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

[Clad in Big Orange]

You say this as if White doesn’t have a track record of quality hires at TN and previous stops. If football and men’s basketball succeed (with Barnes and post RB) then the LV hire is irrelevant to how White is perceived by the vast majority of TN fans.

Seems to me like at least a good sized segment of diehard LV fans were willing to stick with the coach providing their current mediocrity so that tells me right there just how little pressure White has making this hire.

As for current interest in women’s basketbal, well, that can be summed up with one person: Caitlin Clark.

I'm almost certain Danny White doesn't share your views above, and I'm thankful for that. Football is and will always be king. This topic being 107 pages deep since Monday seems to indicate this is not an irrelevant matter.

 

[Stoerner Fumbles]

Apparently he just promoted Oats. He was already an assistant when the head coach left.

You don’t understand

 

[spojo13]

This idea of just hire Marshall coach (after 1 year there) or GCU Molly Miller and be done. Is just a lack of patience.

We just announced the move Monday, it's been 4 days. Having said that I do believe we need to act swiftly with portal open, and I believe he had feelers out before announcement of Kelly being fired.

No disrespect to those candidates above, but if we are to be aggressive as DW indicated in his statement, that means opening up the checkbook and going after proven top tier coaches. Will you land the top choice or 2nd/3rd maybe not. But if we are willing to spend we aren't gonna lose out on all the top tier options. We shouldn't be that far down the list at Caldwell or miller, Berube, Coach Yo, etc... Why make a fire to hire a lateral coach.

You're not gonna go 0-10 on top candidates.
- Walz, Brese, Ivey, Gottlieb, Fortier, Barancyzk, Moore, Moren, Close, Schaefer, etc...

Exactly, you don’t talk about being aggressive and throw around the word iconic talking about a program and then bring out someone who has spent 1 YEAR at the Division I level. Danny is a good AD and knows how that would be met. You don’t oversell the program and then bring in Stephens. He’s too smart for that.

 

[SweetasSoda]

But certainly mediocre.

No, way above a C.

 

[KB5252]

So if Lawson didn’t even interview why in the world is a statement even warranted , must be a slow day in Durham

I think she was asked

 

[Ovol]

That may, or may not, be true.

But, in the last two minutes of a close ballgame, Kelly couldn't draw up an inbound play to get us an occasional easy basket to save her life. That much I know to be true.

Or figure out how to stop an inbounds play…

 

[papatomany]

You don’t understand

You're right. Because I have idea what it is I "don't understand".

 

[Stoerner Fumbles]

You're right. Because I have idea what it is I "don't understand".

Understood

 

[larjoranj]

How forgiving will the fans be if the new coach becomes the first UT coach to miss the tournament - which is not just possible - it may be likely without an influx of talent from the portal.

 

[madtownvol]

Or maybe Kara knows that sadly, the bridge between her and the UT administration is still burned. Still hurt feelings on both sides.

But a lot of these post assume that Kara would (or should) automatically prefer to be at UT vs. Duke. She is at a rich, prestige University building solid recruiting connections and seems well liked there. Exactly why is a LV rebuild job something she should jump at?

Same goes for Vic at Texas, Wes and NCST, Brenda at Maryland, Dawn at SC (the most laughable option on the table).

Maybe White can throw some extra $ at them but for late career coaches, $ is probably not their top priority.

A lot of the media buzz seems to be setting a stage for a classic "White" hire where he gets an "up and comer" or someone whose resume may seem underwhelming but White sees their latent "potential."

If that happens, I expect the "he has the big fish on the line" crowd will immediately pivot to the brilliance of hiring a lesser known coach.

And honestly, I would rather see him take a shot on an up and comer than fading stars like Walz or Freese.

If he does indeed land a big fish, then the Kellie call becomes moot. If he hires Molly Miller (or someone at that level), I would guess a few "huh? what, why?" questions will be asked among sports journalists.

The immediate problem with an up & comer hire is building a competitive roster for next season if not a transfer magnet....

