Tennessee is embarking on a pivotal point for its storied Lady Vols basketball program.

Athletic director Danny White has to move fast after waiting until April 1 to fire coach Kellie Harper after five seasons.

Senior associate athletic director Angie Boyd-Keck is working closely with assistant coaches to oversee the team until a new coach is hired.

Here’s what you need to know about the coaching search.

Should Danny White go outside the Pat Summitt coaching tree?

Last time Tennessee hired a women’s basketball coach, former athletic director Phillip Fulmer said it was “essential” to hire someone with Lady Vols ties. He landed on Harper, a former Lady Vols point guard who won three national titles under legendary coach Pat Summitt. Harper replaced Holly Warlick, a former player and assistant under Summitt.

After putting the fan base through two dismissals of former Lady Vols, it might be time to go in another direction.

Kara Lawson, who played for Summitt from 1999-2003, has the best case out of former players. She has strung together two strong seasons at Duke, but she has also only been a head coach for four seasons – the first of which Duke opted out of after four games in the COVID-impacted 2020-21 season.

Lawson has gained traction with elite recruits out of high school, but her deepest NCAA Tournament run is the Sweet 16 this season. As promising as her start is, she may not be a strong enough hire. It feels like a lateral move at best with Harper making back-to-back Sweet 16 runs in 2022 and 2023.

White is serious about winning, and his decision to move on from Harper after five seasons signaled he’s willing to swing bigger to speed up the Lady Vols rebuild.

Does Lady Vols program still hold allure for big-time candidates?

There are likely very few coaches who wouldn’t take a call from Tennessee, even as the distance grows between the present and the glory days of the Summitt era and eight national titles.

In 2019, Fulmer said it became clear early in the process they had their choice in the country of coaches to talk to. Now, that doesn’t mean all of them seriously considered it, but White should be able to at least call almost anyone he wants.

The Lady Vols brand still holds weight, and the prestige of the job itself will draw interest from all over the country. It also doesn’t hurt that conference realignment has made the SEC an attractive destination, especially for now former Pac-12 coaches.

Money talks, too. And White will have to be willing to write a big check to make this hire a home run.

Why did Kellie Harper get fired?

Harper’s track record at Tennessee wasn’t bad on paper. It would have kept her employed at most programs, including the majority of the SEC.

But Tennessee isn’t those schools. And Harper wasn’t White’s hire, so five seasons without breaking through the Sweet 16 didn’t cut it, especially when the Lady Vols bowed out in the second round this season.

Harper’s struggle to win against ranked opponents the last two seasons and to gain traction with elite high school recruits also likely influenced the decision to part ways sooner rather than later. Harper went 12-37 against ranked opponents at UT, and she only signed two players out of high school in the last three recruiting cycles.

It’s unpredictable how long White’s own hire will get to make a Final Four or win an SEC championship, but the clock will start ticking the second they get to Knoxville.

Where does Tennessee stack up in SEC as it expands?

Before this season, Harper led the Lady Vols to third-place finishes every season in the SEC. Her first season it was a four-way tie, but the other three seasons Tennessee stood alone in third.

South Carolina has won seven of the last 10 SEC regular-season and tournament championships. LSU has finished second the last three seasons since Kim Mulkey was hired, and Yolett McPhee-McCuin overtook Tennessee to finish third this season. With Texas and Oklahoma joining the SEC next season, it’s only going to get more competitive.

The last time the Lady Vols won a regular-season title was in 2015, when they shared it with the Gamecocks, and their last tournament title was 2014.

The first step for Tennessee is getting back to the top of the SEC, and time is ticking before it falls too far behind Dawn Staley at South Carolina and Mulkey, let alone Vic Schaefer with Texas and now Kenny Brooks at Kentucky. Brooks is now the highest paid SEC coach behind Staley and Mulkey, and Tennessee needs to make a statement with its hire.