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Message: [QUOTE="bballnut90, post: 4814158, member: 2117"] I think Kellie is a significantly better coach than Holly, though she is still far from being a top rate coach. Tennessee was beyond awful in all areas aside from getting talent under Holly. Players didn't develop, teams often had chemistry issues, players looked confused on the court and we'd see significant periods of poor effort and focus. Any talk of Holly being a better overall coach is laughable. Yes, the loss last night was bad and they should've performed better, but Tennessee regularly lost games like this under Holly. Also keep in mind, Tennessee is currently without their best player, their other All-SEC standout is still coming back from injury, and they're incorporating a lot of new players into their system. They also started out rough last year and turned it around to finish the year strong. Ultimately, the reason why Tennessee isn't a powerhouse again is the Tennessee AD was cheap when they went to replace Warlick. They could've paid for a better coach but weren't willing to shell out. Harper had proven results at multiple programs but her results were good, never great, throughout her coaching career. Her teams have never played pretty basketball or established themselves as elite. That said, I don't think she's done an atrocious job by any means. She develops her players and has endured a barrage of brutal injuries, losing an All-SEC player each season, yet has done well by most standards (top 3 in the SEC each year, 2 Sweet 16s in three years). Her recruiting is of concern, though she's landing really solid kids from the portal to counter act that. The problem is that fans aren't happy with being a borderline Sweet 16 squad most years, they want the program to be a power house again and Kellie isn't the person to get them to the next level. Going back to 2020, when the debate was between her and Lawson, I would've rolled the dice with Lawson based on overall pedigree and just listening to her talk and dissect games. She's brilliant and has the aura that she'll be successful in any area she applies herself. Kellie had a lot of coaching experience though, Kara did not. That was likely the difference when comparing the 2. After Kara didn't get hired she publicly criticized Tennessee's AD for their lack of diversity. Based on that, I don't think she has a desire to coach at Tennessee even with the AD switch. She's building a great thing in Durham, is landing top kids each year and has Duke primed to compete for the ACC for years to come. If Tennessee parts ways with Harper, I'm not sure who they'll be able to land at a similar price point. If they're will to throw serious money at a stronger candidate, then by all means I'm all for it. But I think Tennessee inevitably runs into the same problems if they make another cheaper hire. [/QUOTE]

Verification: First name of men's bb coach