Top-tier college football games on campus don’t just mean recruiting advantages for Josh Heupel’s Tennessee football team. It also means the other programs on campus have massive opportunities to impress recruits in their given sport. The Lady Vols basketball team is no different.
This weekend, Kim Caldwell and company will host three of the top prospects in the country. This includes 2026 recruits Oliviyah Edwards and Bri Crittendon on official visits and Eve Long, a 2027 prospect, on an unofficial. Tennessee may have an (pun intended) ace up its sleeve, as well. With Candace Parker in Knoxville as ESPN College GameDay’s guest picker, you have to imagine that could be a great piece of the puzzle for Caldwell’s recruiting efforts.
This is particularly the case for Edwards. Parker has been vocal in her efforts to get her in Knoxville to join her alma mater. She commented, ‘I personally see big Tennessee orange in her future’ on an Instagram post recently.
Edwards, a consensus five-star and the No. 2 player in the 2026 class on ESPNW, will take an official visit to see the Lady Vols from Sept. 12-14. This will be her second time in Knoxville after she previously took an unofficial visit in January.
Edwards previously stated that she intends to be committed by November. She began the process of locking in official visits on July 26, with Tennessee the first school she announced she’ll be visiting. She has a top-six of UT, South Carolina, USC, LSU, Florida and Washington.
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Also on campus this weekend are Crittendon and Long. Crittendon is a 6-foot-3 power forward out of Thornton, Colorado. If that hometown sounds familiar, it’s where Tennessee men’s basketball legend Dalton Knecht is from. However, Crittendon attends Riverdale Ridge while Knecht went to Prairie View.
Crittendon is the No. 8 recruit in the country, according to 247 composite rankings. She is also considered the No. 3 power forward in the 2026 cycle and the No. 1 player from Colorado.
Long is a five-star prospect according to 247 composite rankings in the 2027 class and the No. 11 player in the country. According to just 247’s rankings, she is the No. 7 prospect and No. 2 center in the class. She is from Olathe, Kansas, where she plays for Olathe South. She is the top-ranked player from the state.
Along with her visit to Knoxville, Long is reportedly scheduled to take unofficial visits to Notre Dame on Oct. 18 and Kansas on Oct. 25. She also holds offers from the likes of Arkansas, Auburn, Baylor, Florida, Florida State, Iowa, Kansas State, Louisville, LSU, Maryland, Miami, Michigan, Mississippi State, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ole Miss, Oregon, South Carolina, TCU, Texas, Texas Tech, UCLA and USC among others.
