New Tennessee women's basketball coach Kim Caldwell said she hopes for the Lady Vols to be the "hardest-playing" team in the country next season.
Caldwell addressed media Tuesday in a news conference in Knoxville, Tennessee. Her hiring was initially announced Sunday, the day of the women's national championship game. Tennessee fired coach Kellie Harper, a Tennessee alum, on April 1.
Multiple big-name coaches were contacted by Tennessee about the job. Athletic director Danny White called the search -- which lasted less than a week -- "methodical."
"We weren't going to rush a decision," White said. "We cast a very wide net and we talked to basically anybody you could think of -- or connected to people who you could think of. Candidates at all different levels, all across the country. There was no stone unturned.
"The prerequisite for this search was something that I was unbending on -- how is this person going to bring us back to the top?"
Caldwell might seem a curious choice considering she has coached just one season at the Division I level, guiding Marshall to a 26-7 record this past season. The Thundering Herd were 17-1 in the Sun Belt Conference, won the league tournament and played in the NCAA tournament's first round. Before that, Caldwell coached at her alma mater, Glenville State in her native West Virginia, from 2016-23. She had a 191-24 record there and won the 2022 NCAA tournament Division II championship.
Caldwell also played at Glenville State from 2007-11.
Caldwell now enters the SEC, home to the past three national champions: South Carolina in 2022 and '24 and LSU in 2023. Perennial NCAA tournament teams Texas and Oklahoma are also joining the SEC this coming season. Making progress in areas that Harper was perceived as lacking in -- particularly recruiting -- will be an immediate task for Caldwell.
She joked Tuesday that a nice thing about being Tennessee's coach is that when she texts recruits now, they always respond.
White said Caldwell's full-court-press style will work for Tennessee and Caldwell agreed.
"I wouldn't be here if I didn't think we could do it here," Caldwell said. "We're going to play an exciting brand of basketball. We want to play fast, we want to play up-tempo. We want to be the hardest-playing team in the country."
Pat Summitt took over the new Tennessee women's basketball program in 1974 when she was just 22 years old. She won eight NCAA titles during a legendary career that ended when she stepped down in 2012 because of early-onset dementia, Alzheimer's type. She died in 2016.
Summitt's longtime assistant, Holly Warlick, was Tennessee's head coach until 2019. She was replaced then by Harper, who made it to the Sweet 16 twice. This season, Tennessee went 20-13 and lost to eventual Final Four team NC State 79-72 in the NCAA tournament's second round. Both Warlick and Harper played for Summitt with the Lady Vols.
"There is not a single person who has gone through this program who I could even come close to beating one-on-one," Caldwell said. "It is a remarkable program. I can't wait to connect with our former players and listen to their story. Hear their history and pass on what it means to be a Lady Vol and represent that in our program.
"Pat Summitt changed the game of basketball. And wouldn't she love to see where the game is now? I will never be Pat Summitt. Nobody can. But I will strive every day to be somebody that she would be proud of. [The players] are hungry to get back to the top of the SEC. We want to give Lady Vol nation something very exciting to watch. I know what this job means, and I will work every day to make sure I take care of this special program."