Last Sunday, former Lady Vols basketball player turned ESPN analyst Andraya Carter gave her unfiltered thoughts on where Tennessee is at in year two under Kim Caldwell. This was in front of a national audience on ESPN’s popular College GameDay program.
“This Tennessee team, it doesn’t look like they believe in the system,” Carter said. “I’m interested to see what’s going to budge. Is the team going to budge, or is the system going to budge? Because if you’re a coach, you are required to figure out a system that fits your players. There’s no amount of NIL money that can buy buy-in. You can’t purchase buy-in. You have to create it as a collective with the team and within the staff, and it’s not happening right now.”
Here are Carter’s full comments:
“If you’re a coach, you are required to figure out a system that fits your players. There’s no amount of NIL money that can buy buy-in.”@Andraya_Carter on the Lady Vols season under Kim Caldwell 👀 pic.twitter.com/c4UFfMBDpZ
— College GameDay (@CollegeGameDay) February 22, 2026
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After Carter’s video went viral, the Lady Vols went on to drop games at No. 11 Oklahoma and now, on Thursday, at No. 6 LSU. Following the loss to the Tigers, Caldwell was asked about her thoughts on the statements.
“I haven’t made a comment yet,” Caldwell said. “I think that it’s fair for the most critical people of this program to be the people who have built this program, and it’s hard for me to get upset with a lot of critique when I’m my biggest critic. And I know that things aren’t going the way that they need to be going. And I’m not leaving work every day, happy and satisfied and patting myself on the back. No one in our program is. We have a program full of love, we have a program full of honesty, and we know that, and I think that that’s why they’ve been able to be so resilient through this.”
Now, Caldwell will have one regular-season game left to snap a five-game losing skid. Tennessee will host No. 5 Vanderbilt for the finale and Senior Day. Tip-off is scheduled for 2 p.m. ET and will air on ESPN.
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