Women's Basketball
- Title:
- Head Coach
| Kellie Harper Career | ||
| 1995-99 | Tennessee | Player |
| 1999-00 | Auburn | Admin. Asst. |
| 2000-01 | Auburn | Asst. Coach |
| 2001-04 | Chattanooga | Asst. Coach |
| 2004-09 | Western Carolina | Head Coach |
| 2009-13 | NC State | Head Coach |
| 2013-19 | Missouri State | Head Coach |
| 2019-2024 | Tennessee | Head Coach |
| 2025-Present | Missouri | Head Coach |
| Team Accomplishments | ||
| • Three Sweet 16 appearances | ||
| • Nine NCAA Tournament appearances | ||
| • 16 postseason appearances | ||
| • Four conference tournament championships | ||
| • 15 top-three league finishes | ||
| • Players earned All-SEC honors eight times | ||
| • Players earned SEC All-Freshman recognition three times | ||
| • Players earned SEC All-Defensive Honors twice | ||
| • Produced four straight first-round picks in the WNBA Draft | ||
| Individual Awards | ||
| • 2022 Tennessee Sports Writers Association Women's College Coach of the Year | ||
| • 2022 Werner Ladder Naismith National Women's Coach of the Year Late Season Watch List | ||
| • 2019 Kay Yow Coach of the Year | ||
| • 2019 MVC Coach of the Year | ||
| • 2007 SOCON Coach of the Year | ||
| Academic Awards | ||
| • Coached 22 SEC Academic Honor Roll Selections | ||
A proven winner with a deep-rooted history of success in high-major college basketball, Kellie Harper was hired as head coach of Missouri women's basketball on March 18, 2025
Harper brings a championship pedigree at the sport’s highest level, including 16 postseason appearances in 20 seasons as a Division I head coach, including nine appearances in the NCAA Tournament.
Harper, who becomes the fifth coach in Mizzou program history, is a decorated leader with extensive experience in the Southeastern Conference as both a coach and student-athlete. With an established track record of recruiting and developing elite talent, Harper is one of two coaches in women’s college basketball history to guide four different programs to the NCAA Tournament.
A native of Sparta, Tennessee, Harper, 47, returns to the state of Missouri after most recently serving as the head coach at Tennessee (2019-24), with previous head-coaching stops at Western Carolina (2004-09), North Carolina State (2009-13) and Missouri State (2013-19). In 20 seasons as a Division I head coach, Harper has led her teams to a 393-260 record and nine NCAA Tournament berths. She has piloted her squads to 15 top-three league finishes and four conference tournament championships. In 2022-23, Harper led the Lady Volunteers to the NCAA Sweet 16 for a second consecutive season.
Spending five years with the Lady Vols, Harper rebuilt the historic program to national prominence. Two of her last three teams won 25 games, including a 25-9 record in 2021-22 with an 11-5 mark in SEC play and a 25-12 record in 2022-23 with a 13-3 mark against league competitors. The Lady Vols’ 13 SEC wins in 2022-23 were the program’s most since 2014-15 as they recorded 25 victories in back-to-back seasons for the first time since 2013-14 and 2014-15.
Overall, Harper compiled a 108-52 record at Tennessee, including a 53-24 mark against SEC competition, ranking third in winning percentage in league games behind only LSU’s Kim Mulkey and South Carolina’s Dawn Staley.
A staunch presence on the recruiting trail, Harper signed the No. 15-ranked class in 2021 and inked the nation’s No. 6 ranked transfer portal class in 2023, as rated by 247Sports. Harper has established a track record for recruiting elite players across the Midwest and throughout the SEC footprint. While at Tennessee, Harper coached four WNBA first-round picks in Rennia Davis (2021), Rae Burrell (2022), Jordan Horston (2023) and Rickea Jackson (2024). She is one of only three coaches all-time to produce four straight first-round picks in the WNBA Draft. She joined Connecticut’s Geno Auriemma (2008-11, 2013-16) and Notre Dame's Muffet McGraw (2012-15) in that company.