 

[House|RockyTop]

The funniest thing I’ve seen this year is this idea that some people would attempt to make Kara Lawson seem like a better coaching candidate than Brenda Frese. I haven’t promoted either. Yet it’s just comical at best.

 

[spojo13]

But a lot of these post assume that Kara would (or should) automatically prefer to be at UT vs. Duke. She is at a rich, prestige University building solid recruiting connections and seems well liked there. Exactly why is a LV rebuild job something she should jump at?

Same goes for Vic at Texas, Wes and NCST, Brenda at Maryland, Dawn at SC (the most laughable option on the table).

Maybe White can throw some extra $ at them but for late career coaches, $ is probably not their top priority.

A lot of the media buzz seems to be setting a stage for a classic "White" hire where he gets an "up and comer" or someone whose resume may seem underwhelming but White sees their latent "potential."

If that happens, I expect the "he has the big fish on the line" crowd will immediately pivot to the brilliance of hiring a lesser known coach.

And honestly, I would rather see him take a shot on an up and comer than fading stars like Walz or Freese.

If he does indeed land a big fish, then the Kellie call becomes moot. If he hires Molly Miller (or someone at that level), I would guess a few "huh? what, why?" questions will be asked among sports journalists.

The immediate problem with an up & comer hire is building a competitive roster for next season if not a transfer magnet....

You may be right, but saying “we will begin an aggressive search for our iconic women’s program” and then trotting out Steohens is overselling with underselling results.

 

[SalVolinus]

It’s fine I am a flailing troll.

 

[VolFuture]

How’s your visit here? Fun?

 

[SoilVol]

Apparently he just promoted Oats. He was already an assistant when the head coach left.

He fully vetted and interviewed many people about Oats. As well as interviewed other candidates. Not only was Oats highly respected as an assistant and recruiter, the team at Buffalo had primarily been recruited by him and wanted to play for him. They were leaving if he left. They didn't follow Hurley to ASU.

That probably wasn't super popular for a lot of Buffalo fans because it might've looked like an easy cop-out. It worked.

 

[VolBall09]

How forgiving will the fans be if the new coach becomes the first UT coach to miss the tournament - which is not just possible - it may be likely without an influx of talent from the portal.

If it happened next season then so be it. Wouldn’t be anyone’s idea of a good time, obviously, but looking at where the program is at this moment it’s entirely possible that was going to happen without a change, and in year 6 for a coach. That is not acceptable.

 

[BbwVol]

Or maybe Kara knows that sadly, the bridge between her and the UT administration is still burned. Still hurt feelings on both sides.

Or maybe we weren't interested? She has basically the same record a Kellie. Seems to be a lateral hire.

 

[BarrythesnoUT]

But certainly mediocre.

There should be a dislike button for comments like this and people like you.

 

[Bigvalley84]

I think she was asked

I didn’t see that , makes sense if that’s the case

 

[volman128]

You say this as if White doesn’t have a track record of quality hires at TN and previous stops. If football and men’s basketball succeed (with Barnes and post RB) then the LV hire is irrelevant to how White is perceived by the vast majority of TN fans.

Seems to me like at least a good sized segment of diehard LV fans were willing to stick with the coach providing their current mediocrity so that tells me right there just how little pressure White has making this hire.

As for current interest in women’s basketbal, well, that can be summed up with one person: Caitlin Clark.

We get it dude. You hate women’s basketball. There is no reason to come over here and stick your chest out and start mouthing off now that there’s a coaching change. You obviously don’t care who is hired so why are you even a part of this discussion?

 

[turbovol]

White didn't hire Frost at Nebraska. White hired Frost at UCF. That matters. He hired a coach who was a good fit for their program and they had incredible success. What he later did at Nebraska can be attributed to failures of Nebraska or the AD there or Frost himself. Has nothing to do with White.

