The Tennessee Lady Vols are starting over in a big way, but the early signs point to a group that has already found its footing.
Every player on the roster is new compared with last season’s team. All 15 came in through the transfer portal or arrived as freshmen, a full reset that could easily leave a program scrambling to build chemistry. Instead, Tennessee sounds like a team that has already figured out how to lean on each other.
Freshman Gabby Minus saw the turnover unfold from the outside before she ever got to campus, watching Tennessee’s previous roster leave one by one. She stayed committed to the Lady Vols, and the welcome she received made the transition easier.
"As soon as I got here, the people who were here before me welcomed me in full-on. That was really cool. I was just happy to be there."
Minus is one of only two freshmen on the team, along with Irene Oboavwoduo, the Manchester, England native who is adjusting to life in Knoxville. The two have become a built-in freshman duo, and Minus said they spend time exploring campus together on scooters.
"One thing I'm (Minus) doing now is taking adventures around campus on my scooter with Irene, since we're the only two [Lady Vol basketball] freshmen on campus. We just explore and ride around. We see what's going on around campus."
That togetherness has shown up beyond the freshmen. Georgia transfer Rylie Theuerkauf, who began her career at Wake Forest, said the group has made a point of staying connected through the offseason grind.
"We just do everything we can together. We don't get bored of each other.
"We'll be in the gym for six hours a day (over the summer), and then we'll go get food [together]. Every Tuesday is Taco Tuesday.
We just do little things, always together."
For Naomi White, the move to Tennessee means a leap from Big Sky Freshman of the Year at Northern Arizona to the SEC, and she says Kim Caldwell has set a demanding tone from the start.
"Her (Caldwell) plan for this year is to be the hardest year that she's ever coached. She wants us to be better, do better. Not even just [in] basketball, but as people too."
Minus said that message has landed with the team.
"She really wants us to be tough. Life is going to get hard after basketball, and it's hard in general. She wants us to be tough, and you really learn that here on the court.”
Kaylene Smikle, a fifth-year senior who was recently named to the Cheryl Miller Award Small Forward of the Year Preseason Watchlist, said the group has met every test together.
"I think we've taken the challenge head- on. Every challenge that we've faced, even if it's hard, we've gone through it together. We all understand that we're going to be tired or we're going to be uncomfortable, but learning to be uncomfortable together makes us stronger.”
Theuerkauf summed up the way the Lady Vols are coming together in four words.
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