Tennessee AD Danny White 'proud' how Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell rebuilt roster

Tennessee AD Danny White 'proud' how Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell rebuilt roster

Tennessee athletics director Danny White is optimistic about the Lady Vols basketball program because of coach Kim Caldwell, despite the offseason upheaval.

In his first public comments since the season ended, White praised Caldwell for her ability to reconstruct both her coaching staff and the roster.

"I'm proud of Kim as a leader," White told The Sports Animal on April 15. "Coaching is a complex profession. Talented coaches tend to excel early in their career — this is all different coaches in all different sports — in their ability to connect with athletes, know the game, motivate, all of those things. But as you rise in the profession, and in this instance, take over bigger organizations, management and being a CEO is really important, too.

"I admire how Kim, coming off a disappointing Year Two, after a really exciting Year One, evaluated changes that needed to be made in our program and made them pretty decisively and aggressively. I think we're in a great place now."

Tennessee lost all eight players who had the potential to start to the transfer portal. Former assistant coach Gabe Lazo resigned and was later hired as coach of UCF, while UT fired assistant Roman Tubner.

UT also granted the release of five-star recruit Oliviyah Edwards.

All of this happened after the Lady Vols finished 16-14 for their worst season in program history. They went 2-11 in their last 13 games, including a 30-point loss to UConn and a 43-point loss to South Carolina.