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Tennessee Lady Vols: Kellie Harper enters much trickier offseason than 2020

By Caleb Calhoun

Nov 28, 2020; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper during the first half against the Western Kentucky Lady Toppers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports
Nov 28, 2020; Knoxville, Tennessee, USA; Tennessee Lady Vols head coach Kellie Harper during the first half against the Western Kentucky Lady Toppers at Thompson-Boling Arena. Mandatory Credit: Randy Sartin-USA TODAY Sports /
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Through her first two years on the job as head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols, Kellie Harper has done a lot of good. She still hasn’t lost to any team that wasn’t an NCAA Tournament or 20-win caliber program, and this past year, she didn’t lost to any team outside of the top 25.

Also, this year, she finally began to win games against elite teams, scoring huge wins over the Indiana Hoosiers, Arkansas Razorbacks, South Carolina Gamecocks and Kentucky Wildcats. That was a huge step from last year.

Although they lost to the Michigan Wolverines in the second round Tuesday, the Tennessee Lady Vols got a raw deal. Michigan is ranked ahead of them in the Coaches Poll and had no business being down at a No. 6 seed while UT is a No. 3 seed. If seeding was done properly, Harper’s team would have easily made the Sweet 16.

Nonetheless, their season comes to an end with a 17-8 record. The future appears bright. Theoretically, if Rocky Top takes the same leap under Harper it took from Year One to Year Two, it’ll be a top 10 caliber team. Can that be expected?

Well, it’ll be much harder to take that leap than it was last year. The Tennessee Lady Vols lose their best player over the past two years in Rennia Davis. Although Harper likes an inside-out game, Davis could be a go-to scorer who took over when it mattered, and she was also an elite rebounder. Very few players have her versatility on the win.

On top of that, Harper’s reliance on length down low involved starting Kasiyahna Kushkituah with Tamari Key. The height advantage was a huge boost throughout the year, and Kushkituah will be difficult to replace.

Losing both of these players makes things extremely tricky. Fans will point out that Harper dealt with the losses of Lou Brown and Kamera Harris last year along with the transfers of Zaay Green and Jazmine Massengill, two elite guards.

However, Green missed almost all of 2019-2020 anyway. Harris was a role player. Brown was a starter, but there was nothing she did that Key and Kushkituah on the court couldn’t replace. Massengill was the key loss.

Still, the development of Jordan Horston, arrival of graduate Jordan Walker and increase in three-point specialists with the return of Jessie Rennie and addition of Marta Suarez more than offset that. With those guards gone, Harper was able to focus on more of her system, as all the right players were in place without as much clutter.

These departures aren’t the same. Davis fits any scheme, and Kushkituah is the type of player key to Harper and the Tennessee Lady Vols having success. So what’s the key to make sure they take the same leap next year?

Well, the pressure is now on Harper to develop some of the new talent. The bodies are there. Emily Saunders is another center, and if Harper wants to use height as an advantage, she needs Saunders to take that next step and fill Kushkituah’s shoes.

There needs to be more depth on the bench too. Keyen Green and Jaiden McCoy are two post players who were seniors this past year and suffered season-ending injuries. They’ll almost certainly be back, but Harper needs them to take another step.

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Rae Burrell will obviously have to take more of a leadership role as the one elite scoring wing now. She will have to shoulder some of what Davis did, but here’s where she can get some help: the three-point specialists.

Suarez and Rennie haven’t lived up to their hype just yet as sharpshooters. Harper needs to spend this offseason working with them on that front, and if they finally reach their potential, this is where the difference comes.

At that point, Harper will be able to run an inside-out game again with Saunders and Key down low, Burrell as the versatile scorer, Horston and Walker as the players who can set everything up while slashing to the basket, and Suarez and Rennie stretching the court with their shot. But all of this depends on the development of Suarez, Rennie and Saunders.

Now, Destiny Salary and Tess Darby are still there to provide depth at guard, and then there’s an elite recruiting class coming in with two four-star forwards in Sara Puckett and Karoline Striplin, a four-star guard in Kaiya Wynn and a three-star point guard in Brooklynn Miles. All of them bring potential and will help make for a very deep roster.

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Simply put, the bodies are there to offset the losses. The Tennessee Lady Vols could still have a great future. However, unlike last year, Harper will have to tweak her lineup and develop a couple of players to the point that they take a major leap forward. She has shown she can do that in the past. Without Davis, though, it will be critical.