Source: Lady Vols hire Caldwell as new coach

Tennessee hired Marshall coach Kim Caldwell on Sunday, going outside the Lady Vols family for the first time since the late Pat Summitt stepped down in 2012.

Caldwell replaces Kellie Harper, who was fired last week after five seasons coaching at her alma mater. Caldwell will be introduced at a news conference Tuesday. The move might be considered outside the box to some. Both Harper and her predecessor, Holly Warlick, had deep ties to the program.

Not so with Caldwell, who spent this past season at Marshall, reinvigorating a program that had been down. In her lone season as head coach, Marshall won the Sun Belt championship, set a record for most wins in school history (26) and made the NCAA tournament for the first time since 1997.

Before going to Marshall, Caldwell spent seven seasons at her alma mater, Division II Glenville State, winning the 2022 Division II national championship. That same year, she won the Pat Summitt Trophy as the WBCA NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year.

"From the beginning, our goal has been to find a dynamic head coach who can restore our women's basketball program to national prominence. Kim Caldwell is the ideal person to lead us," Tennessee athletics director Danny White said in a statement. "Kim has a winning formula that she has successfully implemented everywhere she has coached, with a fast-paced, high-octane offense and pressure defense that has led to remarkable results. In this new era of college sports, it was vital that we found an innovative head coach with a strong track record of winning titles. We are eager to return the Lady Vols to a championship level, and we're confident that Kim Caldwell is the coach who can lead us back to the top."

Unlike Harper, who had a long track record as a head coach in Division I before Tennessee hired her, Caldwell has spent only one season at the Division I level. But the appeal of her offensive and defensive systems spoke to White -- especially at a time when Tennessee has lost ground in the SEC to both South Carolina and LSU.

She now becomes the fourth head coach in the NCAA era at Tennessee, with the inevitable pressure that comes with trying to get back to the standard Summitt set. Summitt won eight national championships in 38 seasons, but Tennessee has not advanced past the Elite Eight since 2008.

Caldwell is 217-31 in eight seasons as a head coach -- earning eight NCAA berths across two divisions and winning seven total conference championships. Marshall was picked to finish ninth in the preseason Sun Belt media poll, but under Caldwell, the Thundering Herd averaged 85.3 points per game (fourth nationally) and forced 24.2 turnovers per game (second nationally). It was the first 20-win regular season since 1990-91.

"I am honored and humbled to accept the role as head coach of this historic program at the University of Tennessee," Caldwell said in a statement. "I can't help but reflect on accepting the Pat Summitt Trophy three seasons ago and be moved by the great responsibility and opportunity of now leading and building upon the incredible Lady Vol tradition she built. I am so excited to get to work and can't wait to see what we all can accomplish together."