It’s never a good thing when a team has more controversy and drama than wins over the final month of the season. That’s been the case for the University of Tennessee women’s basketball team.
From the head coach saying the team ‘quit’ to former players criticizing the program to current players getting benched or leaving, the Lady Vols have been on a downward spiral as Selection Sunday for the NCAA Tournament approaches.
Tennessee suffered its seventh straight loss with an opening-game exit in the SEC Tournament last week, falling to Alabama 76-64. The losing streak is the program’s longest in more than 50 years.
The Lady Vols (16-13) have never missed the NCAA Tournament. Although most still project them to make the field for the 43rd straight season despite the lackluster state of affairs, they haven’t inspired much confidence they can make any type of run.
“I think we have played the hardest schedule in the country and the majority of that came in February,” UT head coach Kim Caldwell said after the loss to Alabama. “But we have significant wins. We hope to get in and try to continue to be a different team.”
Caldwell’s debut on Rocky Top last season was relatively successful and gave hope the program was on an upward trajectory of becoming a title contender again. But the optimism has been dashed during a season in which the program seems to have culture issues and suffers from an apparent lack of cohesiveness and leadership.
Caldwell and her staff didn’t shy away from generating attention when they first arrived through an up-tempo style of play and flashy recruiting tactics that involved placing Lamborghinis on the court at Food City Center. But the pieces they’ve added to the program haven’t fit together and the system is no longer surprising opponents.
After suffering a 43-point loss to South Carolina, Caldwell raised eyebrows in her postgame news conference by saying, “A lot of quit in us tonight, and that’s been something consistent with our team, is we’re not comfortable when things don’t go our way. And I have a team that just quit on you, and you can’t do that in big games. You can’t do that anywhere, anytime in the SEC, but you certainly can’t do that at a program like this.”
Questioning the system
Two weeks later, ESPN analyst and former Lady Vol Andraya Carter questioned Caldwell calling out her team and delivered a scathing rebuke on the current state of the program during a segment on College GameDay.
“This Tennessee team, it doesn’t look like they believe in the system. I’m interested to see what’s going to budge. Is the team going to budge, or is the system going to budge?” Carter said. “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.”
The Lady Vols made headlines for the wrong reasons again last week when senior Kaiya Wynn revealed she was leaving the program before the SEC Tournament after she didn’t play on Senior Night against Vanderbilt in her final home game.
“To be asked to check into the game with 15 seconds left while losing was not how I wanted to spend my final moments in my arena after five years,” Wynn posted on social media. “Although that was not the sole reason (for leaving), it was the breaking point for me.”
UT athletic director Danny White issued a vote of confidence for Caldwell during a radio interview on SportsTalk on WNML before UT played Alabama in the SEC Tournament.
“I think she is doing a great job,” White says. “I am as confident in her as I was the day I hired her, more confident. Just getting a chance to work closely with her and see how talented she is as a basketball mind, as a leader.”
Dancing still in doubt
The SEC Tournament performance didn’t alleviate any concerns from outside. During the Alabama game, leading scorer Talaysia Cooper was replaced with 6:37 left in the third quarter and did not return. She left with an assistant.
“It was a coach’s decision and we just wanted to give her some air,” Caldwell said. “Emotions can get running and we wanted to get her outside with a staff member so she could breathe.”
Instead of feeling absolutely secure they will keep the NCAA Tournament streak alive, the Lady Vols have allowed doubt to creep into the picture because of their losses down the stretch run. Caldwell is hoping a short break can help the team try to get a damaged train back on track.
“We definitely need some time,” Caldwell says. “Our February back half has been absolutely brutal, and we really need to regroup and get back to who we want to be and move forward from there.”