Kim Caldwell (Rookie Coach of the Year-WBCA) is named Head Coach of Iconic Lady Vols WBB

#4,102
#4,102
FWIW: A lot of those football coaches who "turned down" DW during that search were only interviewed to get their insights on where they saw the game going, who the young coaching talents were, who was ethical and who was not--whether in their personal reputation or in recruiting, and for whom would coming to Tennessee be too big a leap for their degree of preparation.

This is common practice, and hopefully no one would expect DW to not educate himself on the current and future state of women's basketball, and the best (in a dozen different ways) coaches out there, before extending an actual offer to his first choice.

Listen to how Barnes talks about other coaches. Theirs is a fraternity based on pouring their lives into young people, where they support each other and want the best of their fellow coaches to find every success. The last thing they want is for the coaching ranks to become filled with unethical, immature coaches who gauge success purely in points or dollars.

So a decent AD will talk to the best coaches to hear their thoughts---and suddenly, there's a LOT to think about in women's sports!

We need to appreciate that the trans-women issue is not political, it's financial. Many banks, networks, and hospitals are committed to DEI (and often because their financing is being tied to DEI strings). Think about the Tennessee Lady Vols program if we land a coach who disagrees with Dawn Staley, and states so from the start. She might be popular with 99% of LadyVol nation... but what if critical DEI-committed institutions say they can't support us because of it?

Imagine Lady Vol basketball without the current sponsorships and relationships with banks, medical facilities, and--here it comes--if ESPN decides their commitment to social justice won't allow them to promote (televise) programs and teams who are not supporting DEI, specifically in the area of trans-women's rights?

That's been the play for the past decade or two. Government can't violate Constitutional rights, but private corporations can uphold their own ethical standards. Government can't censor free speech, but if they can lean on Twitter or Google or Facebook or Tik-Tok to demonetize or limit views of someone's speech...

I'm not saying all this to preach one point of view over another, but simply to make the point that this hire is fraught with new dangers to the Tennessee athletic department and all of women's sports. The big boys are playing rough, and they're gonna play rougher.

Whoever accepts this position is going to be publicly involved in issues biologically unrelated to women's sports, but which potentially could lose millions of dollars for the entire university. Our next coach on Day One will likely have to field interview requests from CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, the NY Times, Washington Post, and others. And not one single question will be about improving offensive production out of set plays!

How big is the pool of talented, ambitious coaches who are willing to take on that job description with a high-profile program? I'll bet DW will be peppering them with those kinds of aggressive social/political questions to see how they handle themselves under fire. And free media coaching and legal services might be the most valuable perks in the contract!

Sorry this post went so long, but I think this hire is unique in ways that none of us who simply love the University of Tennessee and its sports teams would otherwise consider. For sure, though, DW is having to weigh all of this plus who knows what else beyond just actual basketball coaching.
 
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#4,103
#4,103
DarkPhoenix said:
That’s not an excuse, plenty of good players are still in the portal and others will enter as well. So if the new coach can’t attract the best players from the portal, what does that say about our future?
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same thing it said about Heup when he took over the football program…. not a d$mn thing
 
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#4,109
#4,109
This isn’t Danny’s first rodeo with b-ball coaches.

Bobby Hurley(Buffalo): 42-20 (25-11 conference), 1 Regular Season Conference Championship, 1 Conference Tournament Championship, 1 NCAAT app. Hired @ Arizona State

Nate Oats (Buffalo): 96-43 (52-20 conference), 2 Regular Season Conference Championships, 3 Conference Tournament Championships, 3 NCAAT app. Hired @ Alabama

Felisha Legette-Jack (Buffalo Women): 202-116 (111-68 conference), 3 Conference Tournament Championships, 4 NCAAT app. Hired @ Syracuse

Johnny Dawkins(UCF): 148-103 (72-72 conference) 1 NCAAT app.

Katie Abrahamson-Henderson (UCF Women): 131-49 (68-26 conference), 1 Conference Regular Season Championship, 1 Conference Tournament Championship, 3 NCAAT app. Hired @ Georgia
 
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#4,110
#4,110
pasadenavol said:
DW is really keeping this close to the hip. My best friend played for Tara Vanderveer back when she was at Ohio State and continues to speak to her staff almost weekly. She also knows Cori Close and a couple of former WNBA coaches and assistants. She reached out to her network and they've heard absolutely nothing.

