Lady Vols Coach Kim Caldwell took five portal transfers and installed a high-octane pressing defense and up-tempo offense shooting plenty of threes
Midway through the second quarter of a December game against Florida State, the Lady Vols up 29-22, Seminole Amaya Bonner set up in the right corner and launched a three-pointer. Guarding her, redshirt sophomore Talaysia Cooper extended high into the air like a Marvel superhero and slapped the arcing ball high into the stands. The Lady Vols faithful erupted.
Twenty-eight seconds later, in a high-energy flurry characteristic of new coach Kim Caldwell’s up-tempo style of play, Cooper (No. 55 pictured at left) hit a three then a jump shot, then followed a Tess Darby three with a steal that set up a three by junior Zee Spearman to go up 43-25. A Cooper lay-up made it 47-29 at halftime.
Another potential characteristic of Caldwell’s emphasis on running and gunning came in the third quarter, when a few minutes of less-than-full intensity caused the Lady Vols to blow that 18-point lead. “Eighteen points is nothing for us,” said Caldwell afterward. “It’s a game of runs. We knew they were going to have theirs. [It was the result of] our lack of urgency on defense and the fact that we were just turning the ball over and not hustling back. We just kind of quit a little bit there, and you can’t do that against a team that can score like they can.”
As Caldwell had explained after an earlier game, “When we have one person who takes her foot off the gas, we look bad.” The Lady Vols buckled down in the fourth quarter, using 22 points from Cooper and Spearman to win, punctuated by Spearman’s fadeaway jumper to put the Lady Vols up 79-77 with 24 seconds to go. (FSU missed its final shot.)
Spotting an Upcoming Talent
Caldwell, 36, was born in Parkersburg, West Virginia. She watched women’s hoops because of Pat Summitt and read her book Sum It Up many times. “It was a phenomenal book for a young coach to read. It helped me be a head coach at 26,” said Caldwell at her introductory press conference. “It helped mold me as a coach.”
She played for her dad, Scott Stephens, at Parkersburg South High. “He was the reason I wanted to coach. He was my role model. He was by my side every year for four years. He was my sounding board. He taught me all the things I didn’t know you were supposed to do as a head coach.”
She played for Glenville (W. Va.) State, assistant-coached at Ohio Valley University for a year, at her alma mater for a year, and at Sacramento State for three years. She then became head coach at Glenville State for seven years, leading the Pioneers to the 2021-22 Division II national title in her sixth season. She head-coached one season for Marshall, went 26-7, and got the Thundering Herd into its first NCAA tourney since 1997. That’s when UT Athletics Director Danny White spotted her as an up-and-coming talent and hired her in April to replace Kellie Harper.
Chip on Our Shoulder
“We’re excited about the Kim Caldwell era,” said point guard Jewel Spear, a preseason All-SEC pick, after an earlier game. “Our defense is sparking our offense. We have so much depth and everybody brings something different. Coach wants me to be active and take risks. This has been an adjustment for us. [Her system] forces you to be aggressive. Fresh legs. Fresh legs. You’re going hard, you get subbed out.”
“It’s looking at their motors and seeing how tired they are,” said Caldwell. “I coach a lot of energy and effort.” Caldwell routinely subs in five players at a time and favors a full-court press. Against Iowa, the Lady Vols forced 18 turnovers, many of them resulting from the press.
“The way we play takes a couple of months to figure out how to play quickly,” said Caldwell at media day, “how to get used to shooting quick shots, how to transition on defense.”
“Everything she said was music to my ears,” said Spear, who led the Lady Vols in threes last year. “She’s our captain, our leader,” said Caldwell.
“The conditioning was eye opening,” said Spear. “One defensive drill was that you had to get three stops in a row before you could get out.” Kaniya Boyd, a redshirt freshman guard from Las Vegas who rehabbed an injured knee last year, is a ferocious defender on the press.
Returning hustlers and three-point threats Tess Darby and Sara Puckett are also thriving in the Caldwell system. Darby, with a 37% career average on threes, works well in the swarming defense, knows how to trap, and directs others to do the same. “We’re just playing with a chip on our shoulder and going out there to prove something,” she said to Beacon sports reporter Alex Sarkis on media day. Puckett, 32% on threes for in her career, disrupts opponents’ defenses, deflects passes, and works well inside with 6-foot-5 senior forward Jillian Hollingshead.
“We’re Some Dogs.”
“Don’t be embarrassed if you have trouble distinguishing one Lady Vol from another or if you can’t match a player with a position, or tell the starters from the backups,” wrote John Adams in the News Sentinel. “Everybody runs. Everybody guns. And the points are piling up. You can’t fully appreciate this team by checking the stats. You need to experience the effort. Recent Lady Vols teams often have lacked a sense of urgency. This team plays as though the game is on the line every possession.”
Rapuluchi “Favor” Ayodele, a transfer from Pitt originally from Mόstoles, Spain, is a ferocious rebounder. “I really like Ayodele,” wrote a fan on Facebook. “She is a true warrior. She don’t score a lot, but she out there giving 200 percent. Rounding, diving on the floor and most of all, she a very physical presence. We need that tough hard-nose player.”
Samara Spencer, a 5-7 senior transfer from Arkansas, made four threes in a row to start the MTSU game. Ruby Whitehorn (No. 2 in the photo), a junior transfer from Clemson, led the team in points (18), rebounds (14), and steals (3) in an early game v. UT Martin.
Cooper, a McDonald’s All-American from Turbeville, South Carolina, played for the Gamecocks as a freshman, then transferred to UT after the portal had closed and sat out last year. “She sees the ball and goes and gets the ball,” said Caldwell after a win over Samford when Cooper had 19 points, seven steals, five rebounds, five assists and two blocks. “She makes deflections. Her steals really help us get a good flow.” She leads the team scoring, as she did 23 points in a 78-68 win over Iowa on December 7 in Brooklyn, New York.
Cooper often connects with Spearman (No. 11 at left), a 6-foot-4 junior forward who transferred from Miami. “We play very well together,” said Spearman after FSU. “Once we get that going…”
Cooper and Spearman’s board crashing is one reason the Lady Vols lead the nation in offensive rebounds. Another is Alyssa Latham, a Syracuse transfer who got nine points, seven rebounds, and a block in 17 minutes off the bench. Caldwell has said she ranks “high on the deflection sheet” kept in practices.
“The 6-2 forward from Glenview, Illinois, is relentless on rebounds, especially cleaning the offensive glass to give Tennessee more possessions—something Caldwell especially values,” wrote longtime Lady Vols and Pat Summitt chronicler Maria M. Cornelius in knoxTNtoday.com. “While just a sophomore, Latham shows maturity on the court and with the media. She is quickly becoming a player that media want in the post-game press conferences because of her ability to break down the game and provide up-front answers, such as being asked about Florida State’s surge to tie the game.”
“We have to understand that teams are going on their runs, but we have to continue to stay locked-in,” Latham said after FSU. “We can’t give up. We can’t put our heads down. We have to stay together, keep playing, and the game will come to us.”
“If we get Zee and Alyssa going, it’s going to be a hell of a season,” Cooper said. “Not many people can guard that, to be honest.”
We’re some dogs,” Latham agreed. “We can guard anybody. We’re not going to stop playing. We’re a very resilient team. You can see we have a lot of chemistry. We have fun while we’re playing.”We’re some dogs,” Latham agreed. “We can guard anybody. We’re not going to stop playing. We’re a very resilient team. You can see we have a lot of chemistry. We have fun while we’re playing.”