Kim Caldwell's reset comes with pressure to deliver for Lady Vols basketball

A year ago, Kim Caldwell kicked one of her best players off the team early in the season, watched a senior refuse to enter the game on senior night and had her leading scorer walk out of the locker room after a season-ending loss without any intent to return. 

The Lady Vols’ 2025-26 basketball team made the young head coach break. It’s why she told the media her team had “quit” after a non-competitive loss to South Carolina. 

Caldwell’s statement was distasteful to say outside the locker room. But the comment wasn’t wrong in hindsight. 

It opened the door for a mass exodus in the offseason, when Caldwell brought in an entirely new team. Freshman forward Gabby Minus is the only player who stuck it out through Caldwell’s remarks — she was still a high school senior and not yet on campus when it was said. 

Now entering her third season with the Lady Vols, Caldwell has a new roster and a chance to prove that last season's dysfunction was an aberration rather than a reflection of her program.

“We wanted to recruit players that wanted to be in the gym, and that wanted to get better,” Caldwell said at SEC Media Days in early October. “They really do want to get better. They take pride in that, and they take pride in maybe getting on the floor with a coach a few minutes before practice, working on a countermove and then putting that together in practice and then putting that on display. It’s been infectious. We have leaders that will bring players into the gym with them so that it’s every single person is — that’s the standard.”

Caldwell has been complimentary of how hard this year’s team works. Maybe some of that is the personal growth that she reflected on this offseason, recognizing the look of how calling her team quitters is. Or maybe she did bring in a roster that fits the mold of her fast-paced, up-tempo system needs. 

The first public display of Caldwell’s roster was a 132-63 demolition of Florida A&M in an exhibition game on Oct. 27. The Lady Vols put up video game numbers on an inferior opponent. 

They forced 39 turnovers, scoring 45 points off of them. They hauled in 58 rebounds, 33 more than Florida A&M. They reeled in 30 offensive rebounds, which means the Lady Vols brought in 58% of their missed shots. 

Tennessee had eight double-digit scorers. Kaylene Smikle paced with 19 points, while the rest of the team followed closely in suit. 

The most translatable stat is the 92% stroke from the free-throw line on 25 attempts. If Caldwell’s system is going to work this season, getting to the charity stripe and sinking the free shots will be a massive upgrade over last season. 

"I love it when we can have a lot of players in double digits,” Caldwell said. “You can get scoring from everywhere. I think we do have a deep team, and I think we have a very balanced team that multiple people can step up on any given night, more so than the eight people in double figures. I was excited with the fact that we had 26 assists, and we were sharing the basketball, and we didn't take very many shots on two people. We passed the ball pretty well tonight, too."

But of course, the exhibition needs to be taken with a grain of salt. Tennessee obliterated Columbus State 148-48 a year ago, and that team didn’t turn out quite the way she wanted it to be. 

Only time will tell whether Caldwell’s offseason was enough to save her job. The Lady Vols begin the regular season Nov. 2 against Duquesne.