2026 Lady Vols Recruiting

[Volfan2012]

I agree with most of this. Which is why I think it’s a little unfair to conclude for any recruit it’s only about the bag.

I could be wrong, but I’ve always assumed at a certain level recruit, the money is going to be pretty similar wherever they go, and future prospects for earning are really good. So they’re free to look at other aspects of the program.

Also agree that we have no idea the family circumstances of many and what a deep obligation it is for them to actually chase a bag. For some, it’s the only chance their family will ever have.

OTOH, the last paragraph about when money becomes the why is once again the territory you’ve objected to. Because unless the recruit comes out and says that, you can’t actually know it.

Like the everyday population some it is about the money, some about the location or the coach, others how they fit and the job they will be doing. Every player is different. I am certain there is a nice percentage that are attracted by the most money.

 

[brittannica]

Like the everyday population some it is about the money, some about the location or the coach, others how they fit and the job they will be doing. Every player is different. I am certain there is a nice percentage that are attracted by the most money.

I really think some sports management PhD student needs to do a dissertation on this comparing men and women and comparing across sports where the earning potential vastly differs.

 

[LVFL78]

the post was ?

Knoxlikeus Is a parent of a current freshman

 

[LVFL78]

Coach Caldwell has added the same number of HS McDonald’s All-Americans in 21 months at Tennessee as the Texas HC has in the same timeframe and she just got here you might want to sit this one out with the goofy jokes .
The last time Texas WBB won a national championship was decades ago (1986) on top of that… yikes!

Texas is better than the Lady Vols and he keeps recruiting better pieces to defeat LSU South Carolina and LSU and TN… 2026 recruiting classs is Elite

 

[volsagain]

Like the everyday population some it is about the money, some about the location or the coach, others how they fit and the job they will be doing. Every player is different. I am certain there is a nice percentage that are attracted by the most money.

For sure what do you think about all the athletes prior to NIL that's got to be gut wrenching. They mostly had to depend on parents for spending money. Just 50 grand a year would be huge and many are getting 100s of thousands and even millions. If you have the talent you mostly only need playing time to be discovered. Coaching and power conferences will make you be seen . Very few are going to the W so most want what money they can get a couple thousand want keep them from going to an area or coach they like best.

 

[1reVOLver]

Knoxlikeus Is a parent of a current freshman

If that's true, to which young lady do we direct sympathy notes?

 

[RetroVol]

OTOH, the last paragraph about when money becomes the why is once again the territory you’ve objected to. Because unless the recruit comes out and says that, you can’t actually know it.

Nope. Not talking about any particular player. I'm talking about a well-known, broadly applied and tested body of work on motivation, Self Determination Theory. Extrinsic motivation pushes out intrinsic. There are nuances, ways to combat that, but one good way to get a kid to quit liking a sport is to offer rewards for every accomplishment. Soon, they only care about the rewards, not the game. Same for grades, music, reading, whatever.

 

[RetroVol]

What is the observed behavior that allows one to conclude the sole motivation of a recruit is money?

Yeah. Sorry. You are absolutely right. Absent a player saying, "I'm going to the school that offers the most money, period," I don't know what could justify that. I also think that it's a valid point that, at a given level of "perceived market value," the offers are going to be pretty similar and players will be back to choosing based on preferred coach and, hopefully, school.

 

[vols90]

Texas is better than the Lady Vols and he keeps recruiting better pieces to defeat LSU South Carolina and LSU and TN… 2026 recruiting classs is Elite

We recruited the same players he did, but Vic has TX oil donor money to offer that we don’t ‍

 

[KnoxLikeUs]

You can tell these people in their feelings about the success Coach Caldwell has had recruiting and how it was solidified yesterday with the no.2 player in the 2026 class being named the 4th McDonalds All-American in 21 months.
Texas signed 1 HS player in 2025 the fake money hype must came up short.
Tennessee and Coach Caldwell have proved that in the SEC over 21 months they have recruited the best. Now if you want to play silly enough to say any player Texas has signed is better than Oliviyah Edwards, Mia Pauldo, Jaida Civil, Deniya Prawl which includes three players already highly skilled enough to earn starter experience in the SEC plus 3 additional Top 50 prospects be my guest.
I’m sitting back laughing and so is a lot of people watching you all fret about listening to the great talent Tennessee has in their HS recruiting game by game. Nobody is doing that when you watch Texas play.
So again, keep the laughs coming for me
. From now on I’ll just like every posts because if you lil few like it I love it lol.

