Lady Vol head basketball coach Kellie Harper met with reporters during the team’s on-campus media day on Thursday.
Opening Statement
“Well, we’re all excited to get started. It’s almost unbelievable that we’re less than a week away from putting on uniforms and playing in Thompson-Boling Arena. I know our players are excited about that, ready for that opportunity. I’m actually still looking forward to the practices that we have before then, but they’ve been giving me great energy. They’ve been giving us good effort, and right now I think that’s the most important thing that we can be doing. So, we’re all excited.”
On if the players are ready for outside competition rather than playing each other:
“Usually about this time right now players are really looking forward to playing someone else in a uniform. They’re really looking forward to the games. Ours have definitely got a countdown going on, but I’ll be honest with you, they stayed locked in pretty good. Every team that I’ve ever coached, you get to this point and they’re just ready to play games, so it’s expected, but I’ve been really proud of their focus as we go into the season.”
On her relationship with Lady Vol fans:
“Listen, I have had more stories about me playing in the last month than I need to hear. It’s been great to reconnect with fans and to reminisce with some of my former teammates, and to reminisce about my former teammates and about our time here. I think it’s been important for me to be out in the community and out visiting with our fans, but our fans have stories and they want to talk about the nineties, the late nineties for sure, and hopefully they’ll be just as excited as we were back then about this upcoming season.”
On what she expects from Jordan Horston:
“Well, any time there’s change you have to put yourself in those young players’ shoes and their families’ shoes. They didn’t know me, and I think it’s hard to be able to turn your daughter over to someone you don’t know, and so we had to build some relationships pretty quickly with them, but they were on board from the beginning, and I think one, that’s a testament to the University of Tennessee. I think there’s a big pull to be in Big Orange Country. I think we had a pretty quick connection, Jordan and I did, and I was really happy that her parents were willing to give me that opportunity. Jordan is a fun young woman to coach. She’s a little bit of a perfectionist. She wants to do things right. She’s very skilled. She’s very savvy. She asks questions. She communicates well with her teammates. I think she has some leadership qualities that I think we’re going to be able to develop over time, but she’s still a freshman and she, like a lot of other players, has a lot to learn. I think right now the best thing about that is she’s willing and she’s excited about learning, whether that’s learning how to deal with time management on a daily basis or learning how to run an offense.”
On her relationship with Rick Barnes and his staff:
“I think it’s really important that you have a strong relationship with the men’s basketball staff. I think you’re going to work in very close proximity with one another. I think you have valuable resources just down the hall. Right now, we have not spent a lot of time together. His schedule and my schedule are very packed. We are trying to squeeze a lot in before the season starts. To be quite honest with you, I think when games start we’ll be able to probably visit a little bit more, at least that’s the way I view it, and be able to watch some games and be able to maybe step into some practices, because we’ll have few other things to grab our attention other than our season at that point.”
On what she has seen out of the sophomores, specifically Jazmine Massengill:
“Jazmine has been pretty steady. I think she has been pretty consistent. I think it is very interesting the way that she plays compared to the way a Zaay Green plays or a Jordan Horston. Jazmine is just a little more reserved, a little bit more composed at times, and I think it has been a nice balance. There are times that I want Jazmine to be a little bit more aggressive, but I think the balance that she brings to our team has been really good. Again, having somebody you can count on to be steady is important. She is very coachable.”
On anything that surprises her about Rennia Davis’ game and what she needs to do to become more of a leader:
“I think Rennia has been working really hard on several aspects of her game to develop as the best basketball player she can be. Part of that is her communication with her teammates, as well as her coaches. I think a lot of people naturally look to her. She is the most experienced player on the team, and her teammates are looking at her. She has been thrust into that role, and she is really trying. She is being really considerate of that position, and we are trying to help her along there. In terms of basketball, she is a fantastic shooter, she is really good in transition and she is good on the boards. We just want to find a little more consistency with her rebounding. Her defense is a work in progress, and it has gotten better. She is working on that daily, and it is a big deal for her to get better. I think her on-the-ball defense has improved the most. I think for her, the next step will be improving her off-the-ball defense as well.”
On what the conversations have been like with Zaay Green on developing her offensive game:
“Zaay Green is one of the most athletic players that I have ever coached. She can get from point A to point B quickly. I think the most impressive thing about her is that she is athletic, skilled and is able to score, but she also works so hard every single possession. She doesn’t take a practice off. She doesn’t take a possession off. She gives us everything she’s got in every single possession. I think that matters. I think it is making an impact on her teammates; it has made an impact on our staff. She can’t give us any more than she is giving us. She is extremely coachable. I am happy for her because she is putting herself into position to be something special. We are just trying to work everyone’s strengths into our system right now. One of her strengths is getting the ball down the court in a hurry, being aggressive offensively and aggressive on the ball defensively and (just) using that athletic ability.”
On what has been the biggest positive surprise on the state of the program:
“I think one of the biggest positives – you know this, but until you get in the middle of it, you can say sometimes you don’t understand the depth of it – the resources we have for our student-athletes at the University of Tennessee are unparalleled. I am so impressed with the staff in the athletic department that is here for the success and the well-being of our student athletes. They are elite, whether that is academics, nutrition, health, mental health or strength and conditioning. There are so many talented folks and I have been really impressed with that. That is one of the biggest positives here.”
