Caldwell, Tennessee hope to restore tradition with relentless press

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Six days after taking her very first head-coaching job in 2016, Kim Caldwell sat in her new office at her alma mater in West Virginia and took out a black notebook.

On the inside cover, she wrote down a Pat Summitt mantra she had read in the legendary coach’s book, “Reach for the Summitt.” The daily reminder would help as she started at Division II Glenville State.

Left foot, right foot, breathe, repeat.

Then, she added her own quote across the top:

Terrified, she accepted the challenge …

The first journal entry is dated April 12, 2016.

Eight years, two schools, 217 wins and a Division II national championship later, Caldwell pulls the journal out of a desk drawer in her latest office, the same one Summitt used to build the Tennessee Lady Vols into an eight-time national champion.

Left foot, right foot, breathe, repeat.

A surprise choice to replace Kellie Harper, who was fired last spring after five seasons, Caldwell remains as shocked as anyone that she is here. When her agent told her that Tennessee wanted to talk to her, Caldwell looked at her phone, saw it was April 1 and asked, “Is this an April Fool’s Day joke?”

“I could never dream this big,” Caldwell told ESPN.

Now here she is, a newcomer to the Power 4, with an unconventional brand of basketball and zero ties to Tennessee, being asked to return the Lady Vols to their championship glory.

If there is natural skepticism outside the program about whether Caldwell is the right fit to bring Tennessee basketball back to its rightful place atop the sport, athletic director Danny White shrugs it off.

In his three-plus years at Tennessee, White has spearheaded an athletic department renaissance, with baseball, softball, football and men’s basketball leading the way. And the unconventional athletic director made an unconventional hire in the hopes of getting Tennessee’s most decorated sport back to the top.

“I don’t like making just the safe hire that you think is going to be good enough to not get you fired as an AD,” White said. “We’re going to swing for the fences, and I’m not going to hire somebody that I think is just going to be good enough. I want to hire somebody that has a chance to make us elite. I was the most confident that Kim could give us the spark that we need. I don’t see any reason why it won’t work.”

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WHITE HAD CALDWELL on his early list of candidates for two reasons: First, he believes she is on the forefront of where women’s basketball is going. Caldwell brings with her a relentless up-tempo pace and a crushing press defense, requiring all-out effort for 40 minutes and a deep bench to make it all hum. Second, last season — one in which she rewrote the school record book in her first year at Marshall, also in West Virginia — proved her style could work on the Division I level.

Marshall ranked No. 4 in the nation in scoring at 85.3 points per game, No. 3 in 3-point field goals per game at 10.6, No. 2 in turnovers forced (24.2 per game) and No. 3 in steals (13.2 per game). No other school ranked in the top five in those four key categories.

Caldwell expects 85-90 shots per game, boosted by a defense that forces 20-25 turnovers, 15 of which are steals, and 20 or so offensive rebounds. She explains this using simple math. “If you are equal to your opponent, or slightly better than your opponent, and you get 20 more shots than them, percentage wise, you’re probably going to win.”

To that point, in their season-opening 101-53 win over Samford on Tuesday, the Lady Vols took 77 shots, had 21 offensive rebounds and forced 37 turnovers — 27 of which were steals.

“There’s a lot of beauty in it,” Caldwell said. “It’s fun to play, it’s fun to watch, it’s hard to scout. Your teams are generally closer because you play more people, there’s more buy in, there’s less drama. I weirdly always told myself, ‘At some point in time, you’ll switch it up, you’ll change it.’ But it always works. I can’t go away from something that I know is working.”

There’s no denying that. In her eight previous seasons as a head coach, Caldwell, 35, never missed an NCAA tournament and made two Division II Final Fours.

Meanwhile, Tennessee — the only team to have made all 36 NCAA tournaments — has not reached the Final Four since winning its last national title in 2008.

White, a self-described basketball guy, played college hoops at Towson and Notre Dame. He spent two years on the Ohio men’s basketball staff after graduation before pivoting to administration. His brother, Mike, is the men’s basketball coach at Georgia. He knows ball, but he also knows what it needs to look like at Tennessee. After the Lady Vols lost in the second round of the NCAA tournament last March, White decided they needed to go in a different direction.

“I love Kellie,” White said. “I think she’s a great coach, and a phenomenal person. But I told her, ‘If I was at probably any other SEC school or Power 5 school, I’d love for her to be our head coach for 20 years.’ She ran the program right. But the standard wasn’t being met, and she, of all people, knows that. She won three national championships as our point guard. That was a brutally hard decision, but I know it was the right one for our program, because we have to be serious about getting it back.”

Especially now. With interest in the game skyrocketing, White believes it is imperative for Tennessee to be in the national conversation. To do that, he focused on what could make the Lady Vols “unique and distinctive.”

On the first video interview with Caldwell, White was impressed with the way she matter-of-factly explained why her teams play this specific style, using science, math and methodology. White said she reminded him of football coach Josh Heupel, whom he hired twice — first at UCF and then at Tennessee — not only because their offenses are fast-paced and fun to watch, but because they were doing something just a little bit different than the norm.

