KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — University of Tennessee Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics Danny White and Chancellor Donde Plowman welcomed new Lady Vol basketball head coach Kim Caldwell to Rocky Top, introducing her on Tuesday afternoon at a press conference in the Ray and Lucy Hand Digital North Studio.
Caldwell, who has a 217-31 career record with eight NCAA Tournament berths in eight seasons as a head coach, most recently led Marshall University to a school-best 26-7 overall record and 17-1 league mark in her first year there in 2023-24. She was named the 2024 Spalding Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year and the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year after directing the Thundering Herd to both the league’s regular season and tournament titles as well as the school’s second NCAA Tournament berth ever and first since 1997.
Prior to that, she served as head coach at NCAA Division II Glenville State, leading her alma mater to a pair of DII Final Four appearances and the 2022 national championship. From 2016-23, she directed GSU to six Mountain East Conference regular season titles (2017, 2018, 2019, 2020, 2022, 2023) and four MEC Tournament trophies (2018, 2019, 2020, 2023), earning MEC Coach of the Year honors four times in 2018, 2019, 2022 and 2023, and accepting the WBCA’s Pat Summitt Trophy as the NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year in 2022.
Kim Caldwell, Lady Vol Basketball Head Coach
Opening Statement…
“What an incredible honor it is to be the head coach of the Tennessee Lady Vols. Danny White, thank you for believing in me. You have an incredible track record of selecting head coaches, and I appreciate being a part of the list. Chancellor Donde Plowman, thank you for taking time to visit with me and listen to me, and thank you for everything you do for our program and this university. Marshall Steward and Angie Boyd-Keck, you guys have been by my side every step of the way, and you’ve made this transition for me seamless, and I already feel like I am home because of you two. All of you guys are great, but did you hear that Peyton Manning texted me? I do really feel welcomed here, and I appreciate that so much.
“I’d like to thank Marshall University, Christian Spears, Brad Smith, Beatrice Crane Banford for making Marshall feel like home. You created a loving and supportive environment for me, and Marshall will always be a very special place in my heart. I also need to thank Glenville State University, Jessie Skiles, Ike Morris, Doug Cottrill and our entire loyal fan base there. You guys gave me my start, you will always be my family, and I love you. I really need to thank every single student-athlete at both of those institutions who helped me get here today. I love you. Thank you for helping me live this dream that so many people want to have. It’s not always fair that the coach gets the glory and the coach gets the reward for the work that the players have done. From the bottom of my heart, I love you and I appreciate you, and you will always have a place with me.
“Mom, thank you for coming all this way. Thank you for being my cheerleader, thank you for being my support system and my best friend. My dad would be so excited. He would be up here trying to take the microphone and probably sing the words to Rocky Top. I would not be here today if it was not for you and dad, I won the parent lottery. You’re the best team mom, and the Lady Vols will soon know that. To my husband Justin, thank you for being my hype man and humbling me when I need that, too. Not a day will go by that I don’t thank you for that. I can’t wait for my two older sisters who I’ve always looked up to see how amazing this place is. They’re going to be so jealous. When I told my 96-year-old grandma about the transition, her first response was, ‘Oh, I have a lot of friends in Knoxville, but I think they’re all dead.’
“I haven’t been here long, and I know I have a lot of history to catch up on. Thank you Joan Cronan for meeting me Sunday and for the advice that she gave me. Trust me, as soon as I’m done here, I’m going to get back to work.
“The part of history that I need no catching up on is Pat Summitt’s legacy and how powerful the Lady Vol family is. When I say I am honored and humbled to be here, there is not a single person who has gone through this program that I could even come close to beating one-on-one. It is a remarkable program. I can’t wait to connect with our former players and listen to their stories, hear their history and pass on what it means to be a Lady Vol and represent that in our program. Pat Summitt changed the game of basketball, and wouldn’t she love to see where the game is now? I will never be Pat Summitt; nobody can be. I will strive every day to be somebody that she would be proud of.
“I am so excited to get to work with this team. I got to meet them Sunday night. They are a great group with a big personality, and they are hungry to get back to the top of the SEC. We’re going to play an exciting brand of basketball. We want to play fast, we want to play up-tempo, and we want to be the hardest-playing team in the country. We want to give Lady Vol nation something very exciting to watch. I know what this job means, and I am honored to be here. I will work every day to make sure I can take care of this special program and give God His glory in the process.”
On what drove her to become a coach…
“When I was younger, I loved basketball, and I always wanted to play basketball as long as I could. I was a 5’10” post player, so I learned pretty quickly in my career that there was nothing after college in my future, and I knew that coaching was the route I had to take. My dad was my high school coach. He coached us from the time that we were in elementary school all the way up, and I saw his passion. I saw how hard he worked, and I wanted to be exactly like him, so he’s the reason that I got into coaching. I was able to work with him. He was my assistant at Glenville State the entire time up until he passed away in 2021, and so I learned a lot from him. He did a great job of teaching me how to be a leader without ever having to say a word.”
