Kim Caldwell was hired as Lady Vols coach two years ago. Here’s 17 defining moments

A lot can change in two years.

On April 7, 2024, Tennessee announced the hiring of Kim Caldwell as the new Lady Vols basketball coach. Caldwell was fresh off a 26-7 season at Marshall, leading the Herd to their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1997 and did it in her first season as a Division I coach.

Two years later, Caldwell doesn’t have a single player left on the roster after a disastrous second season based on Lady Vols standards.

Here’s a look back at Caldwell’s two seasons leading the Lady Vols.

Tennessee starts Caldwell’s first season 13-0

The Lady Vols began Caldwell’s first season unranked, but that changed after a 7-0 start that included a ranked win over Iowa. After that, Tennessee entered the rankings on Dec. 9, 2024, restarting its streak in the Associated Press Top 25 that would last 31 weeks.

The Lady Vols went undefeated in nonconference play and beat Texas A&M on the road to go 13-0 before their first loss. Tennessee then lost five games in January by single digits, including four losses within four points to Oklahoma, LSU, Vanderbilt and Texas.

Tennessee signs 2025 class ranked No. 2 in nation

Twin point guards Mia and Mya Pauldo were the first high school recruits to commit to Caldwell on July 11, 2024. Then began official visits in the fall, which included the infamous Lamborghini photoshoot from Deniya Prawl and Jaida Civil’s visit.

Prawl and Civil committed to Tennessee, and in-state recruit Lauren Hurst completed Tennessee’s 2025 class. Mia Pauldo, Prawl and Civil were all five-star prospects and ended up as McDonald’s All-Americans. The class was ranked No. 2 by ESPN, which was Tennessee’s highest-ranked class since 2017.

Lady Vols set NCAA record for 3-pointers

Tennessee had a historic shooting performance on Dec. 14, 2024. The Lady Vols set an NCAA Division I record when they made 30 3-pointers against NC Central, and the 139 points Tennessee scored were a program and SEC record.

Samara Spencer set the program record for made 3-pointers by a player in a single game with nine.

Kim Caldwell gives birth to son midseason

Caldwell’s first season started with the announcement that she was pregnant with her first child. She and her husband, Justin, welcomed a baby boy on Jan. 20, 2025, one day after Caldwell coached the Lady Vols at Vanderbilt. They named him Conor Scott Caldwell, his middle name an homage to Caldwell’s late father, Scott Stephens.

She only missed one game – Tennessee’s road game at Texas on Jan. 23 – and returned to practice four days after giving birth. Caldwell was on the sidelines exactly one week later to coach the Lady Vols against South Carolina.

Lady Vols beat UConn for first time since 2007

The Tennessee-UConn series was renewed for two games starting in Caldwell’s first season. The No. 17 Lady Vols pulled off a huge upset on Feb. 6, 2025 in Knoxville. They won 80-76 over the No. 5 Huskies, who they hadn’t beaten since 2007, which was the final year before legendary coach Pat Summitt canceled the series.

Zee Spearman had a team-high 16 points, including the game-clinching bucket, in front of a crowd of 16,215 fans, the largest Lady Vols crowd since 2012. It remains the highest-ranked win of Caldwell’s career in Division I.

Lady Vols recover from late-season slump for Sweet 16 run

Tennessee started to fizzle out at the end of the regular season with a 24-point road loss to Kentucky and a defeat to unranked Georgia at home on senior day. The Lady Vols lost to Vanderbilt in the second round of the SEC Tournament, falling to the Commodores twice in one season for the first time ever.

But two weeks later, Tennessee had fresh legs and turned late-season losses into an NCAA Tournament run. The No. 5 seed Lady Vols dominated the first round, beating South Florida 101-66, before upsetting No. 4 seed Ohio State 82-67 on its home court to advance to the Sweet 16. Tennessee’s run ended there with a 67-59 loss to No. 1 seed Texas on March 29, 2025.

Kim Caldwell signs contract extension, earns $1 million annually

Caldwell signed a contract extension immediately after her first season, which elevated her annual salary from $750,000 to $1 million and extended her through March 31, 2030. Caldwell’s contract also includes a clause that would make her the highest-paid coach in the nation if she won a national championship.

Tennessee named top winner of transfer portal by ESPN

The Lady Vols signed three transfers after Caldwell’s first season and filled their need for more depth at forward with seniors Janiah Barker and Jersey Wolfenbarger. Tennessee also brought in senior guard Nya Robertson.

ESPN ranked Tennessee No. 1 in the transfer portal winners with the addition of “three high-end rotational players” to its returning core.

Ruby Whitehorn arrested, dismissed from team ahead of season

Ruby Whitehorn was arrested in August, which led to a lengthy suspension for the guard. Whitehorn was reinstated in September after the case was resolved, but was dismissed Nov. 2 after being charged with a misdemeanor for simple possession after a traffic stop.