“The way she explained why she plays that way and how it makes her distinctive, makes it hard for other teams to match up, but it also helps her keep a really positive team chemistry and culture,” White said. “It was really compelling.”

Caldwell felt good about the interview but didn’t have many expectations.

Until her phone rang.

Caldwell impressed the committee so much, White asked to come talk to her in person at her home in West Virginia the next day. But there was one problem. A tornado had come through that part of the state, and Caldwell had no power or running water at her house. So she and her husband, Justin, instead drove nearly six hours to Knoxville to meet with White and others on the selection committee.

The two coaches who succeeded Summitt both played for her, but White believed it was time to move in a different direction. Though Caldwell had only coached Division I for one year, she quickly emerged as the top choice.

“There are a lot of candidates that might be considered big names, but in my eyes, they kind of showed that they already had their opportunity, and it looked a lot like the last two coaches that we had,” White said. “At Tennessee, that wouldn’t meet expectations. At XYZ brand name program, it might look good, but you’re not winning national championships or not going to Final Fours. That’s not good enough here.”

“She’s a great coach, and a phenomenal person. … She ran the program right. But the standard wasn’t being met.”

Tennessee AD Danny White on Kellie Harper

Only days earlier, Caldwell had been talking about a contract extension with Marshall. A native West Virginian, she was happy there. Now Tennessee wanted her to be its next coach. It all felt so sudden.

She said she had cold feet even though she knew she had no choice but to say yes. Justin Caldwell, on the other hand, had no reservations.

“Tennessee is a one-of-one school,” said Justin Caldwell, a former Glenville State men’s coach (2018-23) who was recently hired as player development coordinator for Tennessee’s men’s basketball team. “She was at a competitive disadvantage if she would have stayed at Marshall. It’s hard to prove you’re the best coach in the country when you’re at a disadvantage. When Tennessee called, to me, it was a no-brainer. You can win a national championship. You have everything you need for that to be possible.”

Kim Caldwell took the job. Then she walked through Thompson-Boling Arena for the first time and looked up at the rafters, the championship banners, the names proudly hanging: Summitt, Bridgette Gordon, Chamique Holdsclaw, Candace Parker, among others. Intimidating? Yes. Motivating? Absolutely.

“There are a lot of people that want [White] to be wrong,” Caldwell said. “I’m a very unexpected hire. It’s very out of the box, and I’m probably more shocked than anyone in the country. So, I get it. I don’t have an ego in that. So you want to prove him right. You want to make him look really good coming out of this, not, ‘I took a chance. It didn’t work.’ That’s really something that motivates me every single day.”

Caldwell never made it back to her home in West Virginia. There was no time to pack up and say goodbye. Not with so much to do.

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THE LADY VOLS gathered at 6 a.m. every Friday during the summer for their toughest conditioning work of the week. To be able to play at the tempo Caldwell demands, her players need the stamina it takes to wear opponents down and be the fresher team in the fourth quarter.

To say this was a vastly different style and training regimen for the players would be a wild understatement. Caldwell warned them it would be hard, often repeating one of her favorite phrases: “Hate me now. Love me later.”

“You don’t actually know what that feels like until you’re in the moment,” senior forward Sara Puckett said. “I can vividly remember running up hills outside, and that was possibly the hardest thing. Then we got to the track, and it was even harder. She knows how to push you out of your limits or past your limits. It just made us physically stronger.”

Nolan Harvath, director of women’s basketball sports performance, had previously worked with Caldwell at Glenville State, so he had a plan to get the team in shape. In addition to Fridays, the team worked two other days running on three different surfaces — grass, track and court.

Out on the track, players were asked to sprint for 2½ to 3 miles and had to meet specific time goals. If they failed to reach them, they would have to run again. They also held competition days, featuring bear crawls 50 yards back and forth, throwing 25-pound medicine balls, carrying teammates like human wheelbarrows — all as a way to push one another.

Players were also required to make 500 3-pointers and 400 free throws each week during the summer. Puckett decided to do more: 1,000 3-pointers and 500 free throws every week.

“The amount of stuff we did, I’ve never really done ever,” Puckett said. “It definitely prepared us mentally because you have to think about how you’re going to win in that instance, and push yourself to go as hard as you can, so that you put your team in the best position to do well.”

For the first time in her career, Caldwell has the technology that details the exact output players are giving. At Glenville State, Harvath and Caldwell would have to guess the limits their players could reach. Now they have the data that shows them when players can give a little more, or should tap on the brakes. They also now know how much they are asking players to run in practice.

“I have been very quick to tell people how many miles we have been running in practice all these years,” Caldwell said with a laugh. “Did you guys know you’re running six miles a day? You were running a marathon a week? We had no idea.”

Caldwell also brought with her a level of accountability that was new to the players. A 45-pound weight sits wrapped in a towel along the baseline. Any player that fails to box out during a practice must push the weight the length of the court. Then there is the whiteboard, where staff members track mistakes during practice for the entire team to see.

