Everything Lady Vols Coach Kim Caldwell Said During SEC Tipoff

The Tennessee Lady Vols are set for their upcoming season, as they have a brand new team from top to bottom.

Ahead of the season, Kim Caldwell, the Lady Vols head basketball coach, spoke with the media at SEC Tipoff. Here is what she had to say.

Kim Caldwell's Opening Statement

"Thank you, Tiffany, for the introduction. I’m very thankful and excited to begin year three at the University of Tennessee. I’ve loved our players and our new staff members so far this season. Let’s get right to it," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on the New Team

"I think when you are building a team at any time this time of year, it’s really important to set your foundation, make sure you have your culture, make sure you really set your standard. When you have so many new players, it really helps you set that standard the exact way that you want it to because they don’t know any better. They’ve been great. They’ve done nothing but try to please our coaching staff and get it right. They want to get it right. They want to get better. They want to learn. They want to be coached. It’s been really fun so far," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on the Identity of This Team

"The thing about this team is they really like, and they really get excited about the effort plays. So being the first to a 50-50 ball, taking a charge, saving the ball from out of bounds, maybe an offensive rebound kick-out three, that’s really what excites our team. That’s just such a rewarding thing as a coach because that matches my mentality, and it’s not so much of a score or an and-one. Those things excite us too, but our bench is always on our feet when they make the effort play, and I think that’s a good place for us to start," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on Setting the Standard for This Team

"Yeah, we haven’t got to game preparation yet, but I think the most important thing, again, matching both of those questions was really setting the standard the way that I want it to be set, and that’s it’s going to be a selfless culture. It’s going to be a hard-working culture. We’re going to make sure that we do things the right way every single day. It’s about basketball. Our team is so — they love to be in the gym so much, and it’s such a special place right now, because if you show up to practice 30 minutes early in our gym, you don’t get a basket. The baskets are full. There’s already a player in there shooting, getting work. So it’s a competitive thing to make sure that we’re getting our rim time, we’re getting time with an individual coach. That’s been really fun for us to be around," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on If You're Not 30 Minutes Early, You're Late

"I think that’s the standard that we want to set, and we wanted players — we wanted to recruit players that wanted to be in the gym and that wanted to get better. They really do want to get better. They take pride in that, and they take pride in maybe getting on the floor with a coach a few minutes before practice, working on a countermove and then putting that together in practice and then putting that on display. It’s been infectious. We have leaders that will bring players into the gym with them so that it’s every single person is — that’s the standard," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on Why She Chose Rylie Theuerkauf and Kaylene Smikle

"Yeah, I think, again, I just hate to beat the same point over and over, but I think the theme is to work hard, play hard, try to get better, and continue to get better. That’s not just needs to happen in the preseason. That needs to happen all year long. I think the two players, K.K. and Rylie, do a really good job of embodying that for our team. They’re both older. They’re experienced. They know what it takes at this level. They are competitors. Every single day they show up and compete, and they don’t take things personally. They want to get better, and they want to make their teammates better," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on Getting Back to Who She Was at a Lower-Level School

"I think it’s a fine balance between trying to get back to who I was and maybe at a lower level and who I was as a younger coach when I was at my prime and we were winning championship after championship and trying to embody that here at this level and continuing to grow, continuing to learn. The game has changed a lot. My seat has changed a lot even though it’s been a head coaching seat. They’re pretty big jumps, and it’s happened pretty quickly. Even in the three years that I’ve been the head coach at Tennessee, college sports has changed a lot. So continuing to learn and adapt and rely on people every single day. I think that’s what it takes in this profession for everyone," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on the Floor and Ceiling

"That’s a really good question. One thing we always want to do is keep moving our floor up, up, up. We have great pace on offense. I like the way we score the ball. We need to be able to score the ball consistently against pressure, against bigger SEC teams, because we know that it’s coming, but we do play at pace. We do share the ball really well. Our floor is going to come down to: can we keep people in front of us, can we do it without fouling," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on Fatmata Janneh and Aaliyah Moore

"Yeah, we are definitely undersized, and that’s something we can also add Zhen Craft to that mix. She has SEC experience. It’s going to be a whole team effort to try to guard on the inside, and we know that our opponents, as the year goes on, are going to get bigger and stronger. We’re trying to get to that now of having it be ball pressure on the outside, backside help, sending maybe multiple people to try to attack that, because it’s going to be hard for us to do one-on-one," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on the Schedule

"Yeah, the majority of our schedule was already done. Return games, maybe a few years out. So we didn’t have very many games to add after our schedule was already set," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on Gelling the Team Together

"I think we’re close, and then we’ll probably switch it halfway through the preseason. I’ve never had a team that you can really pick it right now because a lot of things arrive in game situations to where you have to figure out who gels well. The thing about this team is we have so many selfless players. Again, they want to get it right. They want to play — they’ll play with whoever. They’ll play in whatever position. They’ll do whatever it takes to be on the floor, and they’ll do whatever it takes to win, no matter how many minutes that is. That’s really refreshing, and it’s great to see out of this group, and we’ll continue to tinker with that over the next couple of months," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on Kaylene Smikle

"I think what impresses me the most about her is her mindset. She’s a competitor, and she’s a winner. That’s just who she is, and she brings people up with her. She is not afraid of anything. She’s not afraid of confrontation. She wants to be coached. She wants to get better. She has big goals, and she wants to chase them. But she’s a kid who will just find any ball. She will just get to it. It’s going out of bounds, she’s saving it. She will just make a play happen. She’s been really fun to watch. I think we want to continue to develop her, add some things to her game, continue to work on her defense because she is a scrappy defender. She wants to get that ball back, and she wants to get better there, and she can do that. We have seen her be able to do that. She’s smart on the defensive end. So I think that this will be her best year coming up," Caldwell said.

Kim Caldwell on How She Feels Different as a Coach

"Yeah, I think every year is different, and you have different rosters, and you have different things. I think every time you do this until you come to SEC Media Day, you get a little more familiar. There’s familiar faces. You recognize people, and we have the same driver every year. I mean, it’s a fun place to be. This year is more about I’m excited to see the excitement on my players’ faces from being here. It’s Rylie’s first time at an SEC Media Day. So getting to see her excitement and watching K.K. explain to her, because she’s been to several, of this is what it is, this is not what it is, and to be able to prepare for that. That’s really where my joy comes from now is seeing things through my players and seeing their excitement and watching them get to experience things like this because it really is awesome," Caldwell said.

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