Coach Jumper
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From the Lady Vol "Hoop Central" Website:
KNOXVILLE -- RV/RV Tennessee hits the court for its first game of the 2024-25 campaign and the initial home appearance of the Kim Caldwell era on Thursday night, facing Carson-Newman in an exhibition contest. The teams will meet at 6:30 p.m. ET in Thompson-Boling Arena at Food City Center.
The programs will compete for the third straight season and for the 19th occasion in an exhibition tilt. The Lady Vols are 18-0 in those match-ups after winning 105-72 in last season's tussle on Oct. 30. UT stands 14-2 all-time against the Lady Eagles in regular season games, with the Big Orange winning the past 12 such battles and C-N last registering a victory in the series in 1925.
KIM CALDWELL ERA BEGINS
- Kim Caldwell was announced as Tennessee's new head coach on April 7, 2024, becoming the fourth leader of the Lady Vols during the NCAA era.
- Caldwell will begin her ninth season as a head coach with an overall record of 217-31 (.875), including 149-13 (.920) in conference games.
- She has directed teams to eight NCAA Tournaments, one NCAA title (NCAA DII, 2022), two NCAA Final Fours (NCAA DII, 2022 & 2023), seven conference championships and five conference tournament crowns in eight years as a head coach.
- The Parkersburg, W. Va., native arrived in Knoxville after leading Marshall to a 26-7 record (17-1 in the Sun Belt Conference) in 2023-24, a sweep of SBC regular season and tournament titles and the school's first appearance in the NCAA Tournament since 1997.
- She was named 2024 Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year and Spalding Maggie Dixon WBCA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year for her impressive job with the Thundering Herd.
- Prior to that, she guided Glenville State (W. Va.) to a 191-24 (.888) mark in seven campaigns, earning the Pat Summitt Trophy as the NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year after guiding the Pioneers to a 35-1 record and the 2021-22 national championship.
- Caldwell brings a high-octane offense and pressure defense to Rocky Top, which her previous teams executed extremely well.
- Her first Marshall team last season ranked No. 4 nationally at 85.3 ppg., which incredibly is the lowest ranking and average her teams have ever had.
- Caldwell's units have never ranked worse than fifth nationally for three-pointers made per contest, rating No. 3 in 2023-24 at 10.6 per game.
- Marshall averaged 13.2 steals per game a year ago, ranking No. 3 in the NCAA. Her teams have never been lower than fourth in steals per contest.
- The Thundering Herd forced foes into 24.2 turnovers per game in 2023-24, ranking No. 2 in the country, and placed third in turnover margin (7.94).
- Caldwell squads also hit the offensive glass hard, ranking in the NCAA's top six seven times, including No. 5 a year ago at 16.4 o-boards per game.
- Tennessee welcomes back eight players from a year ago, including two starters, and features seven who will compete as Lady Vols for the first time.
- UT returns Jewel Spear (13.1 ppg., 69 3FGs) and Sara Puckett (9.9 ppg., 4.9 rpg., 38 3FGs) the only Lady Vols to start all 33 games a year ago.
- Tess Darby (5.2 ppg., 3.4 rpg., 44 3FGs), whose 170 career treys rank No. 5 in program history, has started 73 games and played in 113 while at UT.
- Jillian Hollingshead (4.6 ppg., 4.5 rpg.) was a key reserve a year ago, notching eight starts.
- Destinee Wells (6.8 ppg., 3.5 apg.) played in 10 games in 2023-24 after transferring from Belmont and is returning from a season-ending injury.
- Edie Darby (1.1 ppg., 0.8 rpg.) and Avery Strickland (0.9 ppg., 0.8 rpg.) return after playing in 13 and 20 games, respectively, and seem to fit Kim Caldwell's playing style.
- Kaiya Wynn, who played in all 33 games and put up 4.4 points and 2.6 rebounds per contest as a reserve, has been lost for the season due to an Achilles injury in her right leg. Kim Caldwell made that announcement on Oct. 22. Wynn has expressed a desire to return next season.
