On Tuesday, Lady Vols basketball senior guard Kaiya Wynn announced that she has stepped away from the Tennessee program. She revealed that the reasoning was a number of factors, but the final straw was that she expected to start on Senior Day, then was offered to check in for the final 15 seconds of the game with the score already out of hand.
A day later, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media. She was quickly asked about Wynn’s decision to leave.
“I haven’t really dove into the public conversation about it,” Caldwell said. “We’ll miss her. She was loved in this program. Again, we respect her decision, but we kind of have to turn the page and focus on the SEC Tournament.”
Caldwell noted that it kind of caught her off guard when she got the news. When asked why the relationship deteriorated, she could only guess that playing time as the reason.
More From RTI: Kaiya Wynn Explains Decision to Step Away from Lady Vols Basketball
Wynn was in her fifth season, all with the Lady Vols. She initially committed to Kellie Harper, but stuck through the coaching change to Kim Caldwell. In practice ahead of her true senior year, Wynn suffered a torn Achilles injury, which sidelined her for the 2024-25 season.
Wynn worked to recover and was cleared to play in the 2025-26 campaign. However, during her redshirt-senior season, she rarely saw action. She appeared in nine games while posting averages of 0.6 points, 1.2 rebounds and 0.4 assists per game.
She completed her undergraduate studies in kinesiology in the summer of 2025. Now, Wynn is pursuing a master’s in recreation/sport management with a concentration in sport management. She plans to attend med school to be a doctor, as well.
The Lady Vols will open their SEC Tournament run on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. ET in Greenville, S.C. Tennessee, the 6-seed, will play the winner between 11-seed Alabama and 14-seed Missouri.
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