Tennessee’s women’s basketball program is in tatters.
Long gone are the days of Pat Summit leading the Lady Volunteers to national championships and consistent contention. Current head coach Kim Caldwell now barely has a roster after her second season at the helm, with all eight players with remaining eligibility entering the transfer portal after the team’s first-round exit in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 10 seed.
And in perhaps the biggest blow, incoming forward Oliviyah Edwards, ranked No. 2 in the class of 2026 by ESPN, has decommitted from the program.
Tennessee was already losing seniors Janiah Barker, Zee Spearman, Nya Robertson and Jersey Wolfenbarger.
Freshman twins Mia and Mya Pauldo, Paterson, N.J. natives who played at Morris Catholic, announced last week they were entering the portal. Junior Alyssa Latham has already committed to Virginia Tech.
Junior Talaysia Cooper, who led the team in scoring at 16 points per game, also entered the portal.
The only player left for next season is incoming freshman Gabby Minus, the No. 62 ranked recruit by ESPN.
Caldwell, 37, ruffled some feathers after a blowout loss to South Carolina on Feb. 8 when she said her team “had a lot of quit in us.”
Tennessee hired Caldwell in 2024 after just one season as a Division I coach with Marshall, whom she led to Sun Belt regular-season and conference tournament titles and its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1997.
Last year’s Lady Vols went 24-10 and reached the Sweet 16 and entered this season with high expectations, but they lost their final eight games, including a 76-61 defeat to No. 7 NC State in the first round of March Madness.
Caldwell is making $1 million a year and has a $4 million buyout, per The Athletic.
She took over for former Tennessee national champ Kellie Harper, who was fired after five seasons as the team couldn’t break through past the Sweet 16.
Tennessee hasn’t reached the Elite Eight in a decade and hasn’t won an SEC regular-season title since 2015. Their last national championship was in 2008.
It’s going to take a lot of work to rebuild a once-proud program into contenders.
