(Photo via @LadyVol_Hoops on X)
The Lady Vols basketball program took to Food City Center to face Columbus State in an exhibition that will not count toward the regular season record on Wednesday. The result was a 148-48 win over the Cougars. Afterward, Tennessee head coach Kim Caldwell met with the media.
Caldwell was asked about newcomers, the starting lineup, what she wants cleaned up and more.
Here’s what she said.
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Opening statement
“I think we got a lot of good film tonight. We obviously found some things that we desperately need to work on and fix before we go to NC State, so that was the whole point of it. I was happy that our eight new ones could be in the arena and see the crowd and kinda get the jitters out. And so I’m thankful to Columbus State for making the trip and making us better.”
On freshman Mia Pauldo’s first time on the floor for Tennessee
“I’m not one bit surprised. That’s who she is, it’s why she’s here, it’s what she does every single day in practice. And honestly, I think that she could probably have shot some more and made some more. She made the right plays. She had seven assists, zero turnovers in her debut, and I think that that’s something that we can build upon. Every night is not going to be like tonight. She, as a freshman, is going to go through some tough times and have some tough nights, but this is who she is, and again, it’s why she’s here.”
On Janiah Barker having a box +/- of +62
“That’s also who she is. I think she could have probably gotten a triple-double tonight had she been at the front of the press the entire time. And we’re still learning and working through things with her of ways to make her better, ways to get her more shots, ways to kind of get her feet under her. I did not really look at the plus-minus of being a +62, but I did look at the double-double, and I mean, it’s a very efficient double-double. So it wasn’t volume, she wasn’t taking bad shots, she was making the right plays, she was sharing the basketball very well. And again, I think from where Mia is who Mia is, and I’m not surprised here, I think she probably can continue to go up.”
On what she wants cleaned up before playing NC State
“Finishing box outs, foul shots, transition defense. There’s probably some more I wrote down.”
On what she wanted to accomplish in the exhibition
“I wanted us to play hard. I think we did that. I wanted, again, our eight new ones to – it takes time. I mean the way we play and the freedom we give and playing with multiple players and playing just a different way of basketball, it takes time. And so it was important for us to get our eight new ones out and to see it and to be in front of a crowd and to play somebody else. And again, we’ve talked about a lot of things, and sometimes players don’t believe you until they see it, and we talked about we gotta limit our turnovers, we got to win the rebounds, we gotta get back in transition. One thing that didn’t show up on the stat sheet this game that will next game is fouls. And all of those things are gonna cost us.”
On what she found out about her team
“Again, I was happy with our new ones. I think they went out and they played hard. And hopefully they will feel more confident going into the official game one now that they have one. It’s just different. It’s different when you do it in front of a fan base than you do a closed scrimmage or you do it in practice. And so for them to be able to, to kind of get that experience, I hope that it helped them gain confidence and realize, ‘Hey, you can do this, and this is the right style of play for you, this is the right system from you.’ And we just want to continue to build.”
On what she likes about likes about Janiah Baker
“Yeah, I think that she has done a really good job of that since she set foot on campus of being a vocal leader. For a really long time she was a vocal leader. And now she’s able to put it all together and be somebody on the floor for us that we can rely on and be somebody that they can listen to and help through. And I think that that probably is a big growth step for her from where she has been, and we want to continue to help her grow into that. So again, by the time she graduates, it’s all said and done, she has no regrets, she gave everything that she had, and she’s the best version of who she is as a person and as a player.”
On if they got the basket as much as she wanted
“Our offense wasn’t great. It really wasn’t. It didn’t look like anything we’d practiced. I think we need to put pressure on the rim and look to play inside out from there. And we’re still having a hard time discerning the difference between what the defense gives us and what we kind of create. And so, I need to go back and look at the film. I didn’t think we took very many bad threes tonight. I think a lot of our threes were assisted threes. I do have to look at that number. I think we should’ve gotten to the rim more against this opponent.”
On the combination of Jersey Wolfenbarger and Janiah Baker playing together
“They play really well together. And I don’t really know when it started and when it clicked. But she does a great job of finding Jersey and they play well off of each other. And that’s gonna be big. Jersey will cut really well when she gets doubled, and that makes it a hard matchup. And she does a phenomenal job, again, of making the right play, setting her teammates up for success. Not coming in and being like, ‘Hey, I’m gonna shoot it every single time.’ She passes it just as well as anyone on our team.”
On Kaiya Wynn’s return from injury
“It was great. I mean, I was happy and I try not to show a lot of emotion, but I was happy when that first bucket went in for her. Because I just know it’s been a long process for her, emotionally, physically, all of it. She’s given everything that she can to this program and so when that first one went in, I was like that’s gotta be a weight off of her shoulders. She’s got to be able to breathe now. And I thought she played really hard.”
On what Janiah Barker and Nya Robertson did to earn a starting role in the exhibition
“Yeah, I think that they had good weeks of practice coming off of the total body of work of what we had seen. And we didn’t really do it based off of anything previous other than the last few days that we had put together. And honestly, to me, it makes no difference who starts the game. I don’t care. I don’t even have to know. An assistant could pick it, I don’t care.”
On Nya Robertson’s game
“Nya is a very good shooter. She is one transfer that I don’t think has gotten a whole lot of notoriety. It’s been a lot of Jersey and it’s been a lot of JB and I think people forget she was the second leading scorer in the ACC. But we’re trying to get her percentages where they should be, where she’s taking efficient shots, she’s not taking volume shots. But her and Mia, I think, and Mya, are our best, most consistent 3-point shooters. And we’re gonna need them to really step up and take good shots and not be afraid to let it fly and knowing that their teammates are gonna go get their rebound if they do miss.”