Whitehorn has since transferred to Arizona State.

Tennessee signs five-star forward Oliviyah Edwards to 2026 class

Five-star forward Oliviyah Edwards was the first commitment of the 2026 class for Tennessee on Sept. 13, and she was joined by four-star wing Gabby Minus. Edwards is ranked No. 2 in the class, which made the 6-foot-3 recruit the highest-ranked signee since Jordan Horston in the 2019 class.

Lady Vols start SEC play 6-0 with two ranked wins

Two of Tennessee’s three losses going into SEC play were blowout against UCLA on Nov. 30 and Louisville on Dec. 20, but the Lady Vols won six straight games to open conference play. That included back-to-back ranked wins with Tennessee beating Alabama 70-59 on the road Jan. 18 and Kentucky 60-58 at home Jan. 22.

At that point, Tennessee was 14-3 and was projected to be a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

Lady Vols lose two games by historic margins a week apart

Tennessee’s slide started with a 15-point loss at home to Mississippi State on Jan. 29, and things got worse quickly. The Lady Vols lost 96-66 to UConn on the road Feb. 1, marking the largest margin of defeat in the series’ storied history. It was the second-largest margin of defeat in program history at the time.

Tennessee broke the program record for the worst loss in program history when it lost 93-50 at South Carolina a week later on Feb. 8. The 43-point loss broke the record by 12 points. Caldwell then opened her postgame press conference by saying she had “a team that’ll just quit on you,” sparking public controversy, including pushback from ESPN analyst and former Lady Vols player Andraya Carter.

Tennessee ends season on eight-game losing streak

Things never improved for the Lady Vols, who lost eight straight games to end the season, which was the longest losing streak of the NCAA era. They ended the season 16-14, which was the fewest wins of the NCAA era and the worst winning percentage in program history (.552).

Tennessee received an at-large berth for the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed, the second-lowest seeding in program history. It did extend the program’s streak as the only team to make every NCAA Tournament.

Tennessee went winless in March for the first time ever with a loss to Vanderbilt on senior day, a loss to Alabama in the SEC Tournament and a loss to NC State, who beat the Lady Vols to open the season, in the NCAA Tournament.

Player drama makes headlines during losing streak

Losses piling up wasn’t the only topic of conversation as Tennessee’s spiral continued. Barker didn’t travel to Oklahoma because she “didn’t meet team standards.” She was then a late scratch for the NCAA Tournament due to “illness.”

Fifth-year senior Kaiya Wynn then publicly left the program after she didn’t start on senior day, which she called a “breaking point.” Wynn played sparingly after her recovery from Achilles surgery in October 2024.

Then Caldwell benched leading scorer Talaysia Cooper with more than six minutes left in the third quarter against Alabama in the SEC Tournament, which she called a coach’s decision. Cooper left the locker room ahead of the team with a staffer, which Caldwell said was to give the starting guard some air with emotions running high.

Danny White gives Caldwell public vote of confidence

Athletic director Danny White publicly backed Caldwell in an interview with The Sports Animal on March 4.

“I think she is doing a great job,” White said. “I’m as confident in her as I was the day I hired her. (I’m) more confident just getting a chance to work more closely with her and see how talented she is as a basketball mind and as a leader.”

Kim Caldwell makes staff changes

Tennessee assistant coach Gabe Lazo resigned on March 27, and was announced as an LSU assistant on March 31. But Lazo never made it to Baton Rouge, and he was announced as the new UCF coach on April 4.

Caldwell replaced Lazo with Florida State associate head coach Bill Ferrara, and she also fired assistant coach Roman Tubner, who Caldwell has yet to replace.

Lady Vols lose entire returning roster to transfer portal

It didn’t take long after Tennessee’s NCAA Tournament loss on March 20 for the exodus of players to begin. Reports on March 23 broke the news that Prawl and Alyssa Latham, who missed two games during the season for personal reasons, intended to enter the transfer portal.

A few days later, Kaniya Boyd and Lauren Hurst made their announcements. The Pauldo twins made their announcement on April 1, followed by Talaysia Cooper on April 2. Jaida Civil, the last returner standing, announced she would enter the portal on April 6.

Edwards also requested a release from her signing with Tennessee, according to a report from On3 on April 4, leaving Minus as the only incoming freshman.

Cora Hall is the University of Tennessee women’s athletics reporter for Knox News. Email: cora.hall@knoxnews.com; X: @corahalll; Bluesky: @corahall.bsky.social. Support strong local journalism and unlock premium perks: subscribe.knoxnews.com/offers

This article originally appeared on Knoxville News Sentinel: Kim Caldwell’s two-year anniversary as Lady Vols coach. Here’s 17 defining moments

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