Tennessee Lady Vols’ head coach Kim Caldwell met with reporters on Thursday as the team prepare to open the 2026-27 season with an entirely new roster.
With 15 newcomers, Caldwell discussed the team’s developing chemistry, the challenges of building continuity, and the areas that still need improvement before the season begins next month.
Here is everything Caldwell said during the team’s local media day availability:
On the passing of Ike Morris and his impact on her coaching career
“When you’re a Division II coach, you don’t always get new uniforms every year. Sometimes you wear them for three years in a row, and they have armpit stains. He made sure that we had new uniforms every year. He made sure we were celebrated when we won. He made sure that we could stay competitive with our scholarships. In Division II, not every team gets the same amount of scholarships. He made sure we could compete, and that mattered to him.
“His funeral is today, and I can’t be there. But I wanted to say I love his family. I am praying for you. I miss everybody in the town of Louisville. Without Ike Morris and his family, I would not be standing where I am today.”
On how Morris influenced her coaching philosophy:
“He made sure that I could be successful, and that was the most important thing to him. He loved winners. I remember being very young, and I wanted to hire my dad. We had to ask and do some nepotism things to see if I could hire my dad as an assistant coach. He said, ‘Look at your dad’s win percentage. I love a winner. We’ll do what it takes to make sure he gets here.’
“He made sure we could win when we were given five and a half scholarships and needed to have 25 players on our roster. He said, ‘No, we will help you.’ When we had golf fundraisers every summer, he would sponsor a hole. He treated every sport that way. There are a lot of coaches in different sports across the country who wouldn’t be where they are without him.”
On the program’s growth over the last six months
“April to October, it seems like it’s been 10 years, but it’s been growth. It’s been needed growth. It’s been great. It’s maybe looked uncomfortable at times, but it’s been necessary for our program to take the steps that we need.”
On the chemistry of Tennessee’s 15 newcomers
“They have meshed together incredibly well. They are as close as they can be. They live very close together. They hang out on and off the floor, and I think that helps when they are on the floor to be able to problem-solve together, take feedback from each other, lock in and lead each other when they need to.”
On whether building chemistry was the team’s first victory:
“Yes, absolutely. I haven’t seen a team in quite some time, probably since my Glenville days, because a small town makes you closer, that has hung out this way and has been this close off the floor. After practice yesterday, we got done late because we had photo and video day. It was about 9 o’clock, and they all went to the volleyball game and made a student section. I think that’s what makes this team special.”
On the additions to Tennessee’s coaching staff
“Just getting a different perspective. They’ve been tremendously helpful on the floor and off the floor, structure-wise. Learning from two very successful coaches who have been at different programs, seeing how they do things and what we can take from them and add to what we do. They’re great people. They’re great to be around. Our players love them, and they’ve helped set our culture the way we want to.”
On the team’s ability to handle adversity
“They have a lot of don’t-quit in them. They have a lot of keep going. They want to get it right. When you have players who want to get it right, you don’t have maybe the dramatic highs and lows when the other team goes on a run or we go on a run. Just making sure that you stay consistent, stay true to the process and do things brick by brick, piece by piece. That’s really who they’ve been since the day they got here. When we threw as much hard work at them as we could, they just endured it and continued to do it.”
On the demands of playing point guard in her system
“I would hate to be the point guard in any program, let alone here, where you have to be the first one up in the press. You have to set the tempo for us on defense. You have to push pace on offense. You have to put people in the right spots. I think you guys all know by now, I’m not going to be overly controlling when calling the offense. I’m going to give our point guards freedom to do that. They have to know the offense from multiple positions. They have to be able to command the room. They have to be able to take heat from a lot of different people, a lot of different coaches and their players when they make a mistake. You have to be very resilient, and I really am very impressed with Kennedy and Jada so far.”
On having point guards lead film sessions:
“That’s something new, and it’s because we have so many new players. It’s helping expedite them being comfortable leading and putting people in the right spots. We have never done that before, but the point guard for me has always been one of the most important positions.”
On where the idea originated:
“Coach Jenna is their position coach, and she thought that would be really good. She was a point guard. She’s the one who helped them through their first film session. I think that helps. I don’t know if that was something she had done as a player or not, but that was her idea.”
On connecting the current roster with former Lady Vols
“We want to continue to do it. We want to do it as much as we can. It helps educate our players, and it helps connect the future and the past. That’s part of what we have to do. That’s our job here, to continue to try to make that legacy proud and relevant. Anytime there is a former Lady Vol within a local distance, we try to grab them.”
On how the players have embraced Tennessee’s tradition:
“I think they love it. We have done book reports and a lot of different learning sessions about former Lady Vols, making sure they understand the weight of what they’re doing. We got to hear from Tamika, Chamique, and Holly about what it means to put on the Lady Vol uniform yesterday or two days ago, before video day. It matters. You don’t put this uniform on lightly.”
On Naya Robertson’s role as a student assistant
“She’s done a good job. She’s able to have the ball in her hands and teach people to be in the right spots and know when you need to be on the help side. Sometimes it’s easier to see things on the floor than it is standing off the floor. Because she’s so heavily involved with our practice team, she’s able to see a lot and give real-time feedback. ‘No, scoot over. No, force me this way. No, make sure that you close out this way,’ because she’s out there.”
On Robertson’s coaching potential:
“She’s back for us as a student assistant, and she’s doing a great job. She’s really paying attention to the players that are right there in her area, and they’re in the right spots because she knows. She knows what we’ve done. She wants to be a coach. I think she’s going to be a very good coach, and this is a really good opportunity for her to continue to see both sides of it.”
