By Mark Nagi
What in the name of Abby Conklin is going on here?
The Tennessee Lady Vols, one of the most revered and history-making programs in all of women’s basketball, has seen a mass defection. Four players (Janiah Barker, Zee Spearman, Nya Robertson, Jersey Wolfenbarger) have graduated. Hey, this is college. That happens. The concern is what you see from the rest of the roster and the team’s future.
However, eight players from the 2025-2026 squad have entered the transfer portal. That’s two juniors (Alyssa Latham, Talaysia Cooper), a sophomore (Kaniya Boyd), and five freshmen (Jaida Civil, Mia Pauldo, Mya Pauldo, Deniya Prawl, Lauren Hurst). There was also the dismissal of senior guard Ruby Whitehorn last Fall after two arrests within four months, and fifth-year guard Kaiya Wynn quit the team before the postseason. Not one player from last year’s roster will play for the Lady Vols in 2026-2027.
Now, you could say that the on-court results show that they weren’t living up to their potential. The Lady Vols finished the season with an eight-game losing streak. They went 16-14 and lost in the first round of the NCAA tournament to North Carolina State. That was only the third time since 1982 that they didn’t win a first-round game in the NCAA tournament.
Tennessee lost seven games last season by at least 15 points, the most in 40 years at UT.
But remember, those incoming freshmen were so sought after that they were the number two recruiting class in the country. The future should have been bright for the Lady Vols. But even the incoming players are backing away. Five-star forward Oliviyah Edwards, the number five recruit for the Class of 2026, asked Tennessee for a release from her National Letter of Intent last week.
Her mother, Jordan West, told ESPN the following: “As a family, we are so thankful to the University of Tennessee for the time that was spent recruiting Oliviyah. At this time, with all the current changes to the women’s basketball team, I believe it’s in my daughter’s best interest to part ways and reopen her recruitment.”
It sort of goes without saying here… but Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell has had better times than what she’s dealing with lately. Caldwell also recently fired assistant coach Roman Tubner and saw assistant coach Gabe Lazo resign and take an assistant coaching job on Kim Mulkey’s staff at LSU. A few days later he quit that job to become the head coach at Central Florida. Even video coordinator Josh Theis left to follow Lazo to UCF.
Tennessee AD Danny White is also feeling pressure. ESPN’s Holly Rowe, who is as dialed in as any reporter in the world of women’s basketball, tweeted, “What Danny White is allowing to happen to @LadyVol_Hoops is making me so sad. Gut wrenching to watch him let one of the greatest programs in womens sports history disintegrate. I am devastated.”
White has given Kim Caldwell a vote of confidence, but she has so much work to do in the same transfer portal that has decimated her roster. She started by picking up All-Conference USA guard Avery Mills from Liberty. But there is much more work to be done.
It’s a bold new world in collegiate athletics, one that looks nothing like the decades when Pat Summitt was in charge. Tennessee won eight national championships during her tenure. But the last of those titles was 18 years ago, and they haven’t been back to the Final Four since that 2008 season.
If Caldwell can’t show improvement in this difficult landscape, her third season at Tennessee that starts this fall likely will be her last in Knoxville.