Practices end with full-court sprints. Failure to touch the line results in another round.

“She’s already establishing the standard of what it’s like to play at Tennessee,” senior guard Jewel Spear said. “She’s doing everything that a player wants to see, and she’s doing it consistently. So I think it’s a testament to us buying into what she has to provide.”

Caldwell also knew she had to bring in players who would fit her style. With few contacts at the elite Division I level, her immediate priority was to hire two assistants with SEC ties in Gabe Lazo (Mississippi State) and Roman Tubner (Alabama). Lazo, a top-notch recruiter, helped Mississippi State sign the nation’s No. 16 recruiting class in 2023, and the second-best class in program history, while Tubner served as recruiting coordinator with the Tide.

Not everyone is a fit for the tempo offense and press defense. Assistant Angel Rizor, who coached with Caldwell at Glenville State and Marshall, said the ideal player is “athletic, quick and long, and is willing to play hard and give max effort.” Caldwell noted, “Players that can play in transition, play fast and score at three levels are going to be perfect for the style of play.”

Tennessee signed five transfers, four who started at their previous schools. Arkansas guard Samara Spencer and Clemson guard Ruby Whitehorn, in particular, shoot well from 3. But Caldwell also made it clear that she shuffles her lineup so frequently, and depth is an absolute must, that starting lineups are earned every game.

Playing this style is hard to teach, learn and defend. That is what has given Caldwell an edge her entire career, to the tune of an .875 win percentage. She believes in it, but she also has put in the work to make it work.

“Every team that I’ve been a part of, when we play a pressing team, all my head coaches go, ‘Oh my God, they press,'” Lazo said. “So what does that tell you? They don’t like it. So then why don’t more people do it? Because no one wants to do the preparation behind it. No one wants to do all the running that comes with it.”

That is why Caldwell believes she will still have an edge now, even in the toughest conference in the country, home to the past two national champions: South Carolina and LSU.

“A lot of what we do, we need equal or better talent, so we’re going to have to grow it,” Caldwell said. “But I think it is just making teams uncomfortable and making people play the way they don’t want to. We’re not going to try to beat them at their own game. We’re going to try to beat them at a different game. We’re going to try to make them beat us at our game.”

Asked if there is one thing she wants people to know about this team, Spear thought for a minute. “I want people to know that you’re gonna hate playing us,” Spear said. “Simple.”

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AS IF THIS year has not brought enough surprises for Caldwell, she got another one later in the spring: She is pregnant with her first child.

“All I could think was, ‘What?’ Oh we’re gonna do this right now, too?” Caldwell said.

She kept it secret for three months because she was so nervous to tell Angie Boyd Keck, Tennessee’s senior associate athletic director/senior woman administrator. Caldwell scheduled a meeting with her and blurted “I’m pregnant!” as soon as she walked into Keck’s office.

“They were incredibly supportive,” Caldwell said. “She said, ‘It’s nothing that hasn’t happened before.'”

Keck started peppering Caldwell with questions.

“When are you going to stop traveling?” she asked.

“When my water breaks,” Caldwell said.

“When are you going to come back?” Keck asked.

“As soon as I can,” Caldwell said.

Keck looked at her incredulously.

“I’m so naïve I didn’t really realize you’re not in the hospital to have the baby and then you’re right back out,” Caldwell said.

Caldwell is expecting a boy, due in late December/early January. A doctor will travel with her, and one of her assistants will serve as acting head coach until she is ready to return. Beyond that, Caldwell has no hard plan because having a baby often means the best plans are for naught.

Summitt is perhaps the most famous example. In September 1990, she was two weeks away from her due date but went into labor on a recruiting trip to Pennsylvania. Summitt refused an emergency landing in Virginia so she could give birth in Tennessee.

While the circumstances are different, other parallels are hard to ignore.

When Summitt arrived at Tennessee in 1974, eight years before the NCAA sponsored women’s basketball, she had no budget and had to do everything herself — including driving the team van. On the Division II level, Caldwell had limited resources herself — and also drove the team van for road trips, packed her own lunch, and wore many different hats, including academic support, compliance and Title IX.

Then there is the way their teams play: with grit and toughness, and a blue-collar work ethic that reflects their roots and the way they were raised. Summitt revolutionized women’s basketball. It only seems fitting that a coach trying to do the same has now come to Knoxville.

To that end, White put a clause in Caldwell’s contract that will make her the highest paid coach in the country if she wins an NCAA title.

“We have a lot of other sports that can win a national championship,” White said. “We’ve got to get women’s basketball where they are one of those programs that is capable of doing it. It’s one of — if not our top priority. It has to happen.”

If that is not motivation enough, Caldwell has a bronze statuette of Summitt on her desk, near her computer. Caldwell got it as a gift after she was hired and could not just put it in a drawer. Why hide the reality that faces her?

Summitt has her arms crossed, a knowing smile, her left foot one step ahead of her right.

She silently says: Left foot, right foot, breathe, repeat.