Joe Rexrode | The Tennessean

Phil Kaplan, USA TODAY NETWORK – Tennessee

Lady Vols basketball has avoided graduating from a history-making losing streak to a complete implosion, winning two straight to get to 14-7 (3-5 SEC) and set up Sunday’s visit to Vanderbilt (6-15, 1-7).

This team is no sure thing to continue the program streak — unmatched in the sport — of playing in every NCAA Tournament since the women’s event began in 1982, but the Lady Vols probably will get in. And they almost certainly will be seeded too low to host during the first weekend, which would be just the third time in the 26 years in which seeding determined hosting (from 2003-14, the first-weekend sites were predetermined).

The other two times? In 2016 and 2017 under Holly Warlick.

View | 118 Photos

Tennessee Lady Vols basketball coach Holly Warlick through the years

There are few things easier in sports than being mesmerized by the achievement of the late Pat Summitt, whose importance stretched far beyond basketball success but whose basketball success in Knoxville from 1974-2012 means this remains one of two flagship programs in the sport. It’s also easy to see how things have faded under Warlick, and to surmise that she is coaching for her job after this seventh team of hers lost five straight SEC games for the first time ever and six straight overall for the first time since the club sport days of 1970.

{{props.notification}} {{props.tag}} {{props.expression}} {{props.linkSubscribe.text}} {{#modules.acquisition.inline}}{{/modules.acquisition.inline}} ... Our reporting. Your stories. Get unlimited digital access to exclusive content. Subscribe Now

It’s appropriate for Warlick’s seat to be hot, especially considering that last season’s talent-packed team was markedly worse in March than it was in December. But I also think it’s easy to put everything on her and miss this key question: Does Tennessee still care enough to return its most sacred program to where it belongs?

Holly Warlick's salary is middle of SEC

Saul Young/News Sentinel

Don’t worry, Tennessee football-only fans, I’ll address the “most sacred” argument with you in a moment because I heard you howling as soon as I typed that question mark. Football is part of the complication here, and UT has developed a nasty habit of paying people to not work for UT, but that’s no excuse to neglect women’s basketball.

That’s no excuse for Warlick to make less than half of the top women’s basketball head coaching salary in the SEC. Or to be seventh overall on that list. Did you realize that?

She’s at $690,000 a year, $10,000 less than LSU’s Nikki Fargas, who signed her deal in 2011. The top five in annual pay, per USA TODAY-obtained contracts, are Mississippi State’s Vic Schaefer ($1.596 million); South Carolina’s Dawn Staley ($1.45 million); Kentucky’s Matt Mitchell ($1.3 million); Texas A&M’s Gary Blair ($1 million); and Georgia’s Joni Taylor, who got bumped to $750,000 a year in October.

View | 35 Photos

Tennessee Lady Vols vs Florida Gators

Forget about the rarefied air of UConn’s Geno Auriemma ($2.4 million) or Baylor’s Kim Mulkey — who, according to 990 forms obtained by USA TODAY, made $2.27 million in 2016. Per a 990 from the same year, which is necessary because private schools don’t have to report employee salaries, Notre Dame’s Muffet McGraw made $1.695 million.

Auriemma, Mulkey, McGraw, Schaefer, Staley — all of those coaches have achieved more than Warlick and have earned large salaries. I’m not saying she should be near the top. I’m not saying she should even be where Summitt was in 2006 when Summitt became the sport’s first million-a-year coach ($1.125 million a year at the time, with Auriemma bumping to $1.05 million a year later).

But her salary falling this far behind says UT is OK letting things erode, OK relinquishing a claim to supremacy in this sport that Summitt spent decades earning. Or at least that’s what I would tell a top high school prospect if I were recruiting against the Lady Vols.

And if you think this is simply an accurate reflection of Warlick’s performance, then why is she still the coach?

Phillip Fulmer's dilemma

If it’s about performance and if Tennessee needs to start being more fiscally responsible, why did athletic director Phillip Fulmer just go in for $4.8 million over three years to hire Jim Chaney and make him the highest-paid offensive coordinator in college football, after Jeremy Pruitt’s 5-7 debut season? The answer is obvious and two-fold: There’s always money to be found at a place like UT, and football “drives the bus,” as Fulmer likes to say.

It's the most important program. But the Vols will never be to college football what the Lady Vols are to college basketball. And Summitt will always be the most important sports figure in UT history. She is Tennessee. The program she built is sacred.

Brianna Paciorka/News Sentinel

And there are few people more Tennessee in the world than Warlick, the first athlete, male or female, to have a jersey retired at UT. This is a personal and complicated situation.

Fulmer has been friends with Warlick for a long time and was in a tough spot in the offseason. No AD wants to come right in and fire a coach. Recruiting considerations dictated that Warlick needed an extension. Fulmer told me before an event in Nashville and right before the extension was announced that he had “total confidence” in her as a coach.

But the three-year extension — which featured a $25,000 raise and a measly buyout of one year’s pay if she is fired without cause — was a half measure that said: “We really hope Holly gets it done, but it will be easy to fire her if she doesn’t."

I talked to Warlick this week and she said she has an excellent relationship with Fulmer. She said she has all she needs in terms of recruiting budget and other resources. UT’s facilities are spectacular, with a brand new locker room and evidence galore of Summitt’s eight national titles.

View | 23 Photos

Touring the newly revamped Lady Vols locker room

Warlick had no comment on her salary, and what would she say? That she should be paid more? The truth is, she’d probably do this job for half the pay. The truth is, no one hurts more when the Lady Vols lose.

“It’s hard right now because we’ve had some bad losses but that won’t define our season, I promise you that,” Warlick said. “It’s amazing how people can give up on us halfway through a season. But I can’t control how anybody feels or thinks, all I can do is keep working.”

And Tennessee can show it still values this program by investing in all components of it at a championship level. This sport is too competitive for anyone to be hesitant, cheap and expect to stay near the top.

DOWNLOAD THE APP: Get sports news from the Tennessean on your mobile device

VOICES OF THE SEC NEWSLETTER: Everything you need to know about the Southeastern Conference.