Why Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell likes her revamped staff

In addition to overhauling the roster, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell made multiple changes to her coaching staff following the season.

Caldwell hired Florida State assistant coach Bill Ferrara and Georgia assistant coach Isoken Uzamere.

On The Mike Keith Show, Caldwell said both hires have been great additions.

Uzamere was obviously key to the Lady Vols landing Georgia transfers Rylie Theuerkauf and Zhen Craft. Uzamere has been key in other portal additions as well as high school signee Irene Oboavwoduo, who is from England.

“Coach E is a phenomenal human being,” Caldwell said. “Such a light to be around. A great recruiter. Can relate to all of our players. She’s someone that can sit here and talk your head off which is very opposite of me. It’s been great at these visits. She will just put on a show and talk. She can relate to players really well and she’s not a really good job hitting the ground running for us.”

The hiring of Ferrara was important for Caldwell because of his background in offensive basketball. Ferrara has long been a part of up tempo fast pace offenses, which was important for Caldwell as she looked for shared philosophies. 

“Our offense was not the way we wanted it to look last year. It’s not the way it’s looked any year in my career. Coach Bill (Ferrera) is a firm believer in playing fast,” Caldwell said. “I think he and I have battled throughout our careers at who can lead the nation in scoring. No better way than to just pair up and work together. He sees basketball through the same lens I do in playing in transition, playing fast, shooting a lot of three’s.

In Caldwell’s first season, the Lady Vols had 2528 field goal attempts, which included 1054 three pointers. This past season, the attempts fell to 2026 and 917 three pointers. On a per game average, Caldwell’s first two teams averaged the same number of three point attempts a game with 31. 

But overall field goals, Caldwell’s first team averaged seven more attempts a game than this past year’s team averaged.

The head coach talked about moving to plan B last season and not sticking to her philosophies on offense. With the addition of shooters and a lesson learned, Caldwell is clear in how she wants her offense to operate. 

“We want to play fast, we want to play in transition. We recruited to play fast and in transition but our half court sets didn’t match the pace of our offense.,” Caldwell said of a year ago. “Just making sure our entire system is married together in that when we are running sets they are quick hitters and they are still working to create space. Then you have shooters to where once you have a gap you can get to the rim. The main thing is we want to score in the first 12 seconds (of a possession). We need to get back go that.”