The women's
basketball team fired Kellie Harper on Monday, marking the second time the program has dismissed its head coach in the 14 years since Pat Summitt stepped away from the program. While Harper led the Volunteers to the in each of the past four years, she couldn't get them to the Elite Eight. They've not reached that stage since 2015-16 under Holly Warlick, the longtime Summitt assistant and her eventual successor, who was fired in 2019. Five years ago, then-athletic director Phillip Fulmer said of the Warlick decision: "It's important to all of us that Lady Vols basketball maintains its status among the elite." The same expectation to match the late Summitt's history-making success seemingly led to the end of Harper's tenure. With South Carolina and LSU ascendant powers in the SEC, it could prove difficult for Tennessee's next head coach to meet the lofty expectations of the administration. "After a thorough review of our women's basketball program, I have informed Kellie we are making a change in leadership," Tennessee wrote in a statement on Monday. "Decisions like these are never easy to make, especially with someone who has done so much for the Lady Vols as a three-time national champion student-athlete. "Her love and passion for Tennessee and the Lady Vols is second to none. She has invested so much heart and soul into our program and truly has given her all for Tennessee. I thank Kellie for her stewardship of our women's basketball program and wish her and Jon well in the next chapter of their lives." Harper issued a statement of her own, thanking Tennessee for the time it gave her at the school she played for in the late 1990s. "It has been an honor to serve at my alma mater and to coach a Lady Vol program I love so dearly," she wrote. "I am grateful for the opportunity my staff and I have had to lead an amazing group of young
Women and to mentor them on the court as well as provide them with life skills that will benefit them far beyond the game of basketball." Earlier this month, Tennessee came agonizingly close to a victory that could have saved Harper's
Job. The Volunteers led undefeated South Carolina by two points with four seconds to go in the SEC Tournament semi-final. And they were at the free-throw line, with Jasmine Powell having the chance to ice a monumental win. Instead, . Then, in the NCAA Tournament, the No. 6-seed Volunteers fell in the second round to No. 3-seed NC State.