I disagree with the woefully unprepared part and here's why. She pretty much runs the same "non" offense and defense that Pat ran. Holly worked for/with Pat for 27 years. She helped and watched Pat every single day. Pat was never a great offensive mastermind. She won by recruiting superior athletes, getting them to play tenacious defense, and relied on offensive rebounds, or tremendous 1 on 1 play, to score.
Towards the end of Pat's career, she was not able to recruit enough top players to compensate for her lack of offense. Other teams caught up and because of superior coaching, were able to catch and pass them. Holly is the same kind of coach. She has actually recruited better than Pat over Pat's last 5 years (Russell, Nared, Deshields, Cooper, Westbrook, Hayes, Davis). She already has 2 top 30 kids from 2018 - it remains to be seen if she can get any of the top kids in that class.
Point is, after Parker/Bjorkland/Baugh, Pat didn't recruit that well (of course it's relative - she still got some high ranked kids). But... she mostly had players like Spani, Dupree, Williams, Phillips, Harrison, Carter, Simmons, Avant, Massengale, Burdick, Jones, Graves, Moore, etc. I think Graves, Burdick and Massengale were top 5, but Ariel clearly was over rated. Not a single "top" player (Warlick landed Russell I think and now Westbrook and also convinced Diamond to come to Tenn). That's way more top talent than Pat towards the end.
The problem is something Holly got bashed for on here, but also something Geno agrees with - most kids these days don't have the passion for the game that their predecessors did. Kids don't spend hours in the gym, watching game tape, working on every weakness of their game. They don't eat, sleep, live, etc. for basketball. It's more about "what can your university do for me?". Geno is smart enough NOT to recruit those kids. But the ones like the incredible players on this year's team are becoming fewer and farther between. He often makes mistakes like with Ekmark, Edwards and Boykin - misreading desire to work hard, ability to go to school far from home, or just plain potential. But way more often he gets kids that may not be #1 (Nurse, Williams, Chong), but who work their collective asses off to be better than almost anyone thought they could be, and who subjugate their own personal accolades or awards for the betterment of the team and potential NC's. Oh, and he also gets his fair share of uber top recruits (Collier, Samuelson, Dangerfield, Walker).
I do have to agree that Holly is one of the few coaches who has done far far less with the "more" that she has, and I think she is flat out the wrong coach for the type of kids she has/recruits. She needs kids who are willing to work their asses off to play the kind of defense required in spite of no offense, but very few coaches find players like that... and I do agree her lack of coaching ability to get the most out of her kids is on very bright display. Having said that, next year she gets her PG back (Cooper). Even if DD and Russell leave early, she will have Nared, Westbrook, Hayes and Davis. If somehow she's able to convince either/or to come back, they will be a formidable team.
IMHO what she is woefully unprepared for is the shift of attitude of high school players and the ability to evolve as an offensive and defensive coach. But that's not an issue of preparedness, rather just of being a bad coach.
but this situation is not on the players. I would be willing to bet a good number of coaches around the country would love to have the Vol lineup. This being the ones with the basketballs to administer the ole fashion drug known as pine time !
