Marshall's Kim Caldwell Hired as Tennessee Women's CBB HC; Replaces Kellie Harper
Apr 7, 2024
BLACKSBURG, VA - MARCH 22: Marshall Thundering Herd Head Coach Kim Caldwell looks on from the sidelines during the Marshall Thundering Herd game versus the Virginia Tech Hokies in the first round of the NCAA Division I Women's Championship on March 22, 2024, at Cassell Coliseum in Blacksburg, VA. (Photo by Lee Coleman/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)
Tennessee has hired Marshall's Kim Caldwell as its next women's basketball coach, the team announced Sunday:
Kim Caldwell has been named head coach of the storied Lady Vols Basketball program.
Marshall athletic director Christian Spears confirmed her departure.
Marshall AD Christian Spears confirming that Kim Caldwell is leaving to become head coach at Tennessee. “One of the great things Kim did is establish a belief system that we can win here.”
Caldwell, who takes over for Lady Vols legend Kellie Harper, spent her first seven seasons at Division II Glenville State and guided the Pioneers to their first-ever national title in 2021-22. She made the leap to Division I with the Thundering Herd ahead of the 2023-24 campaign.
Marshall went 26-7, winning the Sun Belt regular-season and conference titles before reaching the NCAA tournament for just the second time.
"From the beginning, our goal has been to find a dynamic head coach who can restore our women's basketball program to national prominence," Tennessee athletic director Danny White said. Kim Caldwell is the ideal person to lead us. 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."
Fans might feel a little underwhelmed with the conclusion to Tennessee's coaching search because one possible conclusion to draw from Harper's ouster was that the administration had a much bigger target in mind.
Beyond the goodwill she maintained from her playing career, Harper had a .675 winning percentage with Sweet 16 appearances in 2022 and 2023. It's not as though she presided over a major decline for the program.
Naturally, it felt fair to wonder whether Tennessee was plotting something akin to LSU's poaching of Kim Mulkey from Baylor. Duke's Kara Lawson was a trendy choice given her deep ties to the Lady Vols and early success with the Blue Devils.
Caldwell's hiring perhaps reflects how the job is viewed outside Knoxville.
The expectations are sky-high from year to year and every coach is compared against one of the greatest ever, Pat Summitt. LSU's resurgence under Mulkey and South Carolina's dominance with Dawn Staley at the helm only adds to the difficulty. There are compelling reasons to have reservations about taking the gig.
But this could've been the plan all along.
Going outside of the Summitt coaching tree was the right call after Harper and Holly Warlick didn't work out, and being an inexperienced Division I head coach hasn't stopped others from thriving in prominent jobs. Notre Dame's Niele Ivey hadn't ever been a head coach before succeeding Muffet McGraw. The same is true of Lawson at Duke and Cori Close at UCLA.
Tennessee went down the most straightforward path possible with its last two coaches. Warlick was a longtime assistant of Summitt, while Harper was a decorated player and seemingly a coach on the rise again after taking Missouri State to the Sweet 16 in 2019.
Selecting a coach who has spent only one season in Division I is an obvious risk, but thinking outside the box might be what's required for the Lady Vols to become a power once again.
Tennessee WCBB Fires Kellie Harper After 5 Seasons; Lost to NC State in March Madness
Apr 1, 2024
COLUMBIA, SOUTH CAROLINA - MARCH 03: Head coach Kellie Harper of the Tennessee Lady Vols looks on during the game against the South Carolina Gamecocks at Colonial Life Arena on March 03, 2024 in Columbia, South Carolina. (Photo by Jacob Kupferman/Getty Images)
Tennessee announced Monday it's moving on from women's basketball coach Kellie Harper.
"After a thorough review of our women's basketball program, I have informed Kellie we are making a change in leadership," athletic director Danny White said. "Decisions like these are never easy to make, especially with someone who has done so much for the Lady Vols as a three-time national champion student-athlete.
"Her love and passion for Tennessee and the Lady Vols is second to none. She has invested so much heart and soul into our program and truly has given her all for Tennessee. I thank Kellie for her stewardship of our women's basketball program and wish her and Jon well in the next chapter of their lives."
The Lady Vols went 108-52 in Harper's five seasons at the helm. After reaching the Sweet 16 in 2022 and 2023, they were knocked out by North Carolina State in the second round of the 2024 NCAA tournament.
The school is continuing to chase the heights it enjoyed under Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt.
Longtime assistant Holly Warlick had the thankless task of succeeding Summitt in 2012. After guiding Tennessee to the Elite Eight in three of her first four years, Tennessee began seeing diminishing on-court returns that led to Warlick's ouster in 2019.
Harper returned to Knoxville to great fanfare. A three-time national champion as a player with the Lady Vols, she had already cut her teeth as a head coach at Western Carolina, NC State and Missouri State. In her final season at Missouri State, the Lady Bears went 25-10 and advanced to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2001.
Tennessee was hiring from within the family and getting a candidate with head-coaching experience, the latter being something that wasn't true with Warlick. That White is moving on from a Lady Vols legend with a .675 winning percentage is a sign of his exacting standards for the coach of the women's team.
White said he will speak with current players and embark on "an aggressive search process" to identify Harper's replacement.
It will be fascinating to see how the search evolves because Tennessee has a rich history that makes it still one of the most recognizable brands in women's basketball. Whoever takes over for Harper, however, will not only be working in the shadow of Summitt but also have to compete directly against two of the top coaches in the country: South Carolina's Dawn Staley and LSU's Kim Mulkey.
The Lady Vols may also be a case where their opinion of themselves doesn't align with how they're viewed outside of the circle. Harper failed to land a single recruit in HoopGurlz's Top 100 ranking for 2023 and Justine Pissott was the only player ranked from the 2022 class. Pissott subsequently transferred to Vanderbilt after her freshman season.
Recruits who are entering the frame now will have almost no memory of Candace Parker carrying Tennessee to its last two national titles in 2007 and 2008.
LSU's turnaround under Mulkey is a prime example of how the right sideline leader can revive a dormant power. Poaching a coach that good from a major program could be a challenge for White given the factors working against Tennessee.