In her five years in Knoxville, Harper’s players earned All-SEC honors eight times, SEC All-Freshman recognition three times and SEC All-Defensive honors twice.
Earning Tennessee Sports Writers Association State Women’s College Basketball Coach of the Year and recognized on the Naismith National Women's Coach of the Year Award Late Season Watch List, Harper led the Lady Vols to a No. 4 ranking in the Associated Press Top 25 Poll in 2021-22, the highest national mark for the program since 2015-16.
With roots in the Show-Me state, Harper took the reins at Tennessee after six years at Missouri State, where she led the Lady Bears to two NCAA Tournament appearances, including an impressive march to the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament championship and magical run to the NCAA Sweet 16 in 2018-19. Under her watch, the program earned WNIT berths on three other occasions.
Harper also led North Carolina State to an NCAA Tournament berth in 2009-10, plus two WNIT appearances. Harper guided Western Carolina to NCAA Tournament berths in 2004-05 and 2008-09 with two trips to the WNIT.
Harper recorded a 118-79 record at Missouri State, claimed Missouri Valley Conference Tournament crowns in 2016 and 2019 and notched regular-season runner-up finishes in 2015-16, 2017-18 and 2018-19. After her first Lady Bears’ team finished 14-17 overall and tied for sixth in the MVC with a 6-12 mark, she never finished lower than third in the league standings or missed the postseason. Three of her last four Missouri State teams surpassed the 20-win plateau, including the 2015-16 squad that forged Missouri State’s first NCAA appearance in a decade.
The Lady Bears finished No. 24 in the final 2019 USA Today Sports Coaches Poll, which was their first national ranking in 15 years. Harper was named the Missouri Valley Coach of the Year and was chosen as the 2019 Kay Yow Coach of the Year, which goes to the Division I women’s head coach who embodies a winning spirit while displaying great character, on and off the court.
Prior to her arrival at Missouri State, Harper became just the third women’s basketball coach in North Carolina State history in 2009 and directed the Wolfpack to three postseason appearances and a 70-64 record during her four-year stint, including the 2010 NCAA Tournament. NC State joined Duke and North Carolina as the only Atlantic Coast Conference teams to score wins over the league’s other 11 teams during that span and earned six top-25 victories in four seasons.
Before her tenure in Raleigh, Harper guided Western Carolina to a 97-65 record and four postseason berths in five seasons, including a 70-31 mark in her final three years in Cullowhee. The Catamounts captured the first two Southern Conference (SoCon) Tournament titles in school history while seven student-athletes captured all-conference honors during her tenure.
She earned 2007 SoCon Coach of the Year accolades and placed her squads in the WBCA Academic Top 25 on three occasions, including a fifth-place finish in 2007-08.
Prior to her first head coaching job, Harper spent three seasons as an assistant at Chattanooga, helping the Mocs to three consecutive Southern Conference championships, three NCAA appearances and a combined 78-15 record under head coach Wes Moore. She tutored four all-conference guards while at Chattanooga, including the 2004 league player of the year.
Before her time in Chattanooga, Harper spent two seasons at Auburn, the first as an administrative assistant before being promoted to assistant coach under Joe Ciampi for the 2000-01 campaign.
As a student-athlete, Harper was a floor general for legendary coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee from 1995-99, playing 132 games and leading the Lady Vols to NCAA National Championships in 1996, 1997 and 1998. She was part of a senior class that helped the Big Orange forge a 131-17 overall record as well as win two SEC regular-season championships (1998, 1999) and three SEC Tournament crowns (1996, 1998, 1999).
As a junior, she guided the Lady Vols to a 39-0 record and their third-straight national championship in 1997-98 while averaging 7.6 points and 3.8 assists for the season and scoring a career-high 20 points in the national championship game against Louisiana Tech. She went 4 of 5 from beyond the arc in that contest and was named to the 1998 All-Final Four Team.
