It’s never easy to see someone’s dream job become a nightmare for that person. Especially when that someone is Tennessee Lady Volunteers basketball coach Holly Warlick, the Knoxville native who has spent the vast majority of her life with the program as a player or an assistant or head coach.
Yet nearly seven full seasons into her rocky tenure atop Rocky Top, that’s what Warlick’s overwhelmingly unenviable task of replacing the irreplaceable Pat Summitt has become: a nightmare. For both her and a fan base that so wanted Warlick to succeed but now just wants the program to succeed again as it did under Summitt.
That was probably always going to be impossible, of course. Summitt won eight NCAA women’s championships at a time before Geno Auriemma had his UConn program at peak efficiency.
Even the late Summitt – the most successful, respected and beloved figure of her sport – watched Auriemma out-NCAA-title her 6-2 following her sixth crown in 1998.
But at least she won those two in 2007 and 2008. At least she went to seven Final Fours and three Elite Eights from the 1999-2000 season until her sad retirement at the close of the 2011-12 season due to her courageous fight with Alzheimer’s.
In Summitt’s place, Warlick hasn’t been exactly awful until this worrisome winter, but the Lady Vols not only haven’t been back to the Final Four since that 2008 crown, they also haven’t finished higher than a tie for fourth in the Southeastern Conference the past three winters and haven’t gotten past the second round of the NCAA tourney either of the past two Marches.
However, none of those disappointments have been remotely as troublesome as what’s transpired this season. A mediocre 17-10 overall, the Lady Vols are a far more depressing 6-8 in SEC play with two regular-season games to go before the conference tourney.
Even worse, every time Hot Seat Holly opens her mouth, she seems to provide more evidence for why she deserves a pink slip the second UT’s season concludes.
Merely turn your attention to Warlick’s postgame news conference following Sunday’s 82-67 home loss to South Carolina, which was the Lady Vols’ fifth defeat this season by 15 or more points.
“It’s been our M.O. for awhile,” Warlick said of the early 20-point hole her team found itself in. “We miss some easy shots, and it affects us. We had so many mental mistakes. You can’t blame it on youth. You’re playing five kids that have been mainly starting the whole year. We can’t let us not making buckets affect us on defense.”
Read those observations again. So many mental mistakes. Can’t blame it on youth.
If you can’t blame it on youth, you’re pretty much left to blame it on coaching. After all, this is her seventh season as a head coach. She’s been a part of the program in one role or another for almost 40 years. For better or worse, the buck stops with Hot Seat Holly.
Even worse, this isn’t the first time Warlick’s words have provided unnecessary fodder for her detractors to bash her on social media and radio talk shows.
Two years ago, after an inexplicable SEC tourney loss to a struggling Alabama team that had somehow stunned the Lady Vols during the regular season, UT senior Jordan Reynolds said of the defeat: “I think we were just overlooking this team. I think we played lethargic from the beginning.”
Said Warlick, who hadn’t yet heard Reynolds’ assessment: “They were tougher than us today. They had a little bit of a stronger will. They just outworked us and outplayed us.”
When Warlick was apprised of her player’s thoughts, she seemed shocked, then said, “If that’s the case, we’ve got to change that mindset.”
Though this season was always going to be difficult due to a roster that includes four freshmen and three sophomores, this team has too much talent to stand 6-8 in the SEC. But experience has nothing to do with heart and hustle and preparedness. Just look at the Kentucky men’s team every year, or LSU this season.
Coaching does matter, though, and either because of poor recruiting, poor execution or poor desire these Lady Vols have looked poorly coached far too often this season.
Nearly two years have passed since Warlick said she needed to change the mindset around the Lady Vols program. Given that nothing much has improved since then, even arguably growing worse, it might be time to change coaches.
Contact Mark Wiedmer at mwiedmer@timesfreepress.com.