- Caldwell added five transfers via the portal, filling needs in the areas of scoring, rebounding, defense, athleticism, experience and depth.
- Samara Spencer (13.9 ppg., 3.5 apg., 40 3FGs) and Ruby Whitehorn (12.3 ppg., 5.6 rpg., 25 3FGs) were starters at Arkansas and Clemson, respectively.
- Alyssa Latham (8.6 ppg., 7.0 rpg., ACC All-Freshman) and Zee Spearman (6.3 ppg., 6.0 rpg.) started at Syracuse and Miami, respectively.
- Favor Ayodele (4.7 ppg., 6.2 rpg., grabbed 10 rebs. nine times) was a part-time starter at Pitt and former two-time JUCO All-American.
- Tennessee welcomes two lightning-quick redshirt guards who were top-35 players coming out of high school.
- Talaysia Cooper redshirted after playing a season at South Carolina. She was a McDonald's High School All-American and ranked No. 18 by espnW in 2022.
- Kaniya Boyd was rated No. 35 in the 2024 espnW class rankings and enrolled at UT in January 2024 after suffering an injury prior to her senior year of high school.
- Boyd was the MaxPreps Nevada High School Girls Basketball Player of the Year and Nevada High School Coaches' Class 5A Defensive Player of the Year as a junior in 2023.
- Tennessee features a roster with eight members who are seniors or fifth-year players and 12 total who are classified as juniors or above. Kaiya Wynn will miss the season due to injury, but she still will impact the team with her leadership on the sideline.
- Eleven of UT's 15 players have started games during their careers.
- UT's 2024-25 roster members combined for 199 starts during the 2023-24 campaign and a total of 567 during their careers.
- Of those 567 career starts, 357 come from returnees and 210 originate from newcomers (underlined below).
- Jewel Spear (121), Samara Spencer (97), Destinee Wells (94), Tess Darby (73), Ruby Whitehorn (62) and Sara Puckett (50) lead UT in career starts.
- Others with college starts include Alyssa Latham (26), Favor Ayodele (15), Avery Strickland (11), Zee Spearman (10) and Jillian Hollingshead (8).
- Tennessee has five returning players who started last season, including Jewel Spear (33), Sara Puckett (33), Tess Darby (8), Jillian Hollingshead (8) and Destinee Wells (4). They combined for 86 starts a year ago.
- Transfers Samara Spencer (33), Ruby Whitehorn (29), Alyssa Latham (26), Favor Ayodele (15) and Zee Spearman (10) had 113 combined starts in 2023-24.
- Kim Caldwell built her first staff at Tennessee by hiring five people with whom she's worked before, another who was in the orbit of her previous staff members, and two veteran coaches from SEC schools.
- Caldwell recruited Roman Tubner and Gabe Lazo, associate head coaches at Alabama and Mississippi State, to make the move to Knoxville and join her staff as assistants.
- Two more assistants, Jenna Burdette and Angel Rizor, followed Caldwell to Tennessee after each served stints alongside her at Glenville State and Marshall.
- The fifth assistant, Lexie Barrier came to UT after spending the past two seasons at JMU. She previously worked at Marshall as an assistant in 2021-22 alongside Jenna Burdette prior to Caldwell's arrival.
- Graduate assistants Mashayla Cecil and Maggie Stanley also came from Marshall, where Cecil was an assistant coach and Stanley was Caldwell's director of operations. Cecil also played for Caldwell at Glenville State from 2019-22.
- Nolan Harvath, UT's director of women's basketball sports performance, came from West Virginia University, but he previously served as Caldwell's director of strength and conditioning at Glenville State from 2018-20.
