On Monday, Nov. 24, second-year Lady Vols basketball head coach Kim Caldwell celebrated her 37th birthday. Don’t think she took the day off, though. Instead, she was on the recruiting trail, spending time with No. 2 overall recruit and Tennessee signee Oliviyah Edwards.
Edwards, out of Tacoma, Washington, is a five-star prospect and the Lady Vols’ top-ranked signee in the 2026 class. She joins four-star Gabby Minus as commitments to put pen to paper to join the team for next season.
Edwards stands at 6-foot-3 with elite athleticism. She had already displayed the ability to dunk with ease before her senior year of high school had even begun.
The elite power forward prospect committed to Caldwell and the Lady Vols during her official visit to UT in September. This aligned with the football game against Georgia that saw Candace Parker in town as the College GameDay guest picker.
Thank you for spending your birthday with me. 🧡🧡 pic.twitter.com/hzn6GRhSKD
— Oliviyah “Big Oh” Edwards (@EdwardsOliviyah) November 25, 2025
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“I think both of them are gonna do great things for us…,” Caldwell said after the signings of Edwards and Minus. “I think what we’ve proven this year is that we’re gonna trust our freshmen. We’re gonna build around our freshmen. We’re gonna put them on the floor. There’s not a lot of freshmen in the country that are getting the opportunity that our freshmen are. So we’re gonna continue to do that with people that we bring in and let them learn and let them figure it out.”
“And then (Edwards will) be one that I think will be special to watch. She’s a great kid. She wants to get better. She wants to win. She is selfless to give every aspect of, hey, we need to do what it takes to win. And to do that at a young age, especially when she has had the attention and notoriety around her, it speaks volumes of her character.”
Caldwell also commented on four-star prospect and signee, Minus, out of Dacula, Georgia. She is the No. 45 player in the class, via 247.
“She’s athletic,” Caldwell said. “She can move. She can run. She’s a three-level scorer. Obviously, she’s coming off of an injury, but I think that she’ll be able to step in and help right away, too.”
