With less than a month until Lady Vols basketball gets year two under Kim Caldwell underway, Tennessee guard Kaiya Wynn met with the media to give her thoughts on the team. She was asked about her recovery from injury, playing for Kim Caldwell, returning to practice and more.
Wynn is entering her fifth year with the Lady Vols, but was sidelined due to an Achilles tear all of last season. She was a part of the recruiting class that featured Sara Puckett, Karoline Striplin and Brooklynn Miles. Puckett graduated after last season, and Striplin and Miles both transferred out. This makes Wynn the most tenured Tennessee player on the roster.
Here’s what she said.
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On if she missed doing media availabilities while injured
“I was thinking about that the other day. I was like, I didn’t go to media after any games.”
On being back
“It feels good. I’m really just happy and excited to be back out there. Everybody is giving me a ton of grace just getting my feel back for the game and getting back in shape. Like I said, I’m just really happy.”
On what she learned on the sideline
“Definitely the game has slowed down a bit for me. Just seeing it, like you said, I spent 30 something games on the bench. Just being able to go out there and implement the things that I saw just from the press or from the offense and things like that. Just being really good for my game.”
On seeing Kim Caldwell from the sideline
“The quiet confidence that she has. Just reallly believing in and buying into what she says. It was one thing to be in it, but it was another thing to see it unravelling and happening in real time. Really just buying and believing in everything that she was telling us to do and that it was really going to work.”
On seeing the benefit of seeing the different perspective on the sideline
“100%, I wouldn’t change a thing about what happened. I was really appreciative to grow as a leader vocally and just by example by sitting on the bench and getting to know everybody and getting closer. And being able to learn from the things that I saw from sitting on the bench, how to lead, how to interact with different people and the things from a basketball standpoint that I can improve in, too.”
On her first basket back at practice
“I think I came down, did a spin move and just hit like a left-hand layup. I was running down the court, and I’m not a big crier or anything, but I just wanted to tear up because it was so long since I played basketball, played contact. I was really excited and they were cheering for me and everything so it was really special.”
On her favorite moment with Caldwell’s son
“I saw him crawling the other day, he was really fast. I was like oh my gosh, he’s so big. I have a 13-year-old sister and so I got to see her grow up and she had a little giraffe toy and I saw that at Coach Kim’s house the other day so I thought that was really cute that that’s still in style. I’m just excited to see continue seeing him grow. I love when he comes to practice. We’re about to run and he starts crying and we’re like, yeah, us too.”
On her being positive while injured
“I called my parents right after I got injured and they kind of just told me, hey, sit in it for a couple minutes, a couple hours even, and then after that, kind of just change your perspective. You can’t change what happened. So just my teammates, my family, big in my faith, believe that everything happened for a reason. God doesn’t make mistakes. Everybody just poured into me, they didn’t treat me any differently. They did have to give me a ride everywhere because I did tear my right one, but they just folded up my scooter, put it in their trunk and kept moving. Definitely the people around me that just kept pouring into me to make it seem like it ended up being a great year overall.”
On returning to the court for a game
“I was talking to Jenna about that. Literally like 10 minutes ago, I’m kind of nervous to play in a game with the lights on with the refs. I’ll probably go out there and foul or something like that just to get my footing back under me. But I’m really excited to it and looking forward to it. People ask me what I’m looking forward to the most and I say a game. Just playing against somebody else, playing with refs. It’s definitely going to be surreal and I’m kind of probably going to be taken aback like back to my freshman year when I was playing in my very first game.”
On spending all five years at Tennessee
“It means a lot just being, it’s kind of rare these days just having somebody go through the whole program. I just have so much pride putting on a jersey, putting on a practice uniform, anything Tennessee-related. Being here for five years, I’ve seen the program just grow so much, the staff grow. We’ve had so many good players throughout the years that I’ve been here so just being able to be prideful leaning towards that and just really thankful for the opportunity that I’ve had here.”
On seeing Caldwell balance being a coach and mom
“We had to tell her a couple times, like chill. It’s been really cool to see her and her husband, Justin, is around, too. So just seeing their family is really cute. Like I said, she brings him to practice sometimes and so it’s just really cool, the strength that she has. She was back coaching within a couple days of having birth so that was really cool to see her strength and how much she really cares for us and this program. She was willing to make sure she was a coach first and then taking that time of maternity leave to really be with her family, help raise her son, was also a showing of strength because I know that was hard for her. She wanted to be here and continue to help us grow, but it was really cool to see her just take that time away to be with him, too.”
On which newcomer has the funniest personality
“I’m trying to think who is like me. I would say like everybody is funny in their own way. I think Janiah Barker is probably the most similar to me just having the boisterous personality. They’re all really funny. Jaida (Civil) has a really sense of quiet funny about her. The twins are obviously larger than life and I really like what they bring. Deniya (Prawl), too. Deniya is on the quieter side, but when she does say funny things, they’re really funny. It’s like, wait, who said that. And then Lauren (Hurst), too. Really all the transfers. They did a really good job of just picking good people and everybody has, like I said, a different sense of humor to them.”
On who has impressed her so far
“Definitely everybody. We were battling through some injuries, so really the past couple weeks we’ve had almost full strength. Really everybody brings something different. It’s just all really cool to see coming together. We have people who can score, we have people who can play really good defense, we have people who can knock down shots. People who just know the game from having experience like Nya (Robertson) and Janiah coming from other Power Four conferences. Have been playing in college for four years. Everybody just really bringing a different thing that’s going to help us, hopefully, reach our goal.”
On Zee Spearman’s mental growth
“Zee has done a really good job of just bouncing back from those mistakes. There was a couple times last year where we could visibily see during the game where she was down on herself or upset about certain things. Now, she’s just bouncing back really quick. We do a lot of preaching of next play, whether it was good or bad, just next, and limiting those mistakes. It’s just been really cool to see her grow off the court. She’s emerging into more of a vocal leader, too, and encouraging what she’s learned, just the next play and preaching it to the younger people and everyone around, really. And then off the court, she’s just blossoming into her personality. She’s very funny. I think a lot of people have seen the video of her calling Coach Kim a chipmunk. She’s like that all the time. Very cool to see how Lady Vol Nation continues to see that.”
On growing up with Chaz Lanier, his time at UT, transition to NBA
“It was crazy. Chaz used to be shorter than me. I’m always going to stand on that hill. He’s a really hard worker and I’m glad Vol Nation embraced him, I knew that they would going in. It was just really awesome to see him grow and Coach Barnes push him to be a better basketball player. We always knew he was gonna have the talent to get drafted, but now that he’s there, it’s surreal. He sent us a bunch of gear. He sent my family and I a bunch of gear the other day. He’s really down to earth. He doesn’t forget his roots. I hope I can catch a game. I don’t think I’ve ever been to an NBA game. It’ll be cool to go out there and watch him play on the next level.”
