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Tennessee Lady Vols hot board: Candidates to replace Holly Warlick

By Caleb Calhoun

LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 12: Head coach Nikki Caldwell of the UCLA Bruins reacts while taking on the Stanford Cardinal in the championship game of the 2011 Pacific Life Pac-10 Women's Basketball Tournament at Staples Center on March 12, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images)
LOS ANGELES, CA - MARCH 12: Head coach Nikki Caldwell of the UCLA Bruins reacts while taking on the Stanford Cardinal in the championship game of the 2011 Pacific Life Pac-10 Women's Basketball Tournament at Staples Center on March 12, 2011 in Los Angeles, California. (Photo by Jeff Gross/Getty Images) /
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Photo by: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images
Photo by: Doug Pensinger/Getty Images /

Top 10 Conventional Candidates

These are candidates who are not outside the box and have no drawbacks at this point. Tennessee should look at all of them.

10. Cori Close, UCLA Bruins

Inheriting a solid program from former Vol Nikki Fargas, Cori Close has maintained the success. After two losing seasons in her first three years, she’s had five straight winning seasons, four straight NCAA Tournaments and four straight trips to the second weekend of the tournament, including this year when her team upset the Tennessee Lady Vols.

9. Jennie Lillis Baranczyk, Drake Bulldogs

Jennie Lillis Baranczyk took over the Drake Bulldogs in 2012. After one losing season, she has had six straight winning seasons. More importantly, though, she’s made three straight NCAA Tournaments, the program’s first three since 2007. So she’s winning and is a solid, proven candidate.

8. Amy Vachon, Maine Black Bears

You don’t get much more outside the box than a Maine head coach. But this program hadn’t made the NCAA Tournament in 13 years and had suffered nine losing seasons in 12 years before Amy Vachon took over. She’s now earned two straight NCAA Tournament berths.

7. Charli Turner Thorne, Arizona State Sun Devils

Okay, this is close to the not coming pipe dream. But the Tennessee Lady Vols should try. Charli Turner Thorne has consistently won in over 20 years with Arizona State, making the NCAA Tournament 10 of the past 12 years she’s coaching. She is affordable, and in a better recruiting environment, her potential is through the roof.

6. Kellie Harper, Missouri State Lady Bears

Kellie Harper taking Missouri State to the Sweet Sixteen and two NCAA Tournaments in four years is beyond impressive. Add in the fact that she’s a Lady Vols graduate who played for the program in its peak years, 1995 to 1999, and she’s the perfect candidate in many ways. She was fired from her previous job with the N.C. State Wolfpack, but many believe that Debbie Yow shouldn’t have fired her and that it was a move to put her own stamp on the program.

5. Tricia Fabbri, Quinnipiac Bobcats

Don’t sleep on Tricia Fabbri. A veteran in the women’s game, she flew under the radar for years with the Quinnipiac Bobcats. But she’s the Rick Byrd hire of this group, slowly building a small program into a big winner after over 20 years on the job. Quinnipiac has five straight Metro Athletic Championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances in five years, including the 2017 Sweet Sixteen. She deserves a major look.

4.  Nikki McCray, Old Dominion Monarchs

A Tennessee Lady Vols legend herself who played from 1991 to 1995, don’t sleep on what Nikki McCray is doing at Old Dominion. She’s made no NCAA Tournaments and only been there two years. But in her second year, she just went 21-10. This is being done at a once-storied program that fell off the map in recent years. McCray is slowly restoring it. Maybe the three-time WNBA All-Star could do that at her alma mater.

3. Nikki Fargas, LSU Tigers

From 2010 to 2015, two years with the UCLA Bruins and four with the LSU Tigers, Nikki Fargas made six straight NCAA Tournament appearances and two Sweet Sixteens. Fargas built the program Cori Close has maintained. And she played for Summitt and the Tennessee Lady Vols. So she would be a very qualified candidate, even if there’s been a bit of a dropoff recently.

2. Tina Langley, Rice Owls

Before Tina Langley took over Rice, the program had suffered three straight losing seasons and was coming off a 9-21 year. She had one bad year, at 9-22. Since then, though, she’s had two straight 20-plus win seasons, the program’s first two since 2005. And the program made its first NCAA Tournament since 2005 in 2019. So it’s on the rise, and you can’t find a coach building a better program right now.

1. Courtney Rosholt Banghart, Princeton Tigers

Courtney Rosholt Banghart’s predecessor, Richard Barron, had five losing seasons in six years with the Princeton Tigers. Banghart, meanwhile, has had 10 straight winning seasons and made eight NCAA Tournaments in those 10 years. Nobody is more accomplished at the lower level than Banghart at this moment.

As a result, Banghart has to be the top candidate for the job. She consistently wins for her level. Sure, she doesn’t go far in the tournament, but that’s not the criteria at Princeton. With the Tennessee Lady Vols, the story would likely be different. As a result, she’s our top choice to replace Holly Warlick for now. Her decade-long track record despite her youth proves it.