Tennessee is about to unveil a completely new Lady Vols team, and the biggest thing about this group might not be the roster turnover - it’s the buy-in.
The Lady Vols hit the floor at Food City Center on Tuesday night for a 6:30 p.m. exhibition against Florida A&M and Lady Vols great Bridgette Gordon, and they’ll do it without a single player who wore orange last season. Fifteen newcomers now make up Kim Caldwell’s roster, giving fans their first real look at what months of work have produced.
For Caldwell and her staff, the outside skepticism is part of the deal. Assistant coach Bill Ferrara said that’s a space this team is comfortable living in.
“I was the first one to say yes to Kim while all the fire was going on outside,” Ferrara said. “We all have a chip on our shoulder.
And so that’s right where we want to be. We want people to sleep on us.”
That edge is baked into the way this roster was built. Every player chose Tennessee knowing the questions would come with the territory, and that seems to have helped shape the room. Rylie Theuerkauf said the group clicked quickly because Caldwell targeted players with the right mentality.
“We all came here with a chip on our shoulder,” Theuerkauf said. “Kim did a really good job recruiting like-minded people, and we just all got along the first week.”
That kind of chemistry can matter long before the scoreboard gets weird, but it becomes even more important when a game starts to wobble. Ferrara pointed to the team’s leadership structure as one of the early strengths, noting that different personalities have already found their lanes. He singled out Fats Janneh for helping keep things loose, while also pointing to Zhen Craft as a steadying presence.
“I think the one that really has surprised a lot of people is how good Zhen Craft is as a leader,” Ferrara said. “She’s the one that’s constantly pulling everybody together in huddles. She has a sense and a feel for the moment in practice, when things aren’t going the way it should go, where she can pull them together.”
Effort has been another constant theme around this team, and the staff has noticed it in the smallest details. Ferrara said the way the players attack loose balls in practice and respond to one another has stood out.
“Every time they dive on a loose ball in practice and celebrate each other, that gives me goosebumps because I know we got it right when we do stuff like that,” Ferrara said.
The on-court identity is already taking shape, too. Tennessee’s full-court press is the headline act, and it has shown up in the scoring. The Lady Vols put up 109 points in their Oct. 17 open practice scrimmage, and a team spokesperson said they were averaging 102 through three scrimmages at that point.
For Theuerkauf, who played press defense in high school and AAU but not in college, the adjustment has been as much about the body as the scheme. She said the system has sharpened her conditioning and her defense.
“Definitely my conditioning. Definitely my defense,” Theuerkauf said. “Just playing in the fast-paced game, just pressing the whole game and being able to do that has really been improving for me.”
K.K. Smikle is also expected to give Tennessee scoring punch, and she flashed it with 30 points in Saturday’s scrimmage. Smikle did not play last season after seven games because of injury, and she said the demands of this style are real on both ends of the floor.
“I think the amount of energy it requires,” Smikle said. “Playing offense and having to pick up matchup full-court, pressing traps. It definitely takes more conditioning.”
Caldwell has been clear that the team is still sharpening parts of its game, especially beyond the press. She said the press is ahead of the half-court defense right now, and she wants the group to defend as one unit once opponents break the pressure.
“I like where we’re at in our press,” Caldwell said at media day. “I like where our offense is at. Our half-court defense, making sure that we play team defense, because our one-on-one defense is not going to get it done.”
There will be mistakes Tuesday night. The free throws and the easy finishes still need work, and a busted coverage or two would be no surprise in October. But there’s also a clear baseline with this team: effort won’t be the issue, and neither will willingness to be coached.
“They love being a Lady Vol,” Caldwell said. “They are very much like-minded with me of I appreciate being here every single day.
I never thought I could be here, and I think that our team emulates that a little bit. I hope that the fan base gets to know them from your guys’ questions today and gets to see them next week [Tuesday night] play as hard as you’ve seen any of my teams play.”
Talent will matter, but so will that shared edge and willingness to lean into the grind. In a conference like the SEC, that combination can carry a team through the nights when everything gets hard.
Tuesday’s exhibition streams on SEC Network+ with Zack Nelson on play-by-play and Lady Vol For Life Niya Butts on analysis.
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