Prominent national outlet drops strong statement on the Lady Vols that puts Tennessee athletic director Danny White on notice
It’s been a tough season for Kim Caldwell and the Lady Vols.
It’s been a tough season for Kim Caldwell and the Lady Vols.
Caldwell, who is in her second season at Tennessee, led the Lady Vols to a seven-game winning streak in December and January, but things haven’t gone quite as well in recent weeks.
The Lady Vols are 2-7 in their last nine games. The tough stretch has included some moments of frustration for Caldwell, including calling out her team for “quitting”, and a drive-by handshake with Ole Miss head coach Yolett McPhee-McCuin after a loss to the Rebels.
The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant hits the Lady Vols with a tough dose of reality
The Lady Vols were the standard in college basketball during Pat Summitt’s 38 years as the program’s head coach.
Under Summitt, Tennessee won eight national championships, 16 SEC Tournaments, and reached 18 Final Fours.
Since Summitt stepped down in 2012, the Lady Vols have reached zero Final Fours, and they haven’t reached the Elite Eight since 2016.
It’s been a brutal downfall for a program that was synonymous with greatness for decades.
That’s why The Athletic’s Sabreena Merchant wrote this week that the Lady Vols are now a “middle-of-the-pack SEC team”.
“Historically, this much losing has warranted changes at Tennessee….but Tennessee can’t behave that way anymore, cutting coaches with the expectation a line of candidates will be waiting outside Thompson-Boling Arena,” wrote Merchant. “It doesn’t have the cache to draw the top options in the coaching carousel. The best coaches in the country seem more interested in building up new programs rather than resuscitating once-proud institutions.
“This is what Tennessee is, a middle of the pack SEC team. Perhaps reinvestment in facilities, an increased NIL fund or higher coaching salaries will make it a more attractive destination….The expectations for Tennessee can’t be what they were. The athletic department signaled as much when it hired Caldwell. Whatever she does can’t be judged against Summitt. It’s a different era in college basketball, and a different era in Knoxville.”
What Merchant wrote is accurate. The players Tennessee is now recruiting were infants, or not even born yet, when the Lady Vols won their last national championship in 2008. But it absolutely shouldn’t be the case. And ultimately, it falls on athletic director Danny White to fix it.
White took a huge risk by hiring Caldwell, a coach who had never spent time (as a player or coach) in a Power-4 conference. So far, that risk is not paying off. Caldwell took the Lady Vols to the Sweet 16 in year one, but the program is moving in the wrong direction this season. Tennessee, in fact, is in serious danger of missing the NCAA Tournament for the first time ever.
The Lady Vols have also suffered several historically bad losses this season, including a 30 point loss to UConn (Tennessee’s worst loss in the rivalry), and a 43 point loss to South Carolina (the worst loss in program history).
White loves to tout Tennessee’s standing as an everything school — and he’s undoubtedly done a good job, for the most part, of making that happen. But the Lady Vols have gotten worse on his watch.
And Tennessee can’t be considered an “everything school” until the Lady Vols are competing for national championships again.
I’m not calling for Caldwell to be fired. Maybe she turns things around this season. After all, Caldwell, who is only 37, is still finding her way as a coach in the SEC. She was put in a tough spot as a young coach, and she’s trying to fight her way out of it. This isn’t a criticism of her.
It’s on White to figure out how to turn the Lady Vols into a contender again. Whether it’s with Caldwell at the helm or someone else, it’s White’s job to get the program out of “middle-of-the-pack” status.
And he’s on the clock.
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