We’re just weeks away from Kim Caldwell beginning year No. 2 as the head coach of the Lady Vols basketball program. To preview the season, Tennessee hit Birmingham for SEC Media Days.
Making the trip were Caldwell and players Janiah Barker, Talaysia Cooper and Zee Spearman. They hit the podium and the set of the SEC Network to give their thoughts.
Here were the five best quotes from the afternoon.
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“I get paid to make you uncomfortable.”
Caldwell’s tough-love coaching style is far from a secret at this point. If you’re making fixable mistakes in practice, you’re going to hear about it.
While Caldwell is hard on players, that doesn’t mean she wants them to be hard on themselves, though. She wants to be their biggest critic while players can snap and clear to the next play in the flow of the game and fix their mistakes.
“Let me be the bad guy. Never be harder on yourself than I am on you,” Caldwell said on the SEC Network. “That’s what I get paid to do. I get paid to coach you, I get paid to make you uncomfortable, I get paid to make you better. So let me take that on, then you just have fun. You just worry about being a good teammate, have fun. If you make a mistake, let’s go get the ball back. The way we play, when they talk about freedom, alright, you turn it over, don’t dwell on it. Go get an offensive rebound, it’s a wash.”
“Sometimes I don’t see nothing behind her eyes.”
UCLA transfer Janiah Barker is now experiencing that firsthand. She knew what to expect from Caldwell when she signed, but going through it in practice is different than hearing about it during the recruiting process.
Barker noted the outside appearance of Caldwell may seem kind, but she’s not afraid to flip the switch and get after players.
“I would say she looks like an innocent fifth-grade teacher. And she is not an innocent fifth-grade teacher,” Barker said on the SEC Network. “She’s… amazing. I don’t really know how to explain it. You have to be in our practice to see. She flips a switch on when she becomes a coach and she expects the most out of you and she’s trying to pull that out of you. She’s straight to it. Killer. Sometimes I don’t see nothing behind her eyes. Ain’t nothing wrong with that, though.”
Caldwell chimed in afterward with, ‘she’s not wrong.’
“You’re going to find out who Jaida Civil is.”
Tennessee brings in the No. 2 recruiting class in the country this season. It’s made up of five freshmen, three of which were McDonald’s All-Americans. One of these is Jaida Civil.
Barker has gotten a front-row seat for the impressive freshman class and was quick to point out just how good Civil could be. She brought up the other freshmen, as well, but emphasized how impressed she’s been by Civil.
“We do a lot of hard things every day,” Barker said on the SEC Network. “For them to continue to show up consistently and not complain and not say I don’t want to be here and things like that. Just continue to do that. I’m really proud of them. Jaida Civil, who is a freak athlete. You don’t need to know (her name), you’re going to figure out who that is. You’re going to find out who Jaida Civil is.”
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“I think we have a low floor, I think we can get in our way. I think we have a really high ceiling. Those two things right now are very far apart.”
To start the year, the Lady Vols come in at No. 8 in the AP Poll and are considered one of the top teams in the SEC, which is widely considered the best conference in the country. Caldwell sees the talent and ability to be that good, but she also understands it won’t be easy.
While the ceiling is sky-high, to her, the floor is also very low.
“I think we have a low floor, I think we can get in our way,” Caldwell said at the podium. “I think we have a really high ceiling. Those two things right now are very far apart. We need to do really a better job of lowering what our floor is, staying out of our own way, staying focused and hungry.”
“I think about basketball 24/7.”
Caldwell is now entering her first full season as a mother. She gave birth to her son midway through last season and returned after less than a week to coach Tennessee.
Now, she’s juggling the responsibilities of motherhood and leading the Lady Vols’ program. This offseason, Caldwell was able to take maternity leave and bond with her baby. Now, she’s fully in the midst of handling both responsibilities.
“I wouldn’t say balancing is the right word. Probably like juggling,” Caldwell said at the podium. “That’s probably what it is for all working moms. It’s been great. It’s been very good for me. I’ve never been a coach that can ever turn it off. I think about basketball 24/7. And now there are times in my day where I come home — my son is at that cute age where he can love you back. So I come home, and he’ll come laughing and crawling up to me. That is my favorite part of the day. I can have time with him before he goes to bed to think about him, then I go back to basketball again.”