Word is that since Cori"s family is from LA and her parents are aging, she wouldn't be interested. She also doubts LG would leave CA since she has been there so long. Didn't think UT would be a good fit, but didn't rule out the possibility. She said Hammon would be the best candidate, but wondered if she'd be willing to have to work the full year and deal with the headache of recruiting.

Thought I'd share what I was told, but doesn't seem to shed any real light on who it might be. In other words, I couldn't dig up anything from the WBB coaching fraternity.
Click to expand...

Interesting info, anyway--thank you.
 
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#4,111
#4,111
I trust Danny White. His track record speaks for itself.

Lots of people thought Nick Saban would fail when LSU hired him. Urban Meyer had only won in the Mountain West, that spread stuff couldn't cut it in the SEC where we play real defense. Josh Heupel's gimmick offense was OK for AAC, but this is the SEC.

You can coach, or you can't. You can lead, or you can't. You can recruit, or you can't. If it's an A lister, awesome. If it's not, I trust DW here. He fired a VFL when he could have easily kept her around another year. He had a plan, IMO. I trust the program is about to take a step forward until I see proof it isn't.
 
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#4,113
#4,113
WVU05UT09 said:
Wrong on both accounts.

1) Danny White is a fool if he fired KH and didnt have an upgrade 99% in the bag. Dont feed me the crap either that he couldnt contact anyone. Thats BS.

2) Most professionals have mentors. Hopefully she has one that tells her to not commit career suicide. I dont care if she has
10 D2 national titles. D2 is not D1 and does not prepare a coach for a job—especially in the SEC. And yes, great season at Marshall. Unfortunately the Sun Belt isnt even a great mid major conference.
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DW is the man when it comes to hiring coaches…. His MO is to hire coaches that fit what he pictures to be an ideal coach….!It might be a Div 2 coach that he envisions as the next great coach…. it might be an established great coach like Dawn(much harder to obtain) or a 2nd tier coach that he feels that he can put over the top.

It’s not a coincidence that the overall health of of our programs are at its peak on campus…. The man knows what he is doing. I 100% trust his decision making.
 
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#4,114
#4,114
DarkPhoenix said:
Ok so whose fault will it be if we don’t get any truly elite recruits in the 25 class?
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Well how many recruits were signed in 2022 and 2023 ? That is rhetorical ....zero ...none .....nil .Whose fault was that ? That is rhetorical ....Coach Harper and friends. The only players of quality came out of the portal ....Jackson and Spear .Jackson is gone so how does that leave the cupboard .....that is rhetorical ....in bad,bad shape.
 
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#4,115
#4,115
I think Kim Stephens will win a lot of games here. She's a winner, doesn't matter what division. She's taken a historically terrible team to it's best record ever. . . in 1 year.

UT is a top women's basketball school with an elite athletic department. The players will be here. Give Stephens competitive SEC talent and she will just keep on winning.

Would be a home run hire. . . like when Florida hired Urban Meyer.
 
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#4,117
#4,117
BruisedOrange said:
FWIW: A lot of those football coaches who "turned down" DW during that search were only interviewed to get their insights on where they saw the game going, who the young coaching talents were, who was ethical and who was not--whether in their personal reputation or in recruiting, and for whom would coming to Tennessee be too big a leap for their degree of preparation.

This is common practice, and hopefully no one would expect DW to not educate himself on the current and future state of women's basketball, and the best (in a dozen different ways) coaches out there, before extending an actual offer to his first choice.

Listen to how Barnes talks about other coaches. Theirs is a fraternity based on pouring their lives into young people, where they support each other and want the best of their fellow coaches to find every success. The last thing they want is for the coaching ranks to become filled with unethical, immature coaches who gauge success purely in points or dollars.

So a decent AD will talk to the best coaches to hear their thoughts---and suddenly, there's a LOT to think about in women's sports!

We need to appreciate that the trans-women issue is not political, it's financial. Many banks, networks, and hospitals are committed to DEI (and often because their financing is being tied to DEI strings). Think about the Tennessee Lady Vols program if we land a coach who disagrees with Dawn Staley, and states so from the start. She might be popular with 99% of LadyVol nation... but what if critical DEI-committed institutions say they can't support us because of it?

