The Lady Vols’ loss to NC State officially has UT in uncharted waters, and it’s a troubling sign for head coach Kim Caldwell’s future

The Lady Vols’ nightmare season is over after a first round exit in the NCAA Tournament.

Zach Ragan — Tennessee Volunteers News Writer
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Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell said Friday that this was the worst season of her professional career.

It was arguably the worst season in Lady Vols history, too.

Tennessee’s nightmarish season came to an end on Friday in Ann Arbor with a 76-61 loss to NC State.

“It was the worst year of my professional career,” said Caldwell after the loss. “Our players deserved better than that from me, and you learn from that going forward.”

The Lady Vols finished with a 16-14 record after ending the season on an eight-game losing streak.

Perhaps the biggest indictment of where the program is under Caldwell is that this was the first time Tennessee didn’t win a game in March (per The Athletic). It was also the third time in 38 tournament appearances that the Lady Vols didn’t make it past the first round.

Between the off-the-court drama and the on-court results, the program couldn’t be in much worse shape than it is right now.

Tennessee athletic director Danny White, however, seems committed to giving Caldwell one more season (she has a $4 million buyout, so that’s probably a wise financial decision — $4 million is $4 million).

The one thing Kim Caldwell has to get right in year three

The biggest reason the Lady Vols struggled in 2025-26 was because of the way the roster was constructed.

Tennessee had plenty of talent on the roster, but for whatever reason, it wasn’t the right mix of personalities. And Caldwell couldn’t get the ship moving in the right direction with that group of personalities.

Caldwell refused to blame the Lady Vols’ terrible season on roster construction, but it’s clear that was the biggest issue this season on Rocky Top.

“I can’t put it on roster construction, I’ve got to put it on me,” said Caldwell. “I have always been able to recruit players and stack talent and get them to run through a wall for me, and get them to play hard. And I wasn’t able to do that.”

Maybe this season will be an outlier for Caldwell’s tenure as Tennessee’s head coach. Or maybe it’s a sign that this partnership just isn’t going to work.

Caldwell will likely get a chance to save her job next season. But she’ll have to make sure she brings in the right players this offseason, otherwise, there’s a good chance that the program’s struggles will continue into next season.

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