Lady Vols basketball is coming off a disappointing end to year two under Kim Caldwell, but is rebuilding through the transfer portal in an attempt to reclaim some of the magic from her first season. As the transfer portal opens and teams across the country fight for top talent, it’s tough to project what next season will look like with any degree of accuracy.
However, USA TODAY’s Mitchell Northam gave it a stab with his first bracketology of the offseason. He projected the entire 68-team field of the NCAA Tournament, including seeding and matchups.
In his projection, the Lady Vols are slotted as a nine-seed. Tennessee would open up with eight-seed Baylor. That game would be played in Los Angeles, with the winner facing the winner between one-seed USC and 16-seed UC Irvine/Loyola Marymount.
While a nine-seed is far from the standard inside the Lady Vols program, it would be a step up from this past season. After the late-season collapse, Tennessee was a 10-seed and lost in the Round of 64 to seven-seed NC State.
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In USA TODAY’s projection, the Lady Vols would head to Las Vegas if they made a trip to their second Sweet 16 in three years under Caldwell. Likely opponents in that round are four-seed Oklahoma and five-seed Ohio State.
Other top seeds in the region would be two-seed Texas and three-seed Iowa.
Currently, Tennessee has just three players on its roster. After losing every potential returner to the transfer portal and five-star Oliviyah Edwards backed off her signing, it left just four-star incoming freshman Gabby Minus. Since the portal has opened, Caldwell has added Liberty guard Avery Mills and Northern Arizona guard Naomi White.
