Having lost five and seven seniors, respectively, the UT women and men are stocked with answers.
By N. Brooks Clark | Photography by Carlos Reveiz
Appeared in Cityview Magazine, Vol. 41, Issue 6 (Nov/Dec 2025)
Last January Lady Vols Head Coach Kim Caldwell, 36, gave birth to her and her husband Justin’s first child, Conor Scott Caldwell. Just a week later she was greeted with a standing ovation from a crowd of 12,033 when she returned to the bench in Thompson-Boling Arena against powerhouse South Carolina. Caldwell walked briskly down the sideline shortly before tipoff and waved to the crowd before shaking hands with Gamecocks Coach Dawn Staley. “I tried to sneak in,” Caldwell said after a 63-70 loss. “I wanted to go unnoticed. [The ovation] makes it worth it, coming back.”
The quick return was a bad-ass move on the order of Pat Summitt’s famous boarding a plane in Allentown, Pa., with her water broken to make sure Tyler was born in Tennessee. Said Staley, “Women have the strength of 10 men.”
Caldwell did well to teach last year’s team to play her pressing, fast-breaking, quick-shooting, rapid-substitution style, and the Lady Vols got it right much of the time. Still, it’s a challenge to maintain the swarming intensity for a full game, especially if you’re new to it. The Lady Vols had heartbreakingly close losses in January to tough opponents like Oklahoma, LSU, Vandy, and Texas. Then in February they scored an 80-76 upset to the mighty UConn, a loss that sent the Huskies back to the drawing board and sparked their march to the national title. For their part in the NCAAs, the Lady Vols beat Ohio State 82-67 and made it to the Sweet 16 of the NCAAs, losing 67-59 to Texas. Not bad for a first-year coach.
Five seniors have moved on, but Caldwell brought on five freshmen ranked as the No. 2 class in the nation, as well as three key transfers—all of whom completely embrace Caldwell’s up-tempo game and have the physical ability to carry it out.
Speedy redshirt sophomore Kaniya Boyd, who loves Caldwell’s system, will take over as point guard.
She’ll share the backcourt with Talaysia Cooper, and Kaiya Wynn, returning from a torn Achilles tendon. SMU transfer Nya Robertson will join hotshot freshmen Deniya Prawl, Jaida Civil, Lauren Hurst of Cleveland, Tenn., and the Pauldo twins from Paterson, N.J.—Mya and Mia, the latter a five-star recruit who could start at the point.
In an early press availability, Caldwell told Cora Hall of the News Sentinel that Mia Pauldo is “made to play” her style and is comfortable pushing the pace in transition. “Mia has really stepped up and kind of separated herself by leading the lead,” said Caldwell. “Any point guard in my system probably has the hardest life… I expect them to score. Everything’s at tempo. I don’t call a lot. I don’t control a lot, so they’re having to do that, and she’s picked up on it really well.”
Forwards Alyssa Latham and Zee Spearman work well together. “We’re some dogs,” said Latham last year. “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.” They’ll get help from transfers Jersey Wolfenbarger (LSU) and Janiah Barker (UCLA).
Tough to Say Goodbye to Zakai Zeigler. But Hello, Nate Ament
With Zakai Zeigler at point guard and relentless defender, the Vols had a chance in every game, right up to their 69-50 loss to Houston in the Elite Eight last March. Head Coach Rick Barnes lost seven seniors from last year’s team. He returns sophomore guard Bishop Boswell, senior center Felix Okpara from Lagos, Nigeria; junior forward Cade Phillips, and redshirt sophomore J.P. Estrella, who missed much of last season after foot surgery but looms as the team’s best scorer from the post position.
Help comes from transfers: senior point guard Ja’Kobi Gillespie (Maryland/Belmont), from Greeneville, Tenn.; 6-foot-eight junior forward Jaylen Carey (Vandy/James Madison) from Southwest Ranches, Fla.; and senior guard Amaree “Mo” Abraham (La. Tech/Georgia Tech/Ole Miss). As Janis Joplin was, Abraham is also from Port Arthur, Texas.
Then there is Barnes’ crop of five freshmen, headlined by six-foot-nine Nate Ament, a five-star recruit from Manassas, Va. Ranked among the top five recruits in the country, he is the highest-rated UT prospect in history (think back to top fivers Allan Houston in 1989 and Tobias Harris in 2010). In Barnes’s early comments, he praised Ament’s humility and team-first approach.
In 1998, his father Albert Ament was a French teacher. While working in Rawanda, what was then Zaire, with Catholic Relief Services, met his future wife, Godelive, a nurse from native to Rwanda. Albert is a member of the Wayne State (Mich.) Athletics Hall of Fame for his 1985-89 basketball career. This included a senior season when he averaged 23.4 points and 11.4 rebounds per game, plus set school single-season records for points (654) and made free throws (194) that still stand at the Division II school.
Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell fires up her team from the sideline at Thompson–Boling Arena
With two master’s degrees, Albert Ament also did a pair of two-year tours with the United States Peace Corps, one in Chad as an English teacher (1989-91) and one in Madagascar as an English-teacher trainer (1993-95).
Freshman Troy Henderson, a three-star recruit from Chester, Va., will help fill the Zeigler void. “Troy is a pass-first point guard with a great deal of toughness, both physically and mentally,” Barnes said when Henderson signed in April. “He possesses a lot of the leadership qualities we look for in a point guard, which will help him at this level. He comes from a winning tradition in both high school and AAU ball, and he has received excellent coaching throughout his life.”
Known for his intensity, discipline-driven system, and emphasis on defensive toughness, Head Coach Rick Barnes continues to lead the Volunteers with a steady, uncompromising presence.
Guard Amari Evans is a four-star recruit from Pittsburgh and Georgia. Six-foot-nine forward, DeWayne Brown II, is another four-star. He hails from Hoover, Ala. Guard Clarence Massamba comes from Paris—France, not Tennessee.
In July, Barnes enhanced the Vols’ international feel by signing Ethan Burg, a 6-foot-3 guard from Mishmar HaShiv’a, Israel, who competed for Bnei Herzliya Basket in the Israeli Basketball Super League for the last two seasons and comes to Knoxville with three years of eligibility. “We are excited for Ethan and his family to join Tennessee basketball,” said Barnes. “He is a confident young man who plays with an edge. Ethan is a talented combo guard with backcourt versatility who is excellent in transition and can really get to the basket off the bounce. He also has the ability to shoot the ball. Ethan’s experience playing high-level international basketball should help him make a smooth transition to the SEC.”
Burg, the ninth newcomer to the UT men’s roster, is the first player from Israel to play for Tennessee. He is also the first from the Middle East and/or Asia.
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