University of Tennessee Athletics
Warlick's Success Years In The Making
November 12, 2015 | Women's Basketball
By Brian Rice
UTSports.com
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. -- You will have to forgive Holly Warlick if she has to think for a moment on exactly how long she has been Tennessee's head basketball coach.
With the exception of four years in the early 1980s as an assistant at Virginia Tech and Nebraska, Warlick's entire basketball life has been spent on campus in Knoxville. There were her four years in a Lady Volunteer uniform from 1976-80, the final three of those seasons ending with All-American honors. She was the first student-athlete in Tennessee history to have her jersey retired.
Pat Summitt called her home as an assistant coach in 1985 and Warlick's only move since has been down the hall at Thompson-Boling Arena. That move came on April 18, 2012, when Summitt "passed the whistle" to her longtime assistant, with whom she won eight national titles and had 949 of her coaching victories.
That does, for the record, make the coming season her fourth as head coach, after handling many of the media obligations and day-to-day operations in the 2011-12 season following Summitt's diagnosis of early-onset dementia.
"I don't think too much about the past, other than to last year and trying to remember what we did and try to get better," Warlick said. "I don't think about the fact I'm going into my fourth year."
The three seasons in her rear view mirror have produced a run remarkable by any standard, unheard of for a coach in her first three seasons on the job. Warlick's teams have an 86-20 record, including a 42-6 mark in the Southeastern Conference. She has two SEC regular season titles and an SEC Tournament championship in three years. Her .811 overall winning percentage ranks her fifth among all active NCAA Division I head coaches, while her .875 conference winning percentage is best among all SEC coaches.
But for a program with as many Final Fours on its resume, 18, as it has SEC Championships, winning the league is something the fans sometimes see as a stepping stone to the NCAA Tournament, rather than a cause for celebration.
"It's what we're expected to do," Warlick said. "From when Pat was here and I was an assistant, we kind of created a monster where the expectations are so high. I don't think that we don't value SEC Championships, but it's expected. And it's still expected as it gets harder and harder (to win them)."
Two of her three seasons have ended with Elite Eight appearances, impressive accomplishments to be celebrated for most programs, but an expectation for a program that does not even recognize them with banners.
The rafters at Thompson-Boling have three types of women's banners hung: National Championships, SEC Championships and one with a list of Final Four appearances. Not NCAA Tournaments, not Sweet 16, not Elite Eights. The standard is clear, which makes coaches take a careful balance between preparing for that stage with every game played and not reducing a whole year to a one-game season.
"You have to have tough-minded kids, and we have to instill winning in them," Warlick said. "There is a fine line in talking about going to the Final Four. I think we have to because that's why they came to Tennessee, to compete for championships. You have to talk about it, you can't hide or sweep under the rug that's the goal."
Starting her fourth season means the entire roster is composed of players that came to Tennessee with Warlick as head coach.
"We've all grown with her," said redshirt sophomore Andraya Carter. "The first years are hard because you're trying to create your culture. She was trying to change the culture, and that's hard for anyone."
Not that there was anything wrong with the culture that existed. But any coach that takes over a program has to establish the identity that they want their team to take on. It is not enough to just keep rolling over expectations from previous eras.
"You have to instill your own culture," Warlick said. "You have to pull from what you've been around, and that's what I've done. Pat and my philosophies are pretty much the same, so it's a great foundation for me. But I understand that kids are different from what they were 10 years ago, even five years ago. I think that you have to understand that, embrace that and try to get the same results you have in the past, but do it in a different way.
It was something that Warlick had to do on the biggest stage women's basketball has to offer while following the greatest coach in the history of the game. No easy task, but the results speak for themselves.
"She had to figure out what kind of coach she wanted to be and how she wanted to lead," Carter said of her head coach. "She is confident in what she wants Lady Vol basketball to look like and be. Now, we are seeing her demand it, and the whole team is following it and demanding it from each other."
Demanding that they be ready for the postseason tests they will face has become a focus.
"We have to get them prepared for anything that is thrown at them," Warlick said. "They have to go into a game thinking `whatever that team throws at us, we're going to win the game.' That no matter what the other team does offensively or defensively, we have an answer for it. It's up to the coaching staff to get them to that point."
Tennessee has always played a schedule that ranks among the country's most difficult. That philosophy has continued, but Warlick has added an additional twist. She has sought out teams beyond the usual rivals that will take the Lady Vols out of their comfort zone. Playing games that make them uncomfortable can instill confidence when similar teams pop up on the bracket in March.
"I like to go against teams where we may not see a lot of teams that run their style," said Warlick. "Notre Dame is a different style from the SEC. Stanford is a different style, Oregon State is a different style, Syracuse is a 2-3 matchup team and we don't see that. I think it's important for us to get out and play the different styles and scenarios so when we do see that in tournament play we're not rattled by it."
It is the Lady Vol way, just as many of the ideals held by the program continue to be. This is still a program with eight crystal balls in its trophy case, still a force in every game, still a name that has been read on every NCAA selection day since there has been a tournament. Perhaps most important, it is a program that still carries a 100 percent gradation rate.
"I think of Holly as someone who has been everywhere that I want to go," said Diamond DeShields, a redshirt sophomore that transferred from North Carolina to play for Warlick. "She has been a part of the Olympic team, she has been a National Champion, she's been an All-American. Holly embodies the things that I want to become, so why not play for someone who has been there? I feel like Holly is the right person for me to be able to take the steps to become the woman that I want to be."
Living up to that is a role that Warlick embraces.
"A great selling point for us is that we have a great foundation here," she said. "We prepare these kids not only to compete on the basketball court, but for a career to play professionally and making sure they get a degree and go out into the world prepared. We prepare them to be the best and compete for the best in everything they do, basketball, personally, job opportunities, whatever they do."
The three seniors her program graduated after last season embody that. All three were selected in the 2015 WNBA Draft. Isabelle Harrison was a first-round pick with the 12th selection by the Phoneix Mercury. Cierra Burdick was taken by the Los Angeles Sparks two picks later. Ariel Massengale was selected in the third round, 29th overall, by the Atlanta Dream.
Burdick moved to the Dream during the season and made four starts over 11 games, averaging 4.4 points and 3.2 rebounds per game. Harrison and Massengale were each draft picks despite having injuries that teams knew would keep them sidelined for the 2015 season.
"You see where these kids are when they get here and when they leave," Warlick said. "We develop them in all aspects of their life. This is a coaching staff that is extremely proud of them. Those three are hard workers, they're self-sufficient. When we're pushing, they're following. They're high-energy kids, and they work hard. They had high GPAs in the classroom and it carried on to the basketball court. To get two kids drafted when they're injured speaks a lot to their character and their ability to play."
It also says something about the Tennessee program. After all, it's the Lady Vol way.
"Coming from this program, professional teams understand what they go through and that we're going to get them ready," Warlick said. "It speaks volumes of what kind of person they're going to be when they come out of this program."
