Tennessee Lady Vols: Kellie Harper a safe but solid hire

The Tennessee Lady Vols found a former player to replace Holly Warlick as head coach. Kellie Harper is safe but solid for the women’s basketball Volunteers.

Some of the rules for the Tennessee Lady Vols were simple as they set out to replace Holly Warlick. Although it was never said out loud, they had to find a woman. The brand that Pat Summitt built just can’t ever be led by a man.

On top of that, they would never be able to justify shelling out money for a big name, even if they wanted to. Warlick may not have worked out, but when she initially replaced Summitt, there was never a better choice on paper. However, she never made over $700,000, meaning you could not hire a new coach and pay more unless you lured a huge name who’s already won a national title.

Those things limited the scope of the coaching search to a degree with the Tennessee Lady Vols, and it landed them a former player. Similar to Warlick, they are brining in a legend to now run the program as a head coach.

Kellie Harper is from Tennessee and went to Tennessee, playing for Summitt during her three-peat in the 1990s. She was the point guard and the glue player for that epic run and the greatest team of all time in 1997-1998.

But her success as a head coach does qualify her for the job. Over her last six years with the Missouri State Lady Bears, she has gone to two NCAA Tournaments and three NITs, making five straight postseason appearances. Most recently, she took them to the Sweet 16 and one the Kay Yow Coach of the Year award. Before her, the program hadn’t made the Big Dance in seven years.

Now, there’s one red flag with Harper, and it’s the fact that she was fired by the N.C. State Wolfpack. But that was only after three years of missing the NCAA Tournament. The final two of those years were NIT appearances, and after making the NCAA Tournament with Harper’s team in 2013-2014, her successor, Wes Moore, missed it two years in a row as well.

It’s also worth noting that Harper was very young when she led N.C. State, so she has probably been able to learn more about coaching the game. After three 20-win seasons in four years, she’s clearly doing something right.

Is this a splash hire for the Tennessee Lady Vols? No. I still maintain that Courtney Banghart of the Princeton Tigers or Tina Langley of the Rice Owls were the two clear-cut best hires Phillip Fulmer could have made. They are women, they wouldn’t require hire pay than what Warlick made, and they have the most proven track records of success.

But Harper is indeed the safe hire. She knows the program, she played for Summitt, and if we base things on just this past year alone, she had the biggest splash of any head coach by taking Missouri State to the Sweet 16. If Tennessee wasn’t going to get one of those other two coaches, Harper was as good of a choice as anybody.