Kim Caldwell’s second year leading Lady Vols basketball is in the books. Tennessee earned a 10-seed in the NCAA Tournament after falling apart down the stretch, before losing to 7-seed NC State in the first round.
With things going so poorly over the final month stretch of the season, Caldwell is going to need to shake some things up next season. While she didn’t want to get too deep into her list of things that she’s looking to address, she did give some insight into what the next steps look like.
The team returned to Knoxville on Saturday, which kicks off the feeling-out period of where the current roster is and who is coming back.
“I think that this world is kind of crazy of we’ll meet when we get back and we’ll figure out who wants to stay, what we’re going to do,” Caldwell said. “And I think the portal, we have a little while before it opens to get there, but it’s just going to continue to be crazier and crazier every year.”
More From RTI: Kim Caldwell Reveals Key Regret in Year Two Coaching Lady Vols Basketball
A bit of the criticism on this year’s team is how the roster was constructed. There was plenty of talent, but it just didn’t fit well.
Caldwell also revealed that she regretted giving the group a plan B for her system. This insinuates that the team also wasn’t bought into the system that she wants to run, which full-court presses and runs in transition.
Caldwell said she can’t pin it on roster construction, but instead herself. That’s because she felt like she fell short of motivating her team.
“I can’t put it on roster construction,” Caldwell said. “I got to put it on me, right? 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. One thing I can put my finger on is that I bailed on what we want to do first and then how can I blame anyone else from doing it? You cannot do that, and I know that. Any time I have talk to coaches that want to play this way and want to press, that’s the first thing I say. If you’re going to put a plan B in, don’t do it. You can’t do it. I fell into my own trap. Once you’re in it, you can’t get out of it.”
The transfer portal opens up after the conclusion of the national title game. However, players can announce their intention to enter beforehand.
More to follow: March Madness betting lines
