What Lady Vol coach Kim Caldwell had to say about her team's Sweet Sixteen trip

The Tennessee Lady Vols in Kim Caldwell’s first season is heading to Birmingham to take on Texas in the Sweet Sixteen. Caldwell spoke with the media on Wednesday about her team’s rematch with the Longhorns and her team’s reset into post season play.

Q: You have signs up emphasizing rebounding, what went into that decision to emphasis that to the team? 

Caldwell: I think it’s really important in March that you have to rebound. You have to rebound and you have to hit foul shots. That’s something we have been talking about. It was a major key in our last game against Texas.

Q: Any difference in the emphasis in rebounding in season compared to the post season?

Caldwell: Not really, I just hope our players take it a little more serious. 

Q: Were the signs just a reminder to help it stick into their minds?

Caldwell: We are just trying to make things a little different for post-season. I think it’s a new season and sometimes it can get kind of routine and you’re still in the same building. You’re still wearing the same practice gear so just trying to make it a little big different for them just because it’s such a long year.

Q: You said last week you like the energy and what you felt on the practice floor. Do you like the carry over you have seen since?

Caldwell: We have only had one day. We were ok. We were a little tired and a little sluggish. So we actually just chopped practice down after seeing what they looked like. So hopefully today is better.

Q: You might have a different perspective because it’s just your first year, but what’s the energy like on campus or among coaches with what the athletic programs have been able to do? 

Caldwell: It’s amazing and I’m happy to be a part of it. I think there’s a long time there where you don’t want to be the coach that didn’t reach the standard of the other coaches around you on a day to day basis. When you are around success it breeds success.

Q: Texas is the only game that you need up missing does it feel full circle at all to get to coach against them from the sideline?

Caldwell: I think it will. I think it will be nice to be back on the floor and to get that opportunity back. 

Q: Obviously Texas is a much rebounding team that you are going to face this weekend, but just the way your team attacked the glass last weekend, do you feel like they have made the strides you wanted them to. How do you fee like they are going into this match up? 

Caldwell: The work is never done. I do feel like we rebounded well last week. It’s a new week. It’s a bigger opponent. It’s a more physical opponent and we just have to continue to do that with focus and effort. There have been some games this year where I have questioned are we capable of rebounding with this team. Watching the Texas game was one of them. So just making sure that we have a focused effort with a sense of urgency on the boards.

Q: Does Texas look any different now compared to when you played them? 

Caldwell: They are playing much better and I think we are too. So I think it will be a different game but their half court defense has improved significantly. At least it looks like that on film. Their full court pressure has improved significantly since their last loss. 

Q: Advantage or disadvantage to playing a common opponent? 

Caldwell: Kind of neutral. It’s a little bit of motivation for us because we didn’t win the first time but sometimes it’s nice to play someone new. 

Q: You said on the first day in Columbus last week that you had a tough time putting a pulse on whether the team wanted to be the underdog or if they to feel pressure and just how do you motivate them. Do you feel like you learned a little big more in that respect after last weekend? 

Caldwell: It doesn’t really matter. Now we are 100% the underdog and that’s what we are going with.

Q: There were maybe moments in the game against Ohio State where it felt like they took their foot off the gas. How important is it that moment where maybe they are peeking at the scoreboard doesn’t happen? 

Caldwell: You guys say that and you guys think that but I don’t think we did. I think that was a really good opponent and that was bound to happen. There have been games where we have taken our foot off the gas but I think that was a game where they just hit us. We didn’t blink. We didn’t seem fazes what so ever. Nobody in our program knew it was a 16-0 run I’ll tell you that. That’s how locked in and focused we were and we just played right through it. They were bound to go on a run because they play similar to how we do and I was incredibly proud of our response. 

Q: Why were they able to keep their focus in those moments? 

Caldwell: They were locked in. They were playing together as a team. Our huddles were tight. We had a lot of high fives. We had a lot of great energy and to see that when owe were getting hit was a big step for this program. It’s a step that we needed.

Q: In your first few practices of the year was there anything that stood out that this could be a Sweet Sixteen team? 

Caldwell: I think from the very beginning of meeting this team, their mindset was a hungry mindset. Now maybe we lost that somewhere along the way, but I think we have it back and as a coach you can’t sit here and think ok we got it let’s check that box and pat ourselves on the back. We have to continue to motivate. We have to continue to stay locked in and continue to play the underdog card, playing as hard as we can.

Q: How has the way you have motivated them throughout the season changed?

Caldwell:  I don’t necessarily know that it has. I think that towards the back half of our regular season play that we lost our motivation a little bit and that’s something that I will have to dig in and do a deep dive when I evaluate the season once it’s over about where we went wrong there. I think the effort and energy level of practice is substantially different that it was three weeks ago. 

Q: I know last year you would have liked to have made a deeper run than you did, but coaching players that have NCAA Tournament experience already does that kind of change how you’ve approached this tournament run? 