 

[Volfan2012]

Mia Pauldo 9
Mya Pauldo 57
Jaida Civil 17
Deniya Prawl 20
Jalen Hurst 45
Oliviyah Edwards 2
Gabby Minus 62


Texas

Crump 5
Crittendon 8
Bjorn 10
Spaight 20
Holguin 57
Etute no ESPN ranking but definitely an excellent player.
Thompson no ESPn ranking in 2025 class top 100

Looks like in future years the portal will decide it as both Texas, Tennessee, LSU, and SC have solid freshmen classes in 2025 and 2026. Certainly the difference this season at least thus far has been the seniors and juniors. Our juniors and seniors have not quite reached the expectations expected while Texas juniors and seniors are leading that team.

We were 2 and 13
Texas was 1 and 31
South Carolina 6 and 13
LSU 1 and 30

Looks like the portal is going to be the big player for all four teams. The high school recruiting looks fairly even.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

Mia Pauldo 9
Mya Pauldo 57
Jaida Civil 17
Deniya Prawl 20
Jalen Hurst 45
Oliviyah Edwards 2
Gabby Minus 62


Texas

Crump 5
Crittendon 8
Bjorn 10
Spaight 20
Holguin 57
Etute no ESPN ranking but definitely an excellent player.
Thompson no ESPn ranking in 2025 class top 100

Looks like in future years the portal will decide it as both Texas, Tennessee, LSU, and SC have solid freshmen classes in 2025 and 2026. Certainly the difference this season at least thus far has been the seniors and juniors. Our juniors and seniors have not quite reached the expectations expected while Texas juniors and seniors are leading that team.

We were 2 and 13
Texas was 1 and 31
South Carolina 6 and 13
LSU 1 and 30

Looks like the portal is going to be the big player for all four teams. The high school recruiting looks fairly even.

Texas is at the top, we aren’t even close. We’ll need All-American type players in the portal, in order to be a Championship contender, adding the shooters as well. I’m not a fan of a high school ranking, I look at their game and what they actually do in college.

 

[KnoxLikeUs]

You’re wasting your time posting anything substantial to that bunch of a few and their 1 - 2 likes crew.
All these posters are doing is talking nonsense. You know it. I know it.
Tennessee HS recruiting in 21 months is hands down outstanding and it is not fairly even with Texas. It is simply better. Tennessee has three freshmen who were McDonald’s AAs that have gained starter experience and contributed in the most unorthodox basketball system in P4 conference WBB. They have 5 freshmen all in the Top 50 in 2025 playing in games and gaining experience. Don’t let these people trick you into believing you can reason with their foolishness.
Oliviyah Edwards 1 on 1 would single handily dominant any player in Texas 2026 WBB recruiting class. The only reason Gabby Minus dropped from a Top 30 recruit was because of an injury. Which is ridiculous because if she was good enough to be in the Top 30 before the injury then she is still that same player.
It’s not debatable. Again, you laid out the facts and anyone saying otherwise is just talking nonsense.

Mia Pauldo 9
Mya Pauldo 57
Jaida Civil 17
Deniya Prawl 20
Jalen Hurst 45
Oliviyah Edwards 2
Gabby Minus 62


Texas

Crump 5
Crittendon 8
Bjorn 10
Spaight 20
Holguin 57
Etute no ESPN ranking but definitely an excellent player.
Thompson no ESPn ranking in 2025 class top 100

Looks like in future years the portal will decide it as both Texas, Tennessee, LSU, and SC have solid freshmen classes in 2025 and 2026. Certainly the difference this season at least thus far has been the seniors and juniors. Our juniors and seniors have not quite reached the expectations expected while Texas juniors and seniors are leading that team.

We were 2 and 13
Texas was 1 and 31
South Carolina 6 and 13
LSU 1 and 30

Looks like the portal is going to be the big player for all four teams. The high school recruiting looks fairly even.

