As Tennessee moves into a long December stretch before SEC play, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell said her team is showing the signs of growth she hoped would emerge during the 10-day break.
“We practice hard, and I’m very hopeful that our transition offense starts to look better, that our shots start to go in,” Caldwell said. “We’re playing with a little more pop, a little more juice on both ends.”
That development, she said, is happening across the roster.
Caldwell highlighted individual improvement from several key players, including freshmen who were thrown into high-pressure environments early.
“When you see the majority of your team individually get a little bit better, that makes practices more enjoyable,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell pointed to minutes logged in tough road atmospheres, including UCLA, as crucial to preparing the newcomers for SEC play.
“When you go and play in that environment on the road, then when you go to South Carolina or LSU or Texas, it’s not so wow,” she said. “That’s really what we’re trying to do.”
Freshman Mia stood out in recent practices and games, particularly in the matchup with Stanford.
“She was hitting shots. She was playing with confidence. Her turnover numbers have been great,” Caldwell said. “She’s been really good in practice ever since.”
A recurring challenge has been the third quarter, where Tennessee has struggled to maintain strong stretches.
“Consistency is something we’re still struggling with,” Caldwell said. She noted that even strong practices can suddenly slip. “Keeping the pace, keeping the tempo, keeping the sense of urgency for an entire practice and an entire game” remains a focus.
Even out of halftime, Caldwell wants sharper execution.
“We need to be efficient in what we do, efficient in getting warm back up and locked back in.”
While Tennessee has been taking more threes under Caldwell’s system, the percentages haven’t yet matched the volume.
“It’s really hard, because I do think it’s getting better. It’s not translating on paper,” Caldwell said. “And the game we had our best shooting percentage, we lost by 22.”
She reiterated that she wants the team to attack the rim more aggressively, especially in transition.
“We should be getting more layups at the rim. We should have more advantage situations because we are pressing,” Caldwell said. “That’s nonexistent in our offense right now.”
Another point of emphasis is seeing the team capitalize on good passes to buckets.
“We’re sharing the ball better,” Caldwell said. “We have a lot of film where we say, ‘This was the right pass,’ and then we air ball it. We want that number to be around 16 assists.”
With another ranked opponent ahead and SEC play looming, Caldwell said the team has a clear target.
“We don’t want to lose. We talked about that,” she said. “We want to go undefeated in December. We need to stack some wins together going into SEC play.”
So far, the Lady Vols are 1-0 in the month of December following a 65-62 win over Stanford.
After days spent focusing solely on themselves, the Lady Vols will now turn their attention to scouting the next opponent. Caldwell believes the long break has been beneficial even if the players “hate it.”
“We needed it,” she said. “Hopefully we’ll see a new and improved version of us.”
The Lady Vols return to the Summitt Floor on Sunday against Winthrop at 2:00 pm ET.
