As of Monday, April 6, the last player to hang on to a roster spot with the Tennessee women's basketball team jumped ship.
All eight of Tennessee’s players eligible to return to the program have chosen to enter the transfer portal, with Jaida Civil being the final member to make her decision. The Lady Vols also reportedly lost the commitment of five-star recruit Oliviyah Edwards after she requested release from her signing. Incoming recruit Gabby Minus is the only player set to take the floor for Tennessee next season.
Combined with two assistant coach departures in Gabe Lazo and Roman Tubner, Caldwell’s third offseason in charge of the Lady Vols is set to be a tumultuous one as she faces the tough task of turning over the entire roster.
An all-returnee cast for the Lady Vols would have been formidable competition. Mia Pauldo progressed throughout the year and was ready to be a true SEC-level point guard in her sophomore season. Talaysia Cooper is a WNBA-level scoring talent who can be the main scoring threat. Civil and Deniya Prawl developed well as two-way threats, and Alyssa Latham was the start of a forward rotation, albeit one that needed bolstering from the portal.
Instead, Tennessee must restart with no promise of teammates or any expectation for the season to come. Anyone who joins the Lady Vols from the transfer portal will be joining blind and be saddled with playing to a high standard ill-equipped of the tools to do so.
In Caldwell’s assistant ranks, Lazo departed first to join Kim Mulkey’s staff at LSU before taking the head coaching job at UCF. Tubner left the program and has not yet found a home for next season.
Even veteran broadcaster Holly Rowe felt compelled to share her opinion on the disaster that is Tennessee women’s basketball. She places the blame on athletic director Danny White for what has unfolded.
“What Danny White is allowing to happen to @LadyVol_Hoops is making me so sad,” Rowe posted on social media. “Gut wrenching to watch him let one of the greatest programs in womens sports history disintegrate. I am devastated.”
There have been recent successful models of full-roster turnover. Mark Campbell executed a similar plan at TCU this past season, winning the Big 12 regular-season title and reaching the Elite Eight for a second straight season. Ole Miss saw a significant amount of its talent join the squad from the transfer portal
The best programs, though, are built with experience. Cori Close built UCLA’s national title-winning team through six senior players, all of whom were with the program for at least one season. South Carolina’s core almost exclusively came through recruiting with key additions like Ta’Niya Latson and Madina Okot plugging holes, not overhauling the plan. Madison Booker and Rori Harmon went to a second straight Final Four behind an experienced Texas group that was built to play together.
Tennessee has none of these assets. What was once a proud program has now been reduced to the goal of limping back to the NCAA Tournament to carry forward a streak. The era of the Lady Vols being a great program is over, and Tennessee must see that reality going forward.