On why she feels ready to step into the expectations that Tennessee Women’s Basketball holds…
“You want to be somewhere where the expectations are high. I’ve had a lot of opportunities in my career to look at jobs and was never interested in a job that did not have high expectations, did not have a loyal fan base, did not have a hungry crowd that wanted to pay attention to what was going on, so I think that was something that makes this program incredibly special, and I’m going to work very, very hard to make sure that we keep it there.”
On if it’s ‘clicked’ that she’s the head coach for Tennessee Women’s Basketball…
“It hasn’t really clicked yet. There are some times I have to just remind myself, ‘I’m really here. I’m really seeing what I’m seeing.’ It’s an incredible opportunity, and I’m so grateful for that but, no, it has not clicked yet and I will let you know when it does.”
On her timeline as the new head coach…
“There’s a lot to do. We need to get a great staff put in place. I need to form relationships with current players that are here, and then we need to make some additions and get in the portal and start to recruit. It’s all hands on deck right now.”
On how her experience turning around a program at Marshall prepared her for Tennessee…
“It’s helpful. It’s nothing that I planned. I was planning to be at Marshall for quite some time, and this was not something that we planned to do. It does help the fact that less than a year ago, I was doing a press conference, and less than a year ago, I was trying to recruit the roster that we had while recruiting another team and put a staff together. It’s familiar in that sense.”
On what her expectations are for this first year…
“We want to be the hardest-playing team in the country. We want to establish our culture. We want to score a lot of points and be an exciting brand of basketball in the SEC. We want to make people proud. We want to make sure that we get back on top.”
On how she expects her style of basketball to translate to the SEC…
“It looks like a lot of pressure and a lot of shots being taken. It’s playing a lot of players, trusting your players, giving them freedom and putting them in situations where they can make good choices and have a lot of athletes on the floor. We are going to cross half-court a lot but press almost non-stop. It’s a really aggressive and fun style of play.”
On how different she expects the recruiting process to look in the SEC…
“Everyone I text has responded to me, so that’s the difference. It’s really nice, but it’s the same thing. Players are players. People who are transferring and high school players are looking for the same thing but at different levels. They just happen to be taller in the SEC.”
On whether her style of play can translate to a higher level…
“I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think we could do it here.”
Danny White, Vice Chancellor/Director of Athletics
Opening Statement…
“I appreciate you all coming together today. It’s a big day on Rocky Top, and we are excited about our future and understand how important these transitions, these pivots, are in the history of a program. I want to thank Kellie Harper, her husband Jon and their family for all they did for the basketball program the last five years. Obviously, Kellie is a Lady Vol for Life as a former student-athlete. An enormous part of why we are here and why women’s basketball and women’s sports at large is where it is in this country is because of the legendary Pat Summitt. We understand the enormous responsibility that being a caretaker and steward of this program is because of all she accomplished here. I also want to thank Holly Warlick and all the contributions she made as head coach of our program.
“This is only the fourth head coach of our women’s basketball program who we will be introducing today, which is a rare thing in college athletics these days. This is a historic program in a historic moment, and it gives us great excitement about our future. We had a great search committee of athletics leadership and athletic administration. I want to thank all of those [who served]. A lot of folks put in a lot of time on this search. We took it extremely seriously, and the time investment and work involved was significant.
“Our student-athletes were awesome. I met with our team first. As you’ve heard me talk about before, it’s the first thing we always do. They voted on a leadership group, and then we met with that group. It was very helpful to give us insight on what’s going on inside the program. There are a lot of great things happening in our program. We talked about—spinning off our chancellor’s comments from earlier this year—as a university, we are good but want to be great. Sometimes the enemy of great can be good. As a women’s basketball program, we want to get back to competing for Southeastern Conference and National Championships. Our student-athletes have that ambition, and we are not on a three-, four- or five-year plan; they talked about wanting to win next year. We wanted to make sure we are positioning ourselves to be competitive right away. Their comments and their education were very helpful for me when understanding what’s going on in our program and helping me vet candidates. I know we’ve matched the very best coach for our team now in the present and certainly in the future.
“As we went through this, we were looking for a coach for them. I felt like it was important as a committee and as an athletic director that we needed to be selfless in these endeavors and make sure that we are trying to find the right individual for this institution and for our team. We were very fast; it took us about a week, but we were very methodical and weren’t going to rush a decision. We cast a very wide net and talked to basically anybody you could think of or connected to people you could think of. Candidates at all different levels all across the country. There was no stone unturned. The prerequisite for this search, and something I was unbending on, was how was this person going to bring us back to the top. We weren’t looking for a possible solution that got us back to being maybe more relevant. We wanted someone with an enormous upside and trajectory, and I will tell you why I think we found that. [We looked at] different styles of play. We were open to all sorts of ways to approach the game, but we are never going to hire a head coach who lacks integrity and strong character. [We want] someone who cares about student-athletes and is coaching for the right reason. We have that person. We wanted someone who is competitive and confident. You will see that we have a very competitive new coach. We wanted someone who wasn’t afraid of the challenge to restore this legendary program to where we all want it to be. I’ve talked about this before when introducing coaches. There’s a lot of speculation around coaching searches, and we like to talk about names. Interviews do matter. In a search, we pay attention to and do a lot of research beforehand, but the interviews do matter. I think anyone on our committee would tell you that there was one interview that stood out above the rest in a significant way. It was a really impactful interview in terms of who she is as a leader and as a person and how she presented herself. I think the style of play is very compelling with where the game is going. I think it resonates with the current players, and I was happy to see you all smiling when I was introducing Kim to you. In terms of prospective players in the future, I think it’s a compelling and exciting style of play. For fans, if you like what you’re seeing inside of Neyland Stadium in terms of the amount of points we score, I think you are going to like what you see on the basketball floor, with the offensive and defensive attacking in a competitive style of play. In very short order, we will have the fastest style of basketball in the country.