Imagine Lady Vol basketball without the current sponsorships and relationships with banks, medical facilities, and--here it comes--if ESPN decides their commitment to social justice won't allow them to promote (televise) programs and teams who are not supporting DEI?

That's been the play for the past decade or two. Government can't violate Constitutional rights, but private corporations can. Government can't censor free speech, but if they can lean on Twitter or Google or Facebook or Tik-Tok to demonetize or limit views of someone's speech...

I'm not saying all this to preach one point of view over another, but simply to make the point that this hire is fraught with new dangers to the Tennessee athletic department and all of women's sports. The big boys are playing rough, and they're gonna play rougher.

Whoever accepts this position is going to be publicly involved in issues biologically unrelated to women's sports, but which potentially could lose millions of dollars for the entire university. Our next coach on Day One will likely have to field interview requests from CNN, CBS, MSNBC, Fox News, NPR, the NY Times, Washington Post, and others. And not one single question will be about improving offensive production out of set plays!

How big is the pool of talented, ambitious coaches who are willing to take on that job description with a high-profile program? I'll bet DW will be peppering them with those kinds of aggressive social/political questions to see how they handle themselves under fire. And free media coaching and legal services might be the top perks in the contract!

Sorry this post went so long, but I think this hire is unique in ways that none of us who simply love the University of Tennessee and its sports teams would otherwise consider. For sure, thought, DW is having to weigh all of this and who knows what else beyond simply coaching.
Click to expand...
Gave you a like for the time you put in typing all that.
 
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#4,118
#4,118
alexvol said:
Just how will you or anyone else know if the person hired is an upgrade or not ......that is rhetorical .You don't .No matter who he hires no one will know if he/she is an upgrade and a success for at least a year or two. ...I will wait at least two years to start fretting about the hire my own self.....that is if not successful up to that point.
Click to expand...

Are you in middle school?

Heres a quick run down of upgrades on KH in P5 jobs

Cori Close
Lindsey Gottlieb
Teri Moren
Kevin McGuff
Niele Ivey
Jeff Walz
Brenda Friese
Kim Barnes-Arico
Bill Fennelly
Wes Moore
Katie Meier (retired)
Nelle Fortner (ffs Im digging deep here)
Jennie Barancyzk
Adia Barnes

Dont even play with Stephens. The list will be 40 deep…
 
#4,119
#4,119
BruisedOrange said:
FWIW: A lot of those football coaches who "turned down" DW during that search were only interviewed to get their insights on where they saw the game going, who the young coaching talents were, who was ethical and who was not--whether in their personal reputation or in recruiting, and for whom would coming to Tennessee be too big a leap for their degree of preparation.
Click to expand...
This is BS. You’re saying DW called a ton of football coaches to find out who were good/ ethical coaches and then ended up coming to the conclusion to hire the guy that he just had??

That makes no sense. I’m not saying he didn’t ask those types of questions, but he got turned down by multiple people and went with the guy he knew he could hire in the first place. Which has worked out and DW is playing with house money because as long as football is stable, he’s fine.
 
#4,122
#4,122
DarkPhoenix said:
I’m only worried about the LadyVols winning championships, I don’t care about being just good enough.
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Are you claiming that the best the football program has been since 2007 is not competing for championships. We were one win from being a playoff team in year two. This was after a 3 win season just two years… The Lady Vols will be in good hands.
 
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#4,123
#4,123
WVU05UT09 said:
Are you in middle school?

Heres a quick run down of upgrades on KH in P5 jobs

Cori Close
Lindsey Gottlieb
Teri Moren
Kevin McGuff
Niele Ivey
Jeff Walz
Brenda Friese
Kim Barnes-Arico
Bill Fennelly
Wes Moore
Katie Meier (retired)
Nelle Fortner (ffs Im digging deep here)
Jennie Barancyzk
Adia Barnes

Dont even play with Stephens. The list will be 40 deep…
Click to expand...
You have no idea if any of those would be an upgrade at Tennessee . And yes I attended the University twice garnering BSCE and MSCE and played a little basketball along the way from Biddy league to College .
 
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