OT: Reason to Support the Orange Folks

[Sargassoc]

This article, from Mechelle Voepel, is pretty damning: LINK

I may not like the attitude of their fans, but I don't think their women's sports deserve Dave Hart, either.

 

[Alydar]

Nothing new there. It's the same stories that I read on the Summitt years ago. Hart has been vilified there. I've seen the same thing many times in my life where a major change occurs. The new regime under Hart were brought in to cut expenses and cut the fat. Eliminating the redundancies in having separate men's & women's AD's was a no-brainer but it came on the heels of Summitt being diagnosed so Hart became the focus of a lot of frustration.

Those with ties to the old Lady Vol Athletic Dept would be expected to be bitter. As far as the lengthy list of AD's and coaches that have passed through Tenn, I can understand why the women wanted to remain apart from the men's AD. But I'll reserve judgement on Hart for now.

 

[KnightBridgeAZ]

Actually, some of the stuff on the men's side was new to me. What a string of disastrous coaching decisions on the men's side in BB, FB and the other BB.

Hart is in a lose / lose situation, since it is clear that the various decisions and their financial impact, as well as other financial issues, have tightened the budget belt.

I do think there is a bit of the good-old boy mentality that led to some of the issues listed. I also think the change of women's team names is (ultimately) cost-cutting, and clearly not popular. There are deep divisions still in the athletic department, although I forget who I was talking to that gave me some info from (primarily) a softball point-of-view.

I don't know enough to "judge" Hart, but I suspect Fulmer's comments quoted in the piece might be fairly accurate.

 

[UcMiami]

It is old news but interesting to see it laid out with all the disasters with hirings and firings of coaches.

One interesting thing to contemplate - half the Lady Vols fan base wants Hart to fire Holly yesterday, and say he will not because he doesn't care whether they win or lose. But if he were to fire 'Pat's anointed successor' the other half of the fan base would probably be out for his blood for 'disrespecting' Pat and the program.

On the lawsuits - large corporation settle these types of lawsuits all the time because the expense of them is huge and they can drag on for decades, and the cost to TN when compared to the cost they incurred to fire mens coaches is no that great. Better to cut loses and not rely on a jury. The 12 of 15 number is not a good 'picture' but not knowing anything about the individuals and the competition they faced for the combined job it is hard to comment.

I have been through layoff and consolidation situations and it is never fun or easy or without thorny issues. The fact that Pat was iconic and the longest tenured coach (I assume) and the had the most loyal following of anyone associated with TN would suggest that she had created her own fiefdom with her own 'people' who would find any change after she left to be difficult. (I am sure Geno and Chris have done the same, so that is not a shot at Pat, just the reality of organizational life.

 

[meyers7]

Reason to Support the Orange Folks

No.

 

[Icebear]

No.

Agreed, Meyers. But Harts's a disaster at TN for everyone, not just the women.

 

[Jimbo]

Agreed, Meyers. But Harts's a disaster at TN for everyone, not just the women.

If that's true across the board, I wouldn't expect Hart's tenure to last very long. So for those UConn fans who want to see Tenn. WBB slide into irrelevance and who think Hart is a disaster for that program, the logical thing to do is to root like crazy for Tenn. football to win a national championship or two. That way, Hart sticks around Knoxville for a long, long time.

 

[CocoHusky]

If that's true across the board, I wouldn't expect Hart's tenure to last very long. So for those UConn fans who want to see Tenn. WBB slide into irrelevance and who think Hart is a disaster for that program, the logical thing to do is to root like crazy for Tenn. football to win a national championship or two. That way, Hart sticks around Knoxville for a long, long time.

Or we can point out the outstanding job Holly is doing and insist on an extension from Hart.
Or we insist that Diamond stay around the program indefinitely, first to exhaust her eligibility (2 more years) followed by formalizing her position as coach Emiratis which would only help with the WCBB recruiting situation because so many kids consider her a role model.

 

[Waquoit]

Agreed, Meyers. But Harts's a disaster at TN for everyone, not just the women.

Boo hoo. Why should we care about some SEC school? Especially one that has worked so hard to hurt UConn.