Things haven’t gone as planned in year two under Kim Caldwell for Lady Vols basketball. After reaching a Sweet 16 in her first season, the expectations quickly rose to a potential Final Four run.
However, Tennessee enters the SEC Tournament 16-12 (8-8 SEC) with six-straight losses and defeats in nine of its last 11 appearances. On top of the on-court struggles, Caldwell dismissed Ruby Whitehorn before the season amid legal issues, and just had Kaiya Wynn step away from the program due to a ‘breaking point’ during Senior Day on Sunday.
Despite it all, Tennessee Athletic Director Danny White showed confidence in his hire during an appearance on WMNL The Sports Animal.
“I think she is doing a great job,” White said on WMNL. “I am as confident in her as I was the day I hired her – more confident. Just getting a chance to work closely with her and see how talented she is as a basketball mind, as a leader. This season has not met anyone’s expectations. Most importantly and most of all, hers. She is incredibly competitive. Not surprised to see the narrative around it – both positive and negative.”
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In response to the public display of backing from White, Caldwell said it meant a lot to her.
Caldwell also noted that the two have been on the same page throughout this rough stretch. While she hasn’t met expectations, the rest of the season and beyond have been the focus.
“It means a lot,” Caldwell said. “I think he and I have talked through this, and we know what we’re trying to build here, and we know what we thought this season was gonna be, and we know what it is to this point, but there’s a lot of season left. And we can have bigger conversations about the future going forward, but right now I wanna focus on the team that I have going into SEC play as a 6-seed and trying to do as well as we can there, and then going into the NCAA Tournament. We’re in the best part of the season right now.
“And I think we talked yesterday as a team about how our schedule was really back-loaded, and everyone had to go through this. Everyone had to play these teams on their (schedule), and we had to play them all at once. We had to play them in a clump. I think Oklahoma played them in a clump early. So we had to get through that, and we have to see now how that built us and how that shaped us.”
The Lady Vols will open their SEC Tournament run on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. ET in Greenville, S.C. Tennessee, the 6-seed, will play the winner between 11-seed Alabama and 14-seed Missouri.
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