pt shots, unless it's a situation 3pt shooter like Dunbar. I heard an commentator during one of Tennessee's games said that Holly doesn't like her players taking 3pt shots. Tennessee's offense consists of having the players sprint down the court after getting a defensive rebound, dumping the ball in the post to Russell, and either driving to the basket or shooting an off balance shot as the clock winds down when they failed to get the ball to Russell.

 

[dogged1]

English isn’t stwainfan’s first language. Could the Grammar Police please call off the dogs?

I did not know that when I gave Rocky's post a like. In that light it looks like piling on. Apologies to stwaifan, and kudos for handling a second language so well. I have troubles with my one and only.