Kaiya Wynn Throws Shade at Kim Caldwell After Early Tennessee Exit
There are a lot of issues among the Tennessee Volunteers women's basketball team right now.
Second-year head coach Kim Caldwell's team has lost six straight games and nine of their 11 contests. What's more, the team looks disjointed on the court, and their chemistry is crumbling. Caldwell has called her team out for quitting and has then been called out by former Lady Vols players for doing so.
Things took an even worse turn on March 3, when news broke that fifth-year senior Kaiya Wynn would be stepping away from the team indefinitely.
Wynn (who has averaged 5.4 minutes per game this season and has never started a game in her college career) did not play in the team's Senior Day game on March 1, which raised eyebrows. It came out afterwards that Wynn was offered a chance to play with less than a minute remaining but declined to do so.
Kaiya Wynn Shares Reason For Leaving Lady Vols Program
Wynn made an X post in the wake of her early Tennessee departure to explain her reasoning for leaving the team before their season actually ended.
"The news has now broken that I have decided to step away from the Lady Vol program. This decision was not made lightly or instantly. For the past five years I have given my all for Tennessee and have not regretted doing so once. Obviously, my last two seasons on the team have been less than ideal for many reasons, but the one night I was most looking forward to was senior night. As someone who has never started a career game, I was hoping to start in my last appearance in Thompson-Boling," the post wrote.
"That obviously did not happen, and to be asked to check into the game with 15 seconds left while losing was not how I wanted to spend my final moments in my arena after five years. Although that was not the sole reason, it was the breaking point for me. I have the utmost love and respect for my teammates and this program and wish everyone nothing but the best. Thank you Lady Vol Nation for the past 5 years, you all made this kid from Tennessee so extremely happy. 🧡," it continued.
— kaiya (@kaiyaw_2) March 3, 2026
It will be interesting to see whether Caldwell offers a response to this blunt message from Wynn. Then again, perhaps Caldwell and the rest of the Tennessee team just want to get this season over with right now.
Grant Young covers Women’s Basketball, the New York Yankees, and the New York Mets for Sports Illustrated’s ‘On SI’ sites. He holds an MFA degree in creative writing from the University of San Francisco (USF), where he also graduated with a Bachelor’s Degree in Marketing and played on USF’s Division I baseball team for five years. However, he now prefers Angel Reese to Angels in the Outfield.
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