Harper set an NCAA championship game record with 11 assists and dished out 20 helpers in two games for All-Final Four honors in 1997 after returning from a knee injury midway through her sophomore season. That year, the National Strength and Conditioning Association named Harper its Strength and Conditioning Female Student-Athlete of the Year.
For her Tennessee career, Harper scored 894 points and had 452 assists, leaving UT on the school’s career top 10 lists for assists, assist average, 3-point attempts and 3-point percentage. She still ranks eighth in career assists and is 11th in 3-point percentage (.364, 99-272).
Harper was drafted by the Cleveland Rockers in the fourth round of the 1999 WNBA draft and earned her degree in mathematics that same year. She was a three-time SEC Academic Honor Roll member and earned both All-SEC Coaches Second Team and honorable mention All-America honors as a senior. She also was named to the SEC Community Service Team as a senior.
In 29 full seasons as a Division I head coach, assistant coach and player, Harper has made 24 postseason appearances with a combined 641-313 record, 17 NCAA Tournament appearances and seven WNIT bids.
She played for her father (the late Kenneth Jolly), an assistant coach at White County High School in Sparta and was a five-time All-American during her AAU playing career. She was inducted into the UT Athletics Hall of Fame in 2009 and White County High Hall of Fame in 2012. On Dec. 24, 2019, the basketball hardwood at the new Findlay Elementary School in Sparta was dedicated as “Kellie’s Court.”
Harper is married to Jon Harper, an assistant coach on her staffs at Western Carolina, NC State, Missouri State and Tennessee. The Harpers welcomed their first child, son Jackson, in November 2013, and had a daughter, Kiley, in June 2018.
| Kellie Harper Head Coaching Record | |||||
| Season | Record | Conference Record | Place | Conference Tournament | Postseason |
| WESTERN CAROLINA | |||||
| 2004-05 | 18-14 | 10-10 | 6th | Champions | NCAA First Round |
| 2005-06 | 9-20 | 8-10 | 5th | - | - |
| 2006-07 | 24-10 | 15-13 | T-1st | WNIT Second Round | |
| 2007-08 | 25-9 | 15-3 | 2nd | - | WNIT First Round |
| 2008-09 | 21-12 | 14-6 | T-3rd | Champions | NCAA First Round |
| TOTALS | 97-65 | 62-42 | |||
| NC STATE | |||||
| 2009-10 | 20-14 | 7-1 | T-5th | - | NCAA First Round |
| 2010-11 | 14-17 | 4-10 | 10th | - | - |
| 2011-12 | 19-16 | 5-11 | 9th | - | WNIT Second Round |
| 2012-13 | 17-17 | 7-11 | T-7th | - | WNIT Second Round |
| TOTALS | 70-64 | 23-33 | |||
| MISSOURI STATE | |||||
| 2013-14 | 14-17 | 8-10 | T-6th | ||
| 2014-15 | 18-15 | 13-5 | 3rd | - | WNIT First Round |
| 2015-16 | 24-10 | 14-4 | T-2nd | Champions | NCAA First Round |
| 2016-17 | 16-15 | 12-6 | 3rd | WNIT First Round | |
| 2017-18 | 21-12 | 15-3 | 2nd | WNIT Second Round | |
| 2018-19 | 25-10 | 16-2 | 2nd | Champions | NCAA Sweet 16 |
| TOTALS | 118-79 | 78-30 | |||
| TENNESSEE | |||||
| 2019-20 | 21-10 | 10-6 | T-3rd | No NCAA Tournament Held | |
| 2020-21 | 17-8 | 9-4 | 3rd | NCAA Second Round | |
| 2021-22 | 25-9 | 11-5 | 3rd | NCAA Sweet 16 | |
| 2022-23 | 25-12 | 13-3 | 3rd | NCAA Sweet 16 | |
| 2023-24 | 20-13 | 10-6 | T-4th | NCAA Second Round | |
| TOTALS | 108-52 | 53-24 | |||
| TOTALS | 393-260 | 216-125 | ] | ||
