Lady Vols basketball head coach Kim Caldwell understands that even though the team is riding on the heels of the program’s worst loss in history, they remain right in the mix for conference contention.
There are a handful of storylines entering Thursday’s contest between the Mizzou Tigers and Tennessee, starting at the top of the bench with Tigers head coach Kellie Harper.
Some Lady Vols fans will recognize the name, whether from her time playing on the team from 1995-99, or more recently from her time coaching the Lady Vols for five seasons.
After Harper was relieved of her coaching duties with her alma mater in 2024, Caldwell was hired as the school’s fourth official head coach in the modern era.
Harper’s return to Knoxville comes at a critical time for the Lady Vols, who have lost three of their last four games and are in dire need of a turnaround.
The most recent game came on Sunday, Feb. 7, where the Lady Vols lost to South Carolina in what was the school’s largest margin of defeat in the history of the program at 43 points.
“We’ve had one practice, so it’s a small body of work… but I’m hopeful we’ll respond,” Caldwell said. “I think they will respond. I have faith in them that they’ll do that, and they were good yesterday. We have to continue to put good days together and be consistent.”
Despite the rough stretch, the Lady Vols still stand in the top four of conference standings with only two losses to South Carolina and Mississippi State.
Though there are underlying stories for each team, both Caldwell and Harper remained hyper-focused on simply getting the win and stacking each game.
“For me, I’m just doing my job,” Harper said. “This is about our players. It really is. It’s about our team, and we’re going over to play a game. I know there’s going to be so many people wanting to make it about me, and I get that, but it really isn’t. It’s about the game. We’ve got to do our best to have our players prepared.”
The Tigers enter Thursday as winners of three of their last four games, the only loss coming most recently against Georgia at home, where the Bulldogs handled business 85-66.
The Lady Vols’ last win came against none other than Georgia last Thursday, scoring 82-77 in overtime.
After Caldwell’s vocal postgame press conference against South Carolina, all eyes will be on the team to see how they respond to her criticisms of the team’s leadership ability.
The Lady Vol head coach has spoken all season of her freshman class’s leadership and maturity, but is hoping to see some urgency from her upperclassmen as some senior players’ careers near their final months.
“We’re at the point of the season where if you’re a senior, the clock is on,” Caldwell said. “You have three weeks left, guaranteed, and I know you have tournament play, but three weeks guaranteed left, and it’s the part of the season where you start to talk to your older ones about not having any regrets. Get in the gym. If you want to have something to say, say it. If it’s a work ethic thing, make sure you do it because the clock is on, and they don’t know how much life changes after basketball, but they do know that they’re going to miss it.”
Despite some tough blows, the team appears as confident as they can be. Caldwell is hoping her bluntness towards her team leaders is used as a fire, rather than to tear the team down. There’s an anger that comes with this stretch, and they have a shot to right the ship.
“I think that it’s not acceptable in this program to lose the way we lost, and I think everyone knows that, and I think they know that,” Caldwell said. “I know that. Our fan base knows that. It’s not the standard here at Tennessee, and again, you want to get a response out of them.”
