Lady Vols basketball hits SEC play on Thursday with a game against Florida. Ahead the beginning of the conference slate, Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell didn’t seem overly optimistic. When asked if she thought her team was ready for SEC play, she said no.
While she did go on to clarify later in the press conference that she could have the team ‘practice for two years and I still wouldn’t think we’re ready for SEC play’ and she doesn’t think any coach is thrilled to begin the conference gauntlet, she did detail the issues that her team will need to correct.
Her shortlist of what the biggest points of emphasis have been were simply ‘be better teammates, put a premium on winning, have winning behaviors.’ Caldwell noted that every team has those issues at some point, but it is a bit concerning that it’s still a problem at this point in the season.
More From RTI: Everything Lady Vols Basketball HC Kim Caldwell Said to Preview SEC Play, Florida
As far as on-court issues, it’s been a lack of production in transition. Considering her system is predicated on making games speed up, forcing turnovers in transition and then scoring on your own fast break, that doesn’t necessarily bode well.
With Florida, the next opponent and a team that can run the floor, it doesn’t inspire much confidence in the immediate future, either.
“Normally, I would feel great about it. Normally, that’s all we would want,” Caldwell said on the game with the Gators potenitally speeding up. “Well, our transition offense hasn’t been great, and our transition defense hasn’t been great. And so if we can do those things the way teams I find in the past have done it, then I think we always want it to be a track meet. We always want to go. We always think that we can win that way. But we have to take a big step, because the games that have been track meets, we’ve gotten whooped.”
Tip-off between Tennessee and Florida is scheduled for Thursday, Jan. 1, 2026, at 2 p.m. ET in Knoxville. The game will air on SECN+.
