Kim Caldwell doesn’t hold back after the Lady Vols’ blowout loss to the Kentucky Wildcats
On Thursday night in Lexington, the Lady Vols suffered their first double digit loss off the Kim Caldwell era.
Tennessee’s first six losses of the season came by seven points or less, unlike the Lady Vols’ 82-58 loss to the Kentucky Wildcats on Thursday which dropped UT’s record to 21-7.
Caldwell didn’t hold back after the game while meeting with reporters. The first year Tennessee head coach’s opening statement was short and to the point.
“Kentucky wanted that game more than us, and it wasn’t even close,” said Caldwell as she took her seat at the podium.
“We weren’t necessarily even really trying at times to get stops,” added Caldwell of the off night for the Lady Vols. “I thought we showed a little more quit than we normally do.”
“We talked as a staff we haven’t looked like this in a while,” continued Caldwell. “We haven’t looked just kind of dead behind the eyes and defeated and just no resolve, no pushback. And we haven’t looked like that in a while. When you play an effort-based system and you don’t have effort, or you have one player that decides to take a play off because they didn’t like the result on the other end of the floor, you’re going to get beat.”
Tennessee shot 31 percent from the field while hitting just 6-of-29 three point attempts (20 percent). Kentucky, meanwhile, shot 51 percent from the field.
The Lady Vols were also out-rebounded 52-31, which is the largest margin that Tennessee has been out-rebounded by this season.
“They were bigger than us, so we knew that they were going to get some,” said Caldwell of the lopsided rebounding margin. “But I don’t think we rebounded as a team.”
There’s no doubt that it was an ugly loss for the Lady Vols, but no one is immune from those kind of nights. Caldwell and her coaching staff will use this loss as a learning moment for the entire team. All it takes is not being completely locked in for an opponent to take control of a game and never look back.
It’s not a loss that anyone at Tennessee is happy about, but the Lady Vols will be a better team moving forward because of the loss to Kentucky.