“I’m really excited about Kim and introducing her to you today. I think she’s not only going to make an enormous impact with our current student-athletes but build a program that is distinctive and allows us to compete with some formidable opponents in the Southeastern Conference and get us back to competing for National Championships. With that, I am proud to introduce to you the fourth head coach in Lady Vol basketball history, your new head coach of the University of Tennessee women’s basketball, Kim Caldwell.”
On the importance of hiring someone with a noticeable playing style…
“We talk about our history, looking back, and so then looking forward, what our expectations might be – how are we going to get there? I think anytime that I’m in a coaching search, I’m thinking about what makes us distinctive. In this instance, I think she makes us distinctive in terms of who she is and how she conducted herself in the interview. I think she’s going to really connect with our players, but her style of play certainly makes us very distinctive, and I think that’s where the sport is going. The pace of play, both in men’s and women’s basketball, is becoming more and more a factor, and I think that she’s on the cutting edge. We talk about leading the way in college sports here at Tennessee, and I think Kim helps us do that.”
On what Coach Caldwell said in her interview that impressed him…
“What she said and how she said it. A lot about how she coaches her teams and connects with her players. Then also the style of play and the reasons behind it; it’s very well thought out. The numbers and metrics, which made me want to talk to her, speak for themselves. It’s pretty compelling.”
On the benefits of hiring a coach that’s ‘on the rise’…
“I think it gives us tremendous upside and excitement about where we can go. We have an unbelievable, historic brand. We have great support with this fan base. Players want to play at Tennessee. I think we can get talent here; I know we can. With this exciting style of play, I think it makes it even more compelling for players to want to come here.”
On how Coach Caldwell’s introductory press conference compared to her interview…
“I would agree with your [positive] assessment of today, and it didn’t surprise me. She’s a pretty talented leader and she’s going to be great for our team.”
On whether it was important to hire someone who was not a part of the Lady Vol program previously…
“I was obviously aware of that history; it’s something that we thought about. That is a characteristic when you talk about fit that would be one of the things we would consider. Did we have a candidate pool that was restricted to only former players? No. We also weren’t averse to having former players; we just want to pull a bunch of candidates.”
Jewel Spear, Lady Vol Senior Guard
On her initial thoughts of Coach Caldwell…
“She seems like a good personality, fun, upbeat person. You could tell she really cares for us, and she wants what’s best for us for the little time we got to meet her. When she first got here, we kind of toured her around a little bit.”
On how exciting it is to have the opportunity to get Tennessee back…
“Yeah, it’s exciting. I’ve seen a lot of good statistics about her and what she has planned for us here offensively and defensively. It’s an exciting brand of basketball, and I’m just trying to see how it will come together for all of us.”
On whether she was a part of the team leadership group advising Danny White and what was important to them…
“I was a part of that group. My teammates look at me as a leader, and I look at myself as a leader as well. We really just talked about things that we want in a program going forward. We all want to win here. Not that we didn’t do that with Coach Kellie, I have the utmost respect for her and love for her and appreciate her for even bringing me here, but I think we were just talking about how we can get back to the top of the SEC and top of the nation.”
On what Coach Caldwell told them in their first meeting…
“We actually have our first team meeting tomorrow. Some of us have done one on ones, I’ve done one on ones and talked to her, and she’s told me my plans and what she has in store for me and how I can help this program. I’m really excited about that.”
On what she knows about her style of play…
“I got to watch it. They’re very fast paced, like she said, she want to cross half court a lot, get a lot of threes up, a lot of shots from different players, fast paced and then, defensively, get in people’s grills, really try to turn people over and really force the hand.”
On if it is something that fits her play style…
“It fits my playing style. I like to shoot. I like to defend. I can be a better defender. I think she [Kim Caldwell] can help me do that. From what I have seen, it looks like there is a lot of space on the court to get down hill and make plays offensively.”
On if this style of play is the direction college basketball is going…
“I think it is. You have seen it with Iowa, Oklahoma and Florida State. Teams that want to get up and down transitionally on offense and score at will when you can, and just making it harder for other teams to guard you.”
On how she helped lead the team throughout the past week…
“Coming together. We are a really close team; a poised team on the court and off the court. We really value relationships within each other and our coaches. Sticking together. Always being there for each other. If we have any questions or anything like me being the leader, just answering them. Giving the young ones or anybody as much comfort as possible.”
