Kim Caldwell joined the Mike Keith Show on Tuesday to preview the 2026-27 Lady Vols, touching on a loaded non-conference schedule, a smaller and faster roster, point guards running film sessions and the personalities driving the locker room. Below is everything Caldwell said.
How curious are you to see this team?
“I get to see them every day. So I get to know the good parts of them. I get to know their personality and how funny they are and genuine they are and how much they love being at Tennessee, and they hang out together on and off the floor. And that has been so special. And there’s a lot of unknowns still too about who are we going to be when we face adversity? Who are we going to be when our shots aren’t falling? And we’ll figure that out in real time with the rest of the world.”
Did you build a tougher non-conference schedule intentionally to prepare for the SEC?
“I think there’s only one way to get SEC ready, and that’s to play the best opponents you can. We’re a small team. We need to learn some lessons early about rebounding. We’re new. We’re going to have to learn some lessons about taking care of the ball. And the only way to do that is play the best opponents you can. A lot of those were returns. For example, our MTSU, that was a four-year deal before I got here. So this is the last end of that. So you do do your scheduling years in advance, but I think it is important to play the strongest schedule you can.”
With a smaller roster, are you comfortable with multiple ball handlers rotating through the guard spots?
“We are faster, and I think that’s what I like about it. We are smaller, but we’re going to make up for that in speed. I think we’ll be a hard scout for people defensively because we’re going to play so many people on the perimeter and we’re going to be able to drive and kick from multiple positions. And almost every player on our roster can shoot it pretty well.”
How big a factor is Jada Eads?
“Huge. She has been out most of the summer. So we’re just now getting her. I think she’s gone for two weeks not being limited. And so she really pushes the pace for us. She’s tough. On both ends of the floor, she sets the pace because she gets up and she pressures better than anyone we have. And when she has the ball in her hands, she’s hard to keep up with.”
Is she the player who makes this team go?
“I think for us, it’s Jada [Eads] and Kennedy [Fauntleroy], both of our point guards. We’re going to live and die with them in a sense of they have to push pace for us. They have to be able to handle pressure. And we’ve been on them. They have to be able to get people in the right spots. And they have to do it under duress. And they’ve been cutting up film for our team. And they’ve been doing the actual film session for our entire team.”
How does that film process work?
“They’ll do it with a coach and they’ll watch practice and they’ll pick the clips that they want to emphasize and where people need to be. The first time they’ve done it, the majority they’re coaching themselves because they don’t want to coach their teammates yet, but it’s their job to command people. They have to know every play from every position. And that’s a really big part for us, making sure our point guards know what they’re doing and they have their team’s ear. And those film sessions help them do that.”
How has Gabby Minus progressed since arriving?
“I’m so proud of her. She has gotten better every single day. She plays so hard. Our fans are going to love her, and they’re going to love her because she stayed and because she knew what she wanted. She wanted to be a Lady Vol and she stayed with that. And because of how hard she plays, she’s on every offensive rebound. She defensive rebounds very well. She gives you everything she has. She makes some freshman mistakes, but you have to love her through them because she’s doing them as hard as she possibly can.”
How much of this team’s personality comes from Fats Janneh?
“She has a beautiful personality and it’s real. It’s authentic. Every day she walks in the gym, the gym gets a little bit louder, and it’s the majority her. But she’s giving everyone a hug every day. She will make you hug her. If you’re sweaty, she’s going to hug you. She’s going to hug her teammates. She’s going to make sure that the energy is where it needs to be no matter what room she walks into, and that’s such a special trait to have as a person.”
What does Janneh do well on the floor?
“I think she’s going to be one of the best rebounders in the SEC. She’s a very good 3-point shooter. We’re trying to get her confidence up in her driving ability, but she is a scorer, and we’re going to need her to be a scorer for us more than just a rebounder. She’s a very underrated defender. She can guard multiple positions. We’ve got to keep her out of foul trouble because she does hack a lot.”
Will this team’s style look more like your first Tennessee team?
“I think so. We’ll be just as fast. In all of our scrimmages right now, I think we’re averaging 102 points a game. We’ve had three so far. And so we are scoring the ball. Our defense needs a little work because we’re probably giving up 100 points a game. So the pace is where we want it. We just need to sit down and guard.”
Where is the team conditioning-wise?
“I never like where we’re at conditioning-wise. We’re close. We don’t really need to peak yet. We have two more weeks until we start. And so we’re continuing to ramp up practices while managing their load.”
How excited are you to see this team play?
“I love coaching them because they get excited about the things that excite me, which are effort plays. We take a charge, the gym is loud. We dive on a loose ball, the gym is loud. We hit shots, we’re happy with that. The things that really make us go are the effort plays. And I think you can win a lot of games with a team that is wired that way.”
