- The Lady Vols hired a Kim Caldwell who isn’t even the most well-known Kim Caldwell. Could it work? Sure. But it’s a risk. A big risk.
- Say this for Kim Caldwell: She wins big at places where that doesn’t come easily.
- Danny White hiring an outside-the-box candidate fits Tennessee AD’s hiring strategy.
Kentucky women’s basketball hired a more proven coach than the Lady Vols.
Whatever else I might think about Tennessee’s hire of Kim Caldwell of Marshall, this is indisputable: Kentucky, a program that’s never reached a Final Four, hired a coach, Kenny Brooks, who reached the Final Four a year ago.
Tennessee, a blueblood, hired a coach with one year of Division I experience.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White boasts an impressive hiring record. He’s known to anoint outside-the-box contenders. Still, this is his most adventurous hire to yet.
If you Google Kim Caldwell, a ton of pictures of the former American Idol competitor will appear. Yes, it is correct. Not even the most well-known Kim Caldwell was hired by the Lady Vols.
Caldwell’s hiring is similar to White elevating Nate Oats to head coach of Buffalo’s men’s basketball team. Oats was an unexperienced head coach at a college. He achieved enormous success. At Alabama, he’s currently one of the hottest coaches in the nation.
In addition, White hired Division III coach Lance Leipold to oversee Buffalo football. Like Oats, Leipold is now well-known.
The Lady Vols aren’t Buffalo, though. White gambled with a program that, I thought, deserved a safe bet.
Hiring Kim Caldwell fits Danny White’s track record
White acted boldly in firing Kellie Harper rather than delaying that move for a year.
Harper established a defined floor and ceiling, and although it wasn’t that bad, it wasn’t the level to which the program aspires. Harper’s program had no momentum. Recruiting had bottomed out, and I don’t buy the excuse that trickled out near the end of Harper’s tenure that NIL was to blame. Maybe the Lady Vols can’t match the NIL riches Kim Mulkey inspires at LSU, but they’re not paupers. This remains a good job with enviable resources. Talented recruits should want to play for Tennessee.
White smartly opened this job to candidates who didn’t hail from the Lady Vols tree, but I never thought he’d turn in Marshall’s direction.
That’s White for you. Shortly after UT hired White in 2021, he pointedly said he’s hired coaches throughout his career who weren’t on media lists of possible candidates. Well, mission accomplished there.
A lot rides on this. The Lady Vols have been spinning their tires for years. If Caldwell rejuvenates the program, White will be cast as the AD who acted fearlessly to restore the brand. If Caldwell flops, White becomes the AD who foolishly trusted this task to a young coach from Marshall after firing an affable Pat Summitt disciple.
Tennessee interviewed multiple candidates for the job, a source with knowledge of the search confirmed.
I’d rather gamble on Caldwell’s upside than stick with Harper, who had peaked. Better yet, though, would’ve been hiring a coach like Kentucky’s Brooks, who’s proven himself on the sport’s big stage.
Kim Caldwell on the rise, but I’d be more comfortable with someone more proven for Lady Vols
Say this for Caldwell: She won big at places where winning doesn’t come easily. She took Marshall to the NCAA Tournament for just the second time ever. That came after she won a Division II national championship at Glenville State. Never heard of Glenville State? I’m not surprised. It’s not exactly the UConn of D-II women’s basketball.
I don’t doubt Caldwell’s X’s and O’s. Her up-tempo, high-scoring style should galvanize fans. Marshall led all midmajors in scoring average this season.
But, Caldwell has no experience recruiting the types of athletes she’ll need to succeed at Tennessee. She accepted a job where Final Fours are the expectation, even though Tennessee hasn’t advanced that far since 2008.
I thought the Lady Vols’ brand wielded enough appeal to attract accomplished Power Five coaches. Either I was incorrect, or White favored a coach without a clear floor and ceiling over an experienced coach with a proven track record.
She will face some of the greatest coaches in the country in the SEC. It’s an enormous task for anyone to face Mulkey, Dawn Staley, and Vic Schaefer, much less someone who graduated from college in 2011.
In men’s basketball, there are innumerable instances of power-conference schools succeeding after appointing a youthful midmajor coach. Billy Donovan’s hiring by Florida turned into a case study. At Marshall, where Donovan had only two years of experience, Florida made the best SEC men’s basketball recruiting class in the previous thirty years.
On the other hand, an elderly guard rules women’s basketball. At the Women’s Final Four, the coaches’ average age was
Tennessee’s hiring indicates to me that either the Vols wanted to hire cheaply, which would fit UT’s hiring history, or White trusts his gut more than anything else. Either way, the candidate pool wasn’t as robust as I had anticipated.
Would it be possible for White to interview guys or did she restrict the search to women? Someone like Oregon State’s Scott Rueck or Louisville’s Jeff Walz—who had previously shown interest in Tennessee—would have inspired greater confidence in me. And I would feel more at ease in Kentucky’s shoes, alongside Brooks.
Kentucky made the wise hiring decision. I think that will be beneficial. The Lady Vols’ acquisition isn’t safe, but White has never been known for that.
