KNOXVILLE – Tennessee’ Kellie Harper has filled out her women’s basketball coaching staff, adding an assistant coach from an SEC rival.
Lacey Goldwire comes to UT after two seasons on coach Mike Neighbors’ staff at Arkansas. She joins Harper’s husband, Jon, and Jennifer Sullivan, who joined the Lady Vols last week.
Harper’s interest in Goldwire was based on the recommendation of others as well as personal observation. She said that Goldwire and Sullivan will be handling the majority of the recruiting duties.
“With Jen and Lacey we have two rock stars,” Harper said. “They’re that good.”
Former Arkansas guard Malica Monk endorsed Goldwire’s hire via Twitter, writing: “y’all got a good one Tennessee!”
Harper said that how the staff will share the coaching duties is yet to be determined.
“I think this is a really good staff,” Harper said. “They’re the type of people who you want to be around, high quality people who are very good at their jobs.”
Arkansas made a dramatic improvement from 13-18 in 2017-18 to 22-15 last season. The Razorbacks made a run to the SEC tournament championship game and reached the third round of the WNIT. They also beat Tennessee in Knoxville on Jan. 21, 80-79.
Prior to Arkansas, Goldwire spent four seasons at Iowa, working with the wing players and serving as recruiting coordinator. The first two seasons, the Hawkeyes qualified for the NCAA tournament and reached the Sweet 16 on the second trip in 2014-15.
While at Iowa, Goldwire worked with consensus All-American Samantha Logic. The 5-foot-9 guard became the only player in NCAA history to record at least 1,500 points, 800 rebounds, 800 assists and 200 steals during her career.
Goldwire’s first full-time job was one season as an assistant at Morehead State. She began with four seasons as either a student assistant or graduate assistant at Oklahoma State. She served as an interim assistant coach in 2011 following the death of then-Cowgirls coach Kurt Budke and an assistant in a plane crash.
Goldwire, who is from suburban Oklahoma City, played collegiately at East Central (Okla.) University, scoring 1,340 points.
Along with hiring assistants, Harper is retaining Heather Ervin, who served the past three seasons on former Lady Vols coach Holly Warlick’s staff as director of recruiting operations and player personnel.