- Caldwell retained five staff members from the previous regime, including Dr. Catherine Greene, executive director of basketball operations/chief of staff; Heather Ervin, director of student-athlete success & external relations; Josh Theis, director of video and creative content; Casi Dailey, associate director of sports medicine; and Haley Hall, assistant director of operations.
A LOOK AT THE LADY EAGLES
- The Eagles lost 30 percent of their scoring from last season, which mainly came from the program's all-time leading scorer Braelyn Wykle, who graduated as the program's leader in three-pointers made.
- The top returnee is All-South Atlantic Conference forward Lindsey Taylor, who scored 14.7 points on average and led the rebounding effort with seven per night.
- Taylor was the fifth-most efficient scorer in the NCAA a year ago, hitting 60 percent of her shots.
- Three other starters return from a NCAA Tournament team, featuring 1,000-point scorer Campbell Penland, who averaged 10 points per game and is sixth all-time in three-pointers made at Mossy Creek with 163.
- Mike Mincey begins his 14th season as the head coach of the Carson-Newman Lady Eagles in 2024-25.
- He is 264-118 during his time at the school.
- During the 2023-24 season, Mincey became the winningest coach in program history, with a 91-66 win vs. UVA Wise, eight days after winning his 250th game.
- In 2023-24, C-N reached the NCAA Tournament for the seventh time under Mincey.
Carson-Newman is hoping for more of the same success that it had in 2023-24, as it readies for the upcoming season. This past year, the Lady Eagles made the DII NCAA Tournament for the 13th time in program history and the sixth time in the past seven seasons, earning a number two seed in the Southeast region their highest ranking since being the top seed in 2018. C-N had success in the postseason, winning its first two NCAA Tournament games to earn their third trip to the Sweet 16 and regional title game.
Mike Mincey's team was one of the best rebounding teams in the country last season, grabbing 43 boards per game, the 11th most in DII. The offense dished out 17 assists per game, the sixth-best nationally and scored 76.3 points, which was 12th highest.
The Eagles only lose 30% of their scoring from this past season. Back is All-SAC forward Lindsey Taylor, who scored 14.7 points on average and led the rebounding effort with seven per night. Taylor was the fifth-most efficient scorer in the country, making 60% of her shots. Three other starters return from a NCAA Tournament team, featuring 1,000-point scorer Campbell Penland who averaged 10 points per game and is sixth all-time in three-pointers made with 163.
Tennessee has won each exhibition game and scored triple digits in 14 of the 18 meetings. UT took this past season's meeting 105-72. Carson-Newman was extremely efficient from the field, making 48.3% of its shots in the game. The 72 points were the second-most scored in an exhibition game against the Lady Vols all-time. It's a series between the two schools that dates back all the way to 1920, when the Lady Eagles defeated the Lady Vols 14-13. UT has won 30 meetings in a row since C-N won last on Feb 9, 1925.
The Lady Volunteers begin a new era this season after the hiring of Kim Caldwell earlier this spring. The first-year head coach inherits a roster that features six experienced players that return from last season, including two 33-game starters Jewel Spear and Sara Puckett. Tennessee was also able to add five Power-4 level additions from the transfer portal as well as a pair of highly thought of redshirts.
Caldwell possesses a 217-31 (.875) career record between seven seasons at DII Glenville State and this past season at Marshall University. She guided those previous teams to eight NCAA Tournaments in as many years, including a pair of NCAA DII Final fours and a 2022 NCAA DII National Championship. This past season, she directed the Thundering Herd to its first NCAA Tournament berth since 1997 and won both the Sun Belt regular season and conference titles.
In what is now a 16-team Southeastern Conference, Tennessee was predicted to finish seventh. The Lady Vols are coming off a 20-13 campaign in 2023-24, going 10-6 in league action.
Tipoff is set for 6:30 p.m. Coverage on the Eagle Sports Network begins at 6:15 with the AEC Countdown to Tipoff on MIX 105.5 (WSEV-FM, Sevierville) and online at cneagles.com/live.
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