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Just How Good Will The Lady Vols Be Under Kim Caldwell In Year 2?

Josh Heupel and Tennessee football took a giant step forward in Year 2, could Caldwell's Lady Vols follow suit?

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Chase Thomas
Oct 16, 2025
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Tennessee lady vols basketball year 2 preview kim caldwell
Credit: Kate Luffman/Tennessee Athletics

Year 2 has been really kind to the Tennessee football program under head football coach Josh Heupel. After finishing in the top-10 in scoring offense in his debut season on Rocky Top, he followed that up with his best season to date at Tennessee with a 10-2 regular season, along with the No. 1 scoring offense in FBS. It was the first time the Volunteers had won double-digit regular-season games since Phillip Fulmer’s 2003 team went 10-2 in the regular season.

Not only that, a trend has emerged among Vol wideouts in their second year in Tennessee’s offensive scheme – they tend to make a pretty big leap in production. This year, it’s Chris Brazzell II and Braylon Staley. Last year, it was Dont’e Thornton Jr. A couple of years before that, it was Jalin Hyatt. There is no question that Year 2 has been kind for the Vols’ football program in more ways than one.

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Will the same be true for Tennessee women’s head basketball coach Kim Caldwell, as the former Marshall head coach enters her second season in Knoxville?

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Caldwell returns her best player from a season ago in guard Talaysia Cooper, who earned a spot on USA Today’s SEC preseason All-SEC second team honors. The first AP women’s preseason Top 25 poll slotted Caldwell’s team at No. 8. However, given how loaded the SEC is once again this season, there are four SEC teams ranked ahead of the Lady Vols in the preseason poll.

The Lady Vols will be tested early and often in Year 2 under Caldwell as they will play six of the top eight teams in that very preseason AP poll in the regular season, with only LVFL Kara Lawson’s Duke squad not on the docket. Tennessee faces No. 3 UCLA on the road on Nov. 30. They travel to No. 1 UConn on Feb. 1 and a week later travel to Columbia to face No. 2 South Carolina. Immediately after that, LVFL Kelly Harper makes her return to Knoxville with her new Missouri squad, followed by No. 4 Texas in the same week. And then for good measure, the Lady Vols travel to No. 6 Oklahoma and No. 5 LSU in the same week as well, right before the conclusion of the 2025-26 regular season. Come SEC Tournament time, the Lady Vols will have certainly played one of the most arduous schedules in all of women’s college basketball this season.

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That’s part of why I’m so curious about what Year 2 looks like for Caldwell’s team. The return of Cooper, Zee Spearman, Ruby Whitehorn, Kaniya Boyd, and Alyssa Latham should pay dividends for the Lady Vols, but how Caldwell balances her key returnees with more intriguing transfers like Nya Robertson and Janiah Barker, along with multiple blue-chip true freshmen like Mia and Mya Pauldo, Jaida Civil, Deniya Prawl, and Lauren Hurst. Caldwell, like Tennessee men’s head coach Rick Barnes, has the biggest question in the backcourt alongside their star guard. For Barnes, it’s Ja’Kobi Gillespie, and for Caldwell, it’s Cooper. Both coaches have great options to find that perfect backcourt mate in crunch time, but it’s just very unclear where both go in mid-October.

One of the most interesting aspects to watch early on for Caldwell’s Year 2 team will be how she manages this roster. Caldwell only gets six games before the Lady Vols travel to Los Angeles to take on the Bruins. Last season, Caldwell and Barnes’ teams did not lose a game before the calendar year flipped. To pull that off again this year, the Lady Vols will have to beat UCLA, Stanford, and Louisville, all away from the Food City Center at Thompson-Boling Arena. Doable, but tough. Very tough.

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