Holly Warlick Fired as Tennessee Lady's Basketball Coach

Holly Warlick is the Tennessee women's basketball coach.

Sports Director Phillip Fulmer announced the coaching change Wednesday, four days after Warlick finished his seventh season as coach of Lady Vols.

"Holly and I met this afternoon and I informed her of the decision to change leadership within the program," Fulmer said in a press release. "Holly has spent most of her adult life at the University of Tennessee and the Lady Flights program, she loves Tennessee, and Tennessee must always love her in return. of this program, which has become the model of female intercollegiate excellence.

"Even though making this decision is difficult, I am responsible for doing what I deem best for this historic program.It is important for all of us that Lady Vols basketball maintains its status among the elite."

The Tennessee season ended Saturday with a 89-77 loss to UCLA in the first round of the NCAA tournament.

The Lady Flights finished 19-13, marking their worst season in the NCAA tournament era.

► The replacement of Warlick: Jeff Walz, Kellie Harper and Tina Langley among the names to watch

Tennessee continued to make all the NCAA tournaments in the history of the event, winning one of the last at-large auctions for its 38th selection. The Lady Vols are the only program in the country to participate in the NCAA Tournament every year since its inception in 1982.

But that was pretty much the only good thing we could say for a season in which Tennessee failed to reach 20 wins for the first time since 1975-1976, when only 27 games been played.

Program refused after the departure of Summitt

Although Warlick has participated in the NCAA Tournament in each of his seasons and has reached the Elite Eight three times, the Lady Flights have demoted and are no longer the program that legendary coach Pat Summitt has highlighted to nationwide.

This is the third year in a row that Tennessee has not managed to reach the Sweet 16. It's the second time in the history of the school that the Lady Vols do not do not go through the first round of the NCAA tournament.

Tennessee had other faults. He suffered a series of six defeats in January, the longest losing streak in his history.

The Lady Flights recovered and reinforced their CV before bowing to Vanderbilt 76-69 at Thompson-Boling Arena on February 28th. The Commodores entered the match with only one win at the SEC. UT came into play with a 33-0 record against Vandy in games played in Knoxville.

Warlick was the American player for Lady Vols

Warlick, a former American guard of the Lady Vols, is well anchored in the history of the program that she has left. After playing for Summitt, she was part of her staff for 27 years, including seven as an associate head coach. His player number 22 is retired and hangs in the rafters of the Thompson-Boling Arena.

Warlick was an assistant coach at Virginia Tech and Nebraska between playing and training for Summitt.

Warlick scored 172-67 as Tennessee's head coach.

"I was part of that program, I played here," Warlick said after Saturday's loss, at the behest of his legacy if Tennessee brought a coaching change.

"I obviously coached with Pat Summitt and (now) head coach, and I just remember my passion for the program and the sport, I think it's a big game. would send my daughter – whether I coach or not, I would send her to the University of Tennessee. "

Tennessee has not reached the Final Four since 2008, when Summitt won the last of his eight championships.

The Lady Vols have won at least 27 games in each of Warlick's first three seasons before the program began to return.

Last year's loss to the Oregon State at the Thompson-Boling Arena at the NCAA tournament ended the UT's 57-game winning streak in the tournament. And Tennessee's No. 11 seed this season was his worst seed of all time in the NCAA.

A season of struggles

Tennessee had an inexperienced list. Seven of the 11 players are freshmen and sophomores. The list included three elderly people. One of them is Lou Brown, a graduate in transfer, who has a knee injury before the start of the season.

This youth did not bother the Lady Flights at the beginning of the season. The Lady Flights have won 12 of their first 13 games, including a win over the road against no. 12 Texas. The only defeat for Tennessee in this stretch is a 10-point loss to Stanford in a top-10 duel.

The Lady Flights no longer looked like a top 10 team – or even an NCAA tournament team – for most of January. A loss of 66-64 at home against Missouri on January 6th sent the team into a spiral.

Tennessee went 7-9 in the SEC games to win seed number 8 in the conference tournament. The Lady Vols beat LSU, number 9 seeded, in their first game of the SEC tournament, before being opposed by the Mississippi State in the quarterfinals.

The contract of Warlick

Warlick's contract ends on April 30, 2022. She has received a new contract in August.

She earned $ 690,000 a year. Her contract provided that she would receive a third of the remaining salary on her contract if she was terminated without cause, which amounted to a redemption of approximately $ 710,000.

At the announcement of Warlick's contract extension, sports director Phillip Fulmer said there was "no better person" to run the program than Warlick.

Fulmer will be in charge of finding a replacement able to give a place of choice to the Lady Flights.

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