In March 2013, Kellie Harper was fired by North Carolina State after coaching its women’s basketball team for four seasons.
In March 2016, she has the Missouri State Lady Bears playing in the NCAA Tournament.
Throughout her playing and coaching career, Harper has seen plenty of success. Failure, on this scope, was very new.
Sure, she suffered two devastating ACL injuries as a player and came back from both. But as a professional, her first head coaching job at a big-name university did not end on her terms.
“It’s hard to not have success somewhere, and you can easily start questioning yourself and what you do,” Harper said.