On Fats’ availability after wearing a walking boot
“She’s practicing.”
On Tennessee’s struggles finishing at the rim
“Not great. We have a hard time finishing late in games, late in practices. That’s a little bit of a recurring theme for us. I noticed it yesterday. When we hit that wall and we’re a little bit fatigued, the first thing that I notice to go is finishing. We just have to continue to work on that and continue to get our legs under us over this last week, week and a half.”
On the team’s half-court defense
“Also needs some work. Our half-court defense in general. I like where we’re at in our press. I like where our offense is at. Our half-court defense, making sure that we play team defense, because our one-on-one defense is not going to get it done. We really do have to play defense as a unit, making sure that we are in help, we are in gaps. We are, again, one player. We are all focused on all scorers, and we’re all shifting that way. You’ll see in practice that we’re going to spend a lot of time on defense.”
On freshman Gabby Minus’ development
“Gabby was really good when she got here, and I think what impresses me about her so much is how much she wants to get it right. For a freshman to come in and be uncomfortable and be tired and to be young, and to stop a practice and say, ‘I don’t understand,’ to stop a practice and say, ‘Can I go again?’ or ‘Can I go to this position?’ She wants to do it right. She’ll take criticism. She’ll take coaching. She’ll take feedback. She plays incredibly hard.
“For those of you who were at our scrimmage on Saturday, she made a lot of mistakes. She cost us a significant amount of points, but she made up for it because she just played so hard. She went and got offensive rebound after offensive rebound, putbacks, which is the lifeblood. That is our soul. That’s what we want to do. She will fix those mistakes, no doubt. Every freshman in the country right now is making mistakes. But who she is as a person, her love for this program and this school, I think she should be a name that everybody knows.”
On what fans should appreciate about this team
“They should like that our players love Tennessee. They love to go to the football games. They love to go to the volleyball games. They support other teams. They are appreciative of everything they get, and we’re not giving them as much as we’ve given teams in the past. They are thankful to go to Smokies, which is an amazing resource for them, and they love being a Lady Vol. They are very much like-minded with me. I appreciate being here every single day. I never thought I could be here, and I think our team emulates that a little bit. I hope that the fan base gets to know them from your guys’ questions today and gets to see them next week play as hard as you’ve seen any of my teams play.”
On preparing an inexperienced roster for the start of the season
“That’s some of the things we’re trying to get ahead of. We’ve tried to scrimmage as much as possible, even in practice against our practice players, getting as many game-like simulations as we possibly can. Getting a taste of failure to see who we are then, and getting a taste of success to see who we are then. You have some things that we can’t emulate. Sometimes we’re going to have to switch our rotations and who plays with who, and who comes in for who, and getting your 10 players set. That does take time throughout November. You just have to make sure you have your foundation set with the type of player that you have and where their heads are at. I think we have that.”
On the positive atmosphere surrounding the program
“They make it fun. They make it fun to be here. They make it fun to coach them. When we walk into the gym, we’re genuinely excited to be here. The gym is a place that people want to be. I don’t think we have any players who walk in and dread being in the gym, and I don’t think we have anyone on our staff who walks in and dreads seeing a player. It’s a happy place, and that’s not a normal thing. Basketball season is long, so I’m thankful to them for that. I think it has to do with who they are, their buy-in and their wanting to be here.”
On Tennessee’s new practice squad
“They’ve been great. They play very hard. They do a good job. They listen. Brandon, who is our new director of video, has done a really good job of coaching them through practice and finding players. We could still use some tall, tall players if there’s any out there.”
On managing expectations ahead of November
“The closer we get to November, the more nervous and tight I get. But I think if I focus on things I can control and areas where we have to get better, and the areas I know we will struggle, which are usually early, are your fouls, your shot selection, your turnovers, your rebounding, your box outs and your offensive rebounding. Those areas, if you know that is coming, you try to get ahead of it. That’s what I have to focus on instead of being tight and nervous about what’s coming.”
On what success looks like during the first few weeks:
“We want to learn as much as we can, and we want to win as many games as we can.”
On the coaching staff’s chemistry after adding two assistants
“We’ve got to make sure we keep it. The scrimmage was going really well, so as a coaching staff, we have to make sure that we keep that when things aren’t going very well. It’s been a seamless blend of our staff because of when we got here, what we were going through, and we were trying to sign 15 players in about three weeks. We hit the ground running, and that got us to be very close very quickly. I think we’ve stayed that way.”
On assembling the roster despite outside criticism
“I’m very thankful for everyone who chose to be here and picked us when the outside noise was saying, ‘Run in the opposite direction.’ I think that speaks a lot to the players that we have. They believed in themselves. They believed in us as coaches. They knew what they wanted. They are very strong women who were not affected by anything else other than they knew they wanted to be a Lady Vol. They knew they wanted to play the style of play.”
On Kate’s competitiveness and impact
“She’s a great player. She finds a way to make things happen, and she’s more than just her offense. She’s very good on the defensive end, flying around, getting to the ball, getting a deflection, making sure that we get the ball back. She is tremendous at 50-50 balls. There’s a ball going out of bounds where one player will stop and look because they think the play is dead. She’s going to beat you to it, and she’s going to save it and continue to play. She has a winner mentality. She has a no-quit mentality, and I didn’t necessarily know that watching her film. It’s been a great surprise seeing her in practice compete the way she competes. She wants to be coached. She wants to work hard. She wants to be the best player she can possibly be.”
