For Tennessee AD Danny White, Kim Caldwell made too much sense

Tennessee athletics director Danny White is no stranger to coaching searches. He hired multiple coaches at Buffalo, at Central Florida and now at Tennessee.

Along the way, he has hired assistants to be first time head coaches. He’s promoted from the staff and he has hired numerous up and coming coaches. 

A week ago Monday, White set course for a new Lady Vol basketball coach and landed with a relatively unknown in Kim Caldwell from Marshall. Caldwell has one year experience at the division one level, but White’s history made him comfortable in giving the keys of the tradition rich program to a coach that had people googling to see who Caldwell was and where she came from.

“Coaches become brands of themselves. Sometimes it because they are a high level player somewhere. Sometimes it’s because they have had success at a high level program. We can’t fall in love with just that brand,” White said. “It’s my job to see a little deeper into that with some substance and identify people with the talent and ability to do something different for us. What we are talking about doing here, what Pat Summitt did here is to win national titles and southeastern conference titles. That’s like finding a needle in a haystack. So the chances of that person being well known to everybody, it probably shouldn’t be a huge surprise that it’s not household name. I have had a lot of success identifying people on their way up and I think Kim is really talented.”

White admitted that he would have preferred Caldwell to have more experience but acknowledged if he didn’t hire her some power 5 school was going to. 

“Obviously you would rather have a little more of a sample size,” White admitted, “but if you didn’t hire her this time someone else was going to. I think she’s going to be one of the best basketball coaches in the country and I think we have a great one for the future.”

Tuesday, Caldwell was formally introduced as Tennessee’s coach. She hit every note in her press conference thanking those who gave her chances to get to this point in her career. Loving on her former players. Honoring her late father who got her into coaching and was on her bench at Glenville State until he passed away in 2021.

Caldwell made it clear how honored she was to lead Tennessee’s storied program. She also made it clear she wasn’t Pat Summitt noting that her job is to make Summitt proud in the product she puts on the floor and the way the program is run. 

And for the Lady Vols, turning the page from Summitt is poignant moment. Summitt will never be forgotten. A trailblazing icon. But for the first time in program history, the questions to the head coach will not be what would Pat have done or what would Pat have thought because Caldwell didn’t play for her and didn’t know her.

White made it clear in visiting with the media that it was not a prerequisite to go outside the Summitt tree. His prerequisite was to find a winner and a style. Caldwell has won at the division two level and at Marshall for a year. How it translates to the SEC remains to be seen. But Tuesday, she made it clear her brand of basketball isn’t changing. She’s going to pressure full court. Her team will score and play fast. They will shoot threes and play the analytics game. 

When asked if she thought her style would translate to the SEC she quipped, “I wouldn’t be here if I didn’t think we could do it here.”

White said Caldwell impressed in her interview. She was impressive in the press conference. A press conference that for the first time in school history wasn’t about the history of the Lady Vols, it was about the future.

“When you talk about our history looking back and certainly looking forward with what are expectations might be how are we going get there,” White said. “Anytime I’m in a coach search, I’m thinking about what makes us distinctive. In this instance, I think she makes us distinctive in terms of who she is and how she conducted herself in the interview. I think she will really connect with our players. Her style of play certainly makes her distinctive and I think it’s where the sport is going. Pace of play both in men’s and women’s basketball is becoming more and more a factor. I think she is on the cutting edge. We talk about leading the way in college sports here at Tennessee. I think Kim helps us do that.”

A brand, an identity, and a unique style from a young up and comer at the helm of Lady Vol basketball. Only time will tell how it works. Danny White’s history says the odds are pretty good and it worked out pretty well for the Lady Vols some four decades ago.