Lady Vols basketball hit an all-time low Sunday

Kim Caldwell‘s team was blown out by No. 3 South Carolina 93-50 in Columbia, the 43-point margin of defeat setting a benchmark as the largest in program history. The shellacking came on the heels of a 30-point loss to UConn a week prior, which led to Caldwell being asked postgame about the two hefty losses in a short timeframe.

Caldwell quickly turned it on her players, none of whom were made available to the media post game. 

“That’s a question for them about why they can’t stick together,” Caldwell said of why her team has been blown out two of the last three games.

On her postgame radio show, Caldwell said the message to her team was simple. It has to reset as it heads home for two games at Food City Center.

“I wouldn’t blame anyone if they didn’t show up,” Caldwell said. “But it will be nice to get back home. We have been on the road. It doesn’t get any easier. Thursday needs to be a reset game for us. We need to play hard and continue to move forward. We have a lot of SEC play left. We can’t linger on this one.” 

The question is where does Caldwell and her team go from here? 

“They have to fix it,” Caldwell said. “They have to decide they want to fix it.” 

Fixing it appears to be effort especially and not wilting when things start going bad.

“We just had a lot of quit in us today and that’s something that’s been consistent with our team,” Caldwell stated. “When we are not comfortable and things don’t go our way, I have a team that will just quit on you and can’t do that in big games. You can’t do that in the SEC. You certainly can’t do it at a program like this.”

South Carolina outscored the Lady Vols 46-18 in the second half Sunday. At UConn, the Huskies outscored the Lady Vols 54-24 in the second half. In those two losses, Caldwell’s squad allowed the Huskies to shoot 59% from the field and South Carolina shot 69% on Sunday.

Meanwhile, Tennessee was just 10 of 44 from the 3-point line. It was just 7 of 38 in the final three quarters. Tennessee’s 18 second-half points matched its total in the first quarter. It didn’t score for more than seven minutes in the fourth quarter. In the final three periods, 38 of Tennessee’s 48 shots were 3-point attempts as they fell in a way never before seen in program history.

“I don’t know if they are going to change or make a change,” Caldwell said of her players on the Lady Vols radio network. “I’m never going to quit trying to get them to see it. I think we have a few that do see it. But they can’t continue to do the same thing and us continue to get blown out,”

The bad news for the Lady Vols is they play five top-13 teams in their final seven games. One of the two unranked teams is up next and it’s not good news either: former Lady Vols coach Kellie Harper and Missouri come to town on Thursday.