On the point guard position:
“In terms of our point guards right now, we’re playing three point guards; We’re playing Zaay Green at point, Jordan Horston at point, and Jazmine Massengill. Those players could all be on the court at the same time as well. So, we’re utilizing our point guards really as combo guards, and I think offensively we will be more of a threat when we have dual point guards. That will be harder to guard at times. For me, I want our point guards to know what I see, and sometimes I’ll back them up and I’ll say, ‘Do you see this?’ I want them to look at the court the way that I do as their coach, so sometimes that takes a little bit of extra communication. One of the things I like to do is grab my point guards more than anybody, pull them to the side, just for little tidbits of knowledge. It’s not that I’m yelling at them so much as just giving them more. They’re going to get a little bit more information than most people because I just think they need more information. At some point, we will talk about holding them to a higher standard, because they have to get everybody in the right position, no one else has to do that. I think there’s a lot going on at point guard, and right now I’m just trying to be there for them, trying to be a strong supporter and educator for them.”
On if this is the most talented roster she’s coached:
“These are some of the most talented players I’ve coached, the top end of our roster is. I think it is exciting when you know that you can go out and coach some of the best players in the country. I think it’s challenging at times when you have players that come in that are really good and talented, because it can be challenging to find ways to get them better. I feel really good about what we can do there. I love teaching basketball; I love teaching the game, and everybody can learn. I think right now that’s one thing we’re seeing with all of our players. They are so willing to learn and are very open-minded right now. It’s just exciting.”
On upperclassmen taking on new leadership roles:
“A lot of people have asked me, ‘Who is your leader?’ You’re looking at her, first of all. We’re still establishing that. They need me more than anybody right now. They need me to help guide them and show them the way, but I also have to be preparing our leaders, because by the end of the year we’re going to need those people. They need to be able to look at their teammates, and obviously we talked about Rennia (earlier). Jazmine Massengill has been a positive leader for our team thus far in that she wants to do it right. She’s relaying messages from the staff to the team, which I think has been really good. Lou Brown has been a consistent positive voice in practice, and I think we need that. I think there’s definitely a space for that on our team. Obviously, she’s been around and seen a lot, so she has some experiences there that she can share with especially the young players. You know, Kasi (Kushkituah) is a player that I want to see emerge as a team leader, as a positional leader as well. Our post players lack the experience that the guards have; Kasi is going to be the most experienced post player. I think her voice needs to be a little louder for that group. She’s working on it, she knows we have high expectations for her, and I think she’s very willing, it’s just going to take some time.”
On addressing turnover problems from last year:
“As a former point guard, I cringe with turnovers for sure, but I do think that the process we have right now, it’s not the biggest priority for me at this moment. It will be. We are still working on our execution, where the players are supposed to be offensively, working on spacing, and at some point, the turnovers will become a priority. We are trending that way right now, but we’ve not been running in practice for every turnover yet. It’s going to happen at some point, but we’re just not to that point yet, as far as our execution is concerned.”
On biggest questions about team heading into exhibition game:
“When we break down our defense, and we’re in a halfcourt defense, you feel pretty good about what we’re doing when it’s in isolation working on one specific thing. But when we get out in a uniform with lights, with fans, with officials, with another team, and you’re going multiple possessions, how focused can we be in every possession? We started working on talking about how every single possession matters, and sometimes that’s a hard concept. You’re in the middle of the game, and you may not have the urgency in the middle of the second quarter as you might have in the fourth. We have to get to that point. That’s going to be interesting to see where our team is in terms of their focus for 40 minutes.”
On team consistency and effort:
“I think the effort has been probably a little higher than the consistency. I think we lose our focus a little bit at times, and we’re not disciplined enough that everything is a habit. So, for instance using boxing out, I expect them to box out every single possession, and we don’t do that right now. Isolated in a drill we do. We understand that, but being disciplined where it’s actually a habit? We’re not to that point yet. The effort is there when we do, but it’s just the focus and attention to all the little details that we’re working on. It takes time. It doesn’t just happen. You can’t just magically push a button, and then they remember everything they’re supposed to know. We’re putting a lot on them; we’re pretty demanding, but I like where we’re trending, because right now we can watch a possession and they know what they did wrong. That’s a big step for us, because now we’re able to correct it and learn.”
On trusting young players to run offense, especially Jordan Horston:
“Right now, to be honest with you, it feels like I have 12 freshmen. No player on our team has ever played for me, so they’re all rookies. When you’re trusting one of them, you’re trusting all of them really. Obviously, there are a few more guards that have college experience, more than Jordan, but nobody has more experience with Coach Kellie. We’re just trying to teach them all like they’re all freshmen in terms of our vocabulary and pace and what we want it to look like. I think Jordan is confident enough to be able to go out and be a point guard at this level.”
On Lou Brown:
“I have a lot of admiration for what she’s done and what she’s been through. It’s not been an easy road for her. When she steps out on the court, probably the thing I’ve been most impressed with is how hard she plays, and how competitive she is when she’s out there. That’s been a real positive for our team. I think she’s respected for that by her teammates, and anytime you have somebody doing it the right way, that’s a big deal because it’s contagious.”
-UT Athletics
