JOHN ADAMS

John Adams: Hot-and-cold Lady Vols could leave Holly Warlick on hot seat

John Adams
USA TODAY NETWORK - Tennessee

The great thing about college basketball: You get extra chances.

You can overcome a mediocre regular season by winning your conference tournament. And even if you falter terribly in your conference tournament, you still might get another chance.

The Tennessee women’s basketball team will get that chance.

Tennessee head coach Holly Warlick during the game against Texas A&M at Thompson-Boling Arena on Sunday, February 12, 2017. Tennessee lost to Texas A&M, 61-59.

Never mind that the Lady Vols performed dreadfully in their one-and-done showing in the SEC tournament. There’s still the NCAA tournament.

But if Tennessee wants to win in the court of public opinion, a third consecutive trip to the Elite Eight won’t do it. The Lady Vols will need to advance to the Final Four.

That’s the reality of a program that won eight national championships under the late Pat Summitt, once took Final Fours for granted and more often than not made a strong run in the SEC tournament.

UT’s run in the SEC tournament in Greenville, S.C., lasted half an afternoon. It lost to 12th-seeded Alabama 72-64.

That’s embarrassing for its fans, who showed up in large numbers at Bon Secours Wellness Arena. They expected to make a weekend of it, not an afternoon.

Based on my emails and social media, many of those fans are in favor of a coaching change. They don’t care if coach Holly Warlick has won 25 games a season for five years. Or that she has led the Lady Vols to the Elite Eight three times in the past four seasons. And they don’t want to hear about the pressure of succeeding a legend.

They just know that what they’re seeing doesn’t look like Lady Vols basketball. UT lost 14 games last season and has lost 11 this season. After winning 49 of its first 51 games against Alabama, it has since gone 0-3 against the Tide.

It’s not just the number of the losses. It’s the nature of them. It’s the way a team with plenty of former high school All-Americans can beat four top-10 teams and lose to the likes of Ole Miss and Alabama. It’s the way a team can beat No. 2 Mississippi State by 18 points and look so disinterested in losing its first game in the SEC tournament four days later.

That doesn’t just reflect on the players. It reflects on Warlick.

After the loss to Alabama, UT was represented at the postgame media conference by Warlick and players Jordan Reynolds and Mercedes Russell.

Reynolds, a senior point guard, was asked to explain the team’s listlessness when it seemingly should have been motivated after losing consecutive games to the Tide.

“We didn’t think we had to come out and play to the best of our ability because we came off a big win,” Reynolds said.

A coach sitting a few seats away should have been stunned. But Warlick apparently wasn’t even listening. When asked for her reaction, Warlick needed to have Reynolds’ comments repeated.

Based on how Warlick sometimes rambles in postgame news conferences, it makes you wonder how effectively she communicates with her team. Or maybe she just has a team of bad listeners. Bad memories, too, because no matter how many times this bunch loses to a lesser opponent, there's no lesson learned.

This team won’t get Warlick fired. But if it doesn’t make the Final Four, it will put her on the hot seat.

John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or john.adams@knoxnews.com. Follow him on Twitter: @JohnAdamsKNS.

More by John Adams: