A hectic offseason could set up a fast turnaround for Kellie Harper and Tennessee
Coaching college basketball is increasingly a year-round job, but for a new head coach, the summer before the first season can be especially hectic. New Tennessee head coach Kellie Harper felt prepared for that, as she had been a head coach at three different schools before being hired by her alma mater in April. “I expected to be scrambling around quite a bit,” she told Her Hoop Stats over the summer. But in October, she reflected, “I think the last five or so months have been the fastest five months in my life.”
Harper was hired after the Lady Vols completed what was, by their standards, a dismal 2018–19 campaign. They finished 19–13, earned a No. 11 seed in the NCAA Tournament, and lost to No. 6 seed UCLA by 12 points in their opening-round game. That ending seemed to be the straw that broke the camel’s back for alumna and then-head coach Holly Warlick, who was often criticized for her teams’ shortcomings even as she compiled a 172–67 record in seven seasons.
From the moment she was hired, Harper has not shied away from fans’ championship expectations, and this season is the first step in that process. In October, she declared on The Paul Finebaum Show, “If these players and future players believe in our vision, which is national championships, it’s going to happen. … We’re very confident.”
Junior Rennia Davis will be a key piece for the Lady Vols this year after averaging 15.0 points and 7.7 rebounds as a sophomore. Davis said that what excites her most about playing for Harper is “her intensity. You want to play for a coach who will push you, but you also know she cares about you. She’s not going to give you what you’re not able to do, but she’s going to make sure you get to the level where you should be.” Redshirt senior Lou Brown, who missed all of last season with a knee injury, pointed to “the emphasis and intensity [Harper] puts on our defense. That will be something that’s going to win us games this year.”
Harper divided her summer between teaching the current players new philosophies and terminology, playing catch-up on the recruiting trail, and taking the team on a foreign tour of the Netherlands, Belgium, and France. Before the team departed for Europe, Harper explained what she wanted her players to get out of the trip: “I want to come back with them being closer as a team. I want to come back with them knowing our staff even better and looking forward to what’s in store.”
Davis and Harper both admitted that the learning curve has been steep as the team adjusts to how Harper wants them to play. “It’s like you have 12 freshmen,” Harper said. Every practice has featured at least one passing drill and one rebounding drill, and by the start of the season, she expects the team to have a motion offense with a half-dozen plays and a man-to-man defense firmly in place. A zone defense, some transition plays, and a few out-of-bounds plays are also on her wishlist. That may sound like slow going, but in Harper’s book, “that’s OK as long as every single day we’re taking a step forward.” Davis added that “everything is a lot different” than it was under Warlick, “but it is nothing that the returnees aren’t able to adjust to.”
Harper and her players agreed that the foreign tour made some of those adjustments easier. “This trip has already helped us,” Brown told Her Hoop Stats in August. “With new coaches and a new beginning for the program, we were all still feeling each other out, and it was nice to be able to get over that initial hump well before [the] season starts. We really got the picture of how Coach Harper wants us to play and what’s going to be expected from us this season.” Harper and Brown also both mentioned how the games gave them an opportunity to practice day-of logistics for the first time, such as where the players sit on the bench and how Harper likes to structure her game days.
One aspect of game days that Harper is still ironing out is her rotation. In summer workouts, no one player consistently stood out to Harper; different people shone on different days or in different drills. That dynamic also showed up in the team’s three games overseas: starting three different lineups, the Lady Vols had four double-figure scorers in Game 1, five in Game 2, and three in Game 3. (In the finale, three other players scored eight or nine points.) After the trip, Harper told The Daily Times, “I don’t know that we can identify a rotation yet … We have a lot more to put in as a staff and as a program.” She added, “We have a lot to do to even put ourselves in a position to know where we need to be. We talk about just wanting to be the best we possibly can be, and that’s going to take a lot both on and off the court.”
To prepare for future seasons, Harper and her staff also sought to establish themselves on the recruiting trail this summer. In Harper’s words, they have been “fighting hard” to catch up with recruiting high school seniors and make inroads with players at all grade levels. “It’s definitely a challenge, but it’s not anything that surprising,” Harper said. “There are a lot of really good players that we’re talking to and [we’re] just thrilled about the future.” Earlier this month, Harper got her first commitment from an American high school player when 6-foot-1 senior (and Tennessee native) Tess Darby announced that she would sign with the Lady Vols.
Off the court, one of the things Harper aims to promote within her program is accessibility. “The University of Tennessee is a big family,” she told Her Hoop Stats in July. “… One of the things that I want our team to be is accessible.” Some fans got an early look at that by traveling with the team on the foreign tour, which allowed them to do everything on the team’s itinerary short of putting on the UT jersey and competing. The Lady Vols have also been out in the community throughout the offseason, including Brown doing crafts with kids at a local hospital and Harper pumping gas with United Way of Greater Knoxville.
While juggling practices, recruiting, traveling, and community outreach, Harper has also consistently prioritized her family. Her husband Jon is one of her assistant coaches, and the couple has two small children, Jackson and Kiley. Kiley, at just over one year old, has already been on the court with the Lady Vols, and Kellie has posted on social media about family moments such as getting a manicure with Jackson, celebrating Father’s Day and Kiley’s birthday, and Jackson starting kindergarten.
Harper said that she has “loved every minute” of being the Lady Vols’ head coach, and one reason why she has thrived in such a demanding role is a lesson she learned about balance from a Tennessee legend. “I’m really excited about [my work], so I have a lot of energy for it,” Harper explained. “But … a really, really, really smart woman one time told me that you need to make sure you find some downtime. And that was Pat Summitt. And we’ll make sure we get some.”
The Lady Vols will play an exhibition game on October 29 before their season opener at East Tennessee State on November 5. The Lady Vols will have three early opportunities to test themselves against top-tier opponents with games at Notre Dame and Stanford and a home date with Texas. With anticipation mounting about whether Harper can return the Lady Vols to elite status, the team needs a good showing in those three games — and preferably a few wins — to inspire confidence from fans. But, after a whirlwind offseason, the new head coach is confident that her team can get off to a fast start.
If you like this content, please support our work at Her Hoop Stats by subscribing for just $20 a year. All stats are compiled from Her Hoop Stats.