 

[Volfan2012]

Texas is at the top, we aren’t even close. We’ll need All-American type players in the portal, in order to be a Championship contender, adding the shooters as well. I’m not a fan of a high school ranking, I look at their game and what they actually do in college.

A strange reaction saying they are at the top since none of their freshmen have done anything yet. They are winning this year because of portal players and upperclassmen. We'll have to see how those freshmen turn out cause the best thing about freshmen is that the next year they become sophomores. True our freshmen are only averaging as a group 27 ppg but that could easily be doubled next season. That is on about 75 minutes a game total minutes played per game by the five. I checked out the LSU five and they are averaging 36 as a group. They play about 82 minutes per game on total. So that was the two best groups according to recruiting services.



So my question is if you don't believe in recruiting services ranking how do you know that Texas is way at the top? Hard for me to get that when their upcoming freshmen haven't played a minute of college basketball. What have they done in college? I can agree they are at the top because of their previous recruited classes and portal players this season. That meaning their juniors and seniors of which were still working to get there. The ones we got other than maybe two are not doing anything much.

 

[KnoxLikeUs]

Again a waste of time.
Tennessee freshmen class is the best in WBB. No team plays a system that forces players to basically attempt to function in 2 min increments of playing time for 4 quarters.
This freshmen class production can’t only be measured by some points per game average.
That is irrelevant. They have high level intangibles. They give max effort to rebound, defend, score, and play as a team. They are coachable. And they are leaders. There is nothing more a head coach can ask of freshmen on this level.
As young players, they are already showing the ability to play through adversity and are going to be highly successful as collegiate athletes.
Same as for Gabby Minus and Oliviyah Edwards. Big Oh can play college basketball right now as a senior in HS.

 

[Volfan2012]

Again a waste of time.
Tennessee freshmen class is the best in WBB. No team plays a system that forces players to basically attempt to function in 2 min increments of playing time for 4 quarters.
This freshmen class production can’t only be measured by some points per game average.
That is irrelevant. They have high level intangibles. They give max effort to rebound, defend, score, and play as a team. They are coachable. And they are leaders. There is nothing more a head coach can ask of freshmen on this level.
As young players, they are already showing the ability to play through adversity and are going to be highly successful as collegiate athletes.
Same as for Gabby Minus and Oliviyah Edwards. Big Oh can play college basketball right now as senior in HS.

Well I got a little time to kill and not running down the group think they have done a fine job this season as a group. They have really been effective in the last few games I definitely think they are going to be excellent players for us if they stay here.

 

[KnoxLikeUs]

I agree with you.. I’m referring to the group of posters going overboard with nonsense as if it will diminish the value of this great freshmen class.
No players are being asked to do what Tennessee players are demanded to in this system and they’ve each committed to trying to reach that threshold.
As for this if they stay here and all that portal stuff, people speculate on these things for no apparent reason whatsoever.
There is not a single valid reason on why either of the Tennessee freshmen should transfer. None are showing any signs of not wanting to be here. Anytime this stuff comes up it because of the red meat tidbits people throw out from these back channel recruitment sites like SkimMilkey which is a terrible source.

Well I got a little time to kill and not running down the group think they have done a fine job this season as a group. They have really been effective in the last few games I definitely think they are going to be excellent players for us if they stay here.

 

[LVFL78]

Mia Pauldo 9
Mya Pauldo 57
Jaida Civil 17
Deniya Prawl 20
Jalen Hurst 45
Oliviyah Edwards 2
Gabby Minus 62


Texas

Crump 5
Crittendon 8
Bjorn 10
Spaight 20
Holguin 57
Etute no ESPN ranking but definitely an excellent player.
Thompson no ESPn ranking in 2025 class top 100

Looks like in future years the portal will decide it as both Texas, Tennessee, LSU, and SC have solid freshmen classes in 2025 and 2026. Certainly the difference this season at least thus far has been the seniors and juniors. Our juniors and seniors have not quite reached the expectations expected while Texas juniors and seniors are leading that team.

We were 2 and 13
Texas was 1 and 31
South Carolina 6 and 13
LSU 1 and 30

Looks like the portal is going to be the big player for all four teams. The high school recruiting looks fairly even.

