Tennessee hires Marshall’s Kim Caldwell as the Lady Vols’ 4th coach in NCAA era
Tennessee athletic director Danny White has moved quickly and gone outside the historic Lady Vols’ program in hiring Marshall coach Kim Caldwell as only its fourth head coach in the NCAA era.
Tennessee athletic director Danny White has moved quickly and gone outside the historic Lady Vols’ program in hiring Marshall coach Kim Caldwell as only its fourth head coach in the NCAA era.
White announced the hiring Sunday, within a couple of hours of the women’s national championship game. It’s a game the Lady Vols have not played in since 2008 when they won their eighth and last national title under Pat Summitt.
Caldwell will be introduced at a news conference Tuesday, wrapping up a search that started April 1 when White fired Kellie Harper after five seasons at her alma mater and a 108-52 record. She replaced Holly Warlick, promoted to replace Summitt and fired after going 172-67 in seven seasons.
“From the beginning, our goal has been to find a dynamic head coach who can restore our women’s basketball program to national prominence,” White said in a statement. “Kim Caldwell is the ideal person to lead us.”
Tennessee will pay Caldwell $750,000 in base pay a year through March 2029 under the memorandum of understanding signed Sunday morning. The agreement includes a clause for a pay raise before May 1 of any season she wins a national championship.
Caldwell won the 2024 Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year award for her work at Marshall, going 26-7 to earn the program’s second NCAA Tournament berth ever and first since 1997. She is 217-31 in eight seasons as a head coach.
She led her alma mater Glenville State to the 2022 Division II national title and has earned seven NCAA Tournament berths. Caldwell won the Pat Summitt Trophy for the 2021-22 season as the WBCA’s NCAA Division II coach of the year.
Caldwell said in a statement she was humbled to accept this job at a historic program.
