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Mechelle VoepelespnW.com
ALBANY, NY – Geno Auriemma, a women's basketball coach at UConn, said Thursday that Holly Warlick's replacement in Tennessee would immediately face the challenge of high expectations to live up to the success of former coach Pat Summitt.
Warlick was relieved Wednesday after seven seasons.
"I think if they make the right decision and that the right person is in that position, it will not take them long to get back to where they were," Auriemma said of the Lady Vols, an eight-league program. eliminated in the NCAA at the beginning of the last three years. "I do not think it's going to be very difficult at all.
"But their fan base is very similar to ours, they're impatient, they want everything, right now, there will not be much patience for the next person, so they'll have to be great right away."
Yes, it was time for Tennessee to part ways with her. But Holly Warlick took the burden of following a legend and led it as she could.
After seven seasons as a head coach and a lifetime as a Lady Vol, Holly Warlick is in Tennessee. Here are the best candidates to succeed him.
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UConn and Tennessee had one of the biggest rivalries in women's basketball from 1995 to 2007, including six in the women's finals. But Summitt canceled the series after his regular season meeting in 2007. Schools are finally ready to meet again for a two-game series that will kick off next season.
The date of the first match in Connecticut is January 23, 2020. It will take place during the week "We Back Pat". The second game will be held in Tennessee in 2021.
"I think that, according to the coach, we could face them 10 times or not play them at all," Auriemma said. "I'm looking forward to seeing who the coach is because maybe it will only be two years, maybe one.
He added jokingly, "Maybe I'll try to get out next year."
Seriously, Auriemma said that he felt bad for Warlick, a Tennessee longtime assistant turned head coach in 2012 after Summitt's resignation due to early, Alzheimer-type dementia.
"It was not easy from the first day to do this job," Auriemma said. "And then, you know, you add the pressures of what is expected in a place like Tennessee, and the fact that all the others have improved and that it's much harder to recruit the same players as those recruited at the time, and you add all that, and it's not easy.
"So, Holly was in a very difficult position from the moment she took the job, I feel really bad for her.Every school has the right to have its own coach, obviously, and Tennessee has the The right to choose who he wants as a coach When a coach is in this situation, I feel that because we are all part of the same community, Holly is going to land for sure. "
Of course, it is inevitable that one day UConn be in the same situation as Tennessee: look for a coach who can successfully follow a legend. But Auriemma does not spend a lot of time thinking about it.
On the one hand, he is busy trying to guide UConn towards a 12th NCAA title – the next step is the regional semifinal against UCLA on Friday. But beyond that, he does not think that there is much good about coaches trying to plan who will follow them.
"I'm being asked all the time who will be the next Connecticut coach," Auriemma said. "I said: I really would not have any opinion on that." Because a number of my assistants might want this job, or some former assistants. I think it's hard for someone in our situation to say, "Well, I'll pick the next coach in hand." I think anyone who tried to do that really did not do a good job. "
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