Again, White didn't hire Leipold at Kansas. But on that same token, Leipold just lead Kansas to their first 9-win season since 2007. Since 2010 Kansas won a total of 21 games. Averaged 1.9 wins a year during that time. Kansas was considered the WORST power 5 program in college football.

When he hired him at Buffalo, Leipold's head coaching record was 109-6 with 6 D3 national titles, and he was a great fit for Buffalo where he had a ton of success.

Heupel has absolutely been a great fit in Knoxville and has been incredibly successful. He took the Vols to their first New Year's Six bowl since 2005 and a #1 ranking. They lost a ton of production and stepped back as expected, yet still had one of the best seasons in the past 2 decades last year (people conveniently forget that).

The women's soccer hire has produced underwhelming results. That's a fact that can't really be argued. He could have done better.

Listen, I want White and all our coaches to succeed. I hope he makes a good hire. However, your post suggested that everybody he's hired has been
a great success. Not exactly true. Yes, if you're the AD at CFU and you hire Frost and he succeeds, you made a good hire and credit to you. But if Frost then goes on to a bigger job--at a school on par with Tennessee---and flops, well, then perhaps he wasn't that special after all and his real coaching level was a step below a P5 major. And this is a P5 major job--a notch above Central Florida and 3 notches above Buffalo.

As for Leipold, he deserves credit for making lowly Kansas more competitive, yes, but it still looks very much like the Big 12 job equivalent of Vanderbilt in the SEC: a dead end job. I suppose that is a tough decision for a coach at a mid-major who's not young anymore and gets an offer to be the head man at a bad major program--one that hasn't been good in decades. Do you take a job that is almost impossible to succeed in? Who's going to hire after you've tried your best at Kansas...or Vandy? Nobody good, unfortunately. In Leipold's case, he was in his 50s when he got the Kansas offer, and he may rightly have assumed that it could be the only major offer he'd ever get--and with it more money than he'd ever earned, for however long he sticks it out at Kansas. That said: With Texas and Oklahoma now out of the Big 12, maybe Kansas is ready to make a move!

I like Heupel, he seems a good coach, but, please, one good season does not make him "incredibly successful." A bit over the top there...Butch Jones had some good seasons--not as good as we did in 2023---but good, and we saw how that ended. Lots of coaches have one or two good seasons and get an extension and then fizzle. It's very common. See Jimbo Fisher. Winning over a long stretch of time equals "incredibly successful," not one year. The Heup has a long way to go.



White has made some good hires in his career, to be sure--and let's hope this is another.

 

[Ratvol]

105 damn pages and 3000+ comments on a women's basketball coaching search. Most boards would kill for even a single thread with 100 comments, and we're headed for a 5000 comment thread over a coaching search.

I know this much. If young women want to come to a place where women's basketball matters and is treated like something that matters, Tennessee is IT. If a coach wanted to go to a place where the community is ready made to support you, Tennessee is IT. If you can get 100 pages of comments for this thread, ladies, then just think how many seats you could fill by playing great basketball in Knoxville. Here's a hint - it's a lot. And all it needs is someone - or someones - to turn the key.

Excellent point…

 

[creekdipper]

Nothing terrible like some are making it out. She basically just said there’s not enough Black HCs at UT. She wasn’t bashing UT at all, just simply saying she’d like to see more HC of color that resembles the athletic makeup of the university. Some are claiming she was race baiting, but she wasn’t at all.

She just wanted to see an African-American rowing or diving head coach for some diversity.

 

[turbovol]

I think she was asked

What do you base your comment on? Has there been ANY substantive info on who White is focusing on? We did read a post that suggested
that Walz and Freese were in contention; somebody else with supposed contacts had Lawson, Walz and Stephens under consideration. But there seems to be very little solid info so far. The information lid enables all of us to carry on with our feckless speculation and blathering--and yes, I'm a guilty party.

 

[Ratvol]

"Weekend at Bernie's" fans? Did you check to see if they had pulses? Attendance numbers are never what they seem..........

I wonder how many of those tickets were giveaways.