ESPN Rankings even show Texas as the better players... Crump is better than all of the players that TN Freshman class.. Bjorn is better than the freshman class.. No. 3 scorer in EYBL. Spaight better PG then Mia.. Holguin better than Hurst and you cant even spell her name correctly... Holguin is one of the best 3pt shooters in the country. ETUTE is going to dominant in the paint.

TEXAS has pieces that fit together... TN dont have any shooters or skill players.. They can barely make FT's

 

[LVFL78]

You’re wasting your time posting anything substantial to that bunch of a few and their 1 - 2 likes crew.
All these posters are doing is talking nonsense. You know it. I know it.
Tennessee HS recruiting in 21 months is hands down outstanding and it is not fairly even with Texas. It is simply better. Tennessee has three freshmen who were McDonald’s AAs that have gained starter experience and contributed in the most unorthodox basketball system in P4 conference WBB. They have 5 freshmen all in the Top 50 in 2025 playing in games and gaining experience. Don’t let these people trick you into believing you can reason with their foolishness.
Oliviyah Edwards 1 on 1 would single handily dominant any player in Texas 2026 WBB recruiting class. The only reason Gabby Minus dropped from a Top 30 recruit was because of an injury. Which is ridiculous because if she was good enough to be in the Top 30 before the injury then she is still that same player.
It’s not debatable. Again, you laid out the facts and anyone saying otherwise is just talking nonsense.

Edwards cant even dominate AAU games... and havent played any FIBA ball. She doesnt even play in the top circuit.

 

[LVFL78]

Gabby Minus--- from ESPN writers/scouts

 

[OrangeEverywhereAllAtOnce]

ESPN Rankings even show Texas as the better players... Crump is better than all of the players that TN Freshman class.. Bjorn is better than the freshman class.. No. 3 scorer in EYBL. Spaight better PG then Mia.. Holguin better than Hurst and you cant even spell her name correctly... Holguin is one of the best 3pt shooters in the country. ETUTE is going to dominant in the paint.

TEXAS has pieces that fit together... TN dont have any shooters or skill players.. They can barely make FT's

So.....

 

[Volfan2012]

ESPN Rankings even show Texas as the better players... Crump is better than all of the players that TN Freshman class.. Bjorn is better than the freshman class.. No. 3 scorer in EYBL. Spaight better PG then Mia.. Holguin better than Hurst and you cant even spell her name correctly... Holguin is one of the best 3pt shooters in the country. ETUTE is going to dominant in the paint.

TEXAS has pieces that fit together... TN dont have any shooters or skill players.. They can barely make FT's

Just an opinion as none of them have played except Crump and she only started playing recently. Edwards is ranked higher than any of them. Pauldo is ranked higher than all but Crump and Crittendon. When you average it all out not a lot of difference in the rankings unless you have the desire to make it that way which seems to be your agenda.

 

[LVFL78]

K. Smith that TN should go all in on...

 

[KnoxLikeUs]

Gabby Minus & Hebron Academy 19-1 will face Hart County 14-7 today!
I’ve been impressed with how this kid has rehabbed and returned from a major injury to still help lead this talented team as a senior.
She could’ve just not played her senior season but instead is showing great leadership & character to finish out her HS career.
GBO.

 

[DarkPhoenix]

A strange reaction saying they are at the top since none of their freshmen have done anything yet. They are winning this year because of portal players and upperclassmen. We'll have to see how those freshmen turn out cause the best thing about freshmen is that the next year they become sophomores. True our freshmen are only averaging as a group 27 ppg but that could easily be doubled next season. That is on about 75 minutes a game total minutes played per game by the five. I checked out the LSU five and they are averaging 36 as a group. They play about 82 minutes per game on total. So that was the two best groups according to recruiting services.



So my question is if you don't believe in recruiting services ranking how do you know that Texas is way at the top? Hard for me to get that when their upcoming freshmen haven't played a minute of college basketball. What have they done in college? I can agree they are at the top because of their previous recruited classes and portal players this season. That meaning their juniors and seniors of which were still working to get there. The ones we got other than maybe two are not doing anything much.

I trust them because of the film I’ve watched, it has nothing to do with rankings, it’s only my opinion, we are still far away, Texas is close as of now, so they don’t need as much help as we do. I just don’t see how we build a Championship roster in the offseason, but a miracle can happen.