Caldwell: Yea I think so. I think when you are at a mid-major, your ceiling is your ceiling and it’s usually you are going to get waxed in the first round. So it’s really nice to be a part of a program that your ceiling is a lot higher than that.

Q: What do you feel like it says about the team that maybe they did lose that competitive edge towards the end of the season, but they got it back and they decided this isn’t how the season is going to end and decided to make a run to the Sweet Sixteen? 

Caldwell: I think it’s really rare. I think really rare in this day and edge that you have a team that doesn’t just check out and move on to the next thing. Or you don’t have a coaching staff that moves on and says I’m moving on to the next class of kids, let’s just start recruiting. I think it says a lot about the resiliency of this program from our assistant coaches to our players that they cared enough about each other to check back in and fix it as opposed to saying oh well we failed. They figured it out and I thought we looked really good the last two games. I’m happy we are going to the Sweet Sixteen, I’m proud of that, but I’m more proud of the way we looked on the floor. I’m incredibly proud of the way we looked on the floor the last two games and despite what happens in our next game, I hope those last two games can be something that we remember as a group for how hard we played and how we played together. 

Q: Obviously, the work isn’t done but is that the kind of team you envision them being in March. Is that kind of like the potential you saw in them the way they played last game?

Caldwell: That’s the way they have to be in March. If we want a long March that’s the way they have got to be. 

Q: Was there a moment where you felt that switch flip and you saw them check back in? 

Caldwell: It was a prolonged during our 13 days of practice that we had, and we worked on it, we got it back, and when they hit the road, they were incredibly focused. And our shoot arounds were phenomenal. Our energy and practice was great. And so it just was a build up and we were ready to play. And when you sit on 13 days of practice in this program, the way we practice, how hard we practice, how long we practice there, they were chomping at the bit to play someone else.

Q: What is the biggest thing you pull from your experience at the division two level at this point in the year to maybe help you through a deep tournament run? 

Caldwell: I think the biggest thing is excitement and energy. That’s really all that can carry you through the teams that are excited and the teams that have juice and the teams that are having fun, the teams that still maintain having fun at this point in time of the year. It’s something I’ve always tried to do with our teams, and I think we’re doing a pretty good job at it. But again, let’s see how we go on and practice today. We have a couple days before we play. These practices are not always the greatest when there’s not a game within the next couple days.

Q: Is this why you let them wear whatever shoes they want to wear this weekend ?

Caldwell: I don’t even remember telling them that. They could have made it up for all I know, but at some point in time, I guess they asked me that question, and I said, Sure, then here we are.

Q: Will they be taking advantage of that creativity to wear different shoes?

Caldwell: I’m sure they will. I don’t think all of them will, but I’m sure that we’ll have a handful of them that will.

Q: I feel like Zee Spearman has been on a pretty steady trajectory the last half of the season. But the last game against Ohio State, her aggressively offensively to be hunting her spots and not settling for longer jumpers, how would you describe her evolution offensively? 

Caldwell: I think it’s big. And again, I think her shot selection has gotten much improved, so her efficiency is better. And I think when she’s efficient, she’s playing well. But I think that what I’ve been most proud of her the last two games was what such a good teammate she was. She was a great teammate. You saw on film. We clipped it up. We showed on film. She went out of her way to give people high fives. She got frustrated for a second and then went out of her way to give people high fives. She’s running to pick people up off the floor. And when you’re in a tough environment on the road, which all of ours will be from here on out, you need to be a good teammate.

Q: On the tight huddles on the floor

Caldwell: I mean, again, just our last two games, and it’s such a small body of work, but it’s our postseason body of work, so it’s what matters. Now, they’ve been great and we clipped those up, we showed those they talked about and they laughed about them and hopefully it’s something that they can see themselves doing on film, where we are in a tight huddle, and maybe our opponent isn’t in a huddle and we freeze frame that, and we show that. And that matters. Those add up to points.

Q: Is that something you have always done to show it was necessarily a basketball play but it was something that was important from that aspect? 

Caldwell: We’ll do it early on, like early on, before we even play a game. We’ll clip up body language, sportsmanship, how to be a good teammate. We’ll clip it up in practice.

Q: Do you grade it? 

Caldwell: We just talk about it. We show it. I mean, the film sometimes does lie on that. You know, sometimes players figure out how to fake body language and they’re saying something bad that the camera doesn’t pick up. You do have some of that, but you can usually tell when the energy is good on film.

Q: Why is that something that you see as really important? 

Caldwell: I don’t know if it translates to the men’s game at all, but when you’re coaching females, you need your sister. You need somebody right there next to you when you make a mistake, and if you make a mistake, I mean, I’ve been there as a player. I was never the best player on the floor, so when I made a mistake and my best player, or somebody else I was on the floor with, looked at me and said, ‘I believe in you. Keep doing it.’ Then it’s washed away. It’s the next fight and somebody else believes in me more than I do. And so I think that that’s important. I always say, like, you don’t play tennis, you’re playing a team sport. Be a good teammate.

Q: Is that hard to instill? 

Caldwell: With some players more than others.