KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Tennessee women's basketball officially introduced new head coach Kim Caldwell on Tuesday afternoon. Caldwell is just the fourth head coach in the history of the Lady Vols as an NCAA program.
In Caldwell's introductory press conference, she remarked on the first head coach, Pat Summitt, and her impact on women's basketball and the Tennessee program.
"I will never be Pat Summitt. Nobody can," Caldwell said. "But I will strive every day to be somebody she would be proud of."
Caldwell spent just one season as a Division I head coach at Marshall before she was hired to lead the Lady Vols, but she led the Thundering Herd to a Sun Belt regular season and conference tournament title and was also named the Division I Rookie Coach of the Year. Before her time at Marshall, she was the head coach at Division II Glenville State from 2016 to 2023, where she led the program to the 2022 Division II National Championship, back-to-back Final Four appearances and six straight regular season conference titles.
Caldwell also played at Glenville State, making her the first non-Tennessee alum to be the head coach of the Lady Vols since Pat Summitt.
"There is not a single person that has gone through this program that I could even come close to beating one-on-one," Caldwell said.
She also said even Tennessee alumni who were not Lady Vols reached out to her to congratulate her on the job.
"All of you guys are great, but did you hear Peyton Manning texted me?" Caldwell said.
Caldwell's Marshall team was top-five in the country in numerous stats, such as turnovers forced and three-pointers made per game. She said she wants to bring that same statistical success to Tennessee.
"We are going to play an exciting brand of basketball," Caldwell said. "We want to play fast, we want to play up-tempo, we want to be the hardest-playing team in the country."
She also acknowledged the winning history of the Lady Vols and the expectations that come with it, but Caldwell said that was part of the appeal.
"I was never interested in a job that did not have high expectations," Caldwell said. "That is something that makes this program incredibly special, and I'm going to work very hard to make sure that we keep it there."