After facing a lot of backlash for sitting out several beloved seniors during Senior Night, Tennessee Volunteers head coach Kim Caldwell is in hot water again. The coach downplayed one of her senior players leaving the program because of that Senior Night benching and said she is focusing on the SEC Tournament. The next day, however, the Vols got upset by Alabama and got eliminated in the first round.
During the game, she decided to bench one of her best players, star guard Talaysia Cooper, and many pointed to this benching as one of the reasons for the Vols losing. Soon enough, several fans were asking the University of Tennessee to fire Kim Caldwell.
There were a lot of calls to fire Caldwell, while others were also saying that a lot of the team members might enter the transfer portal because of this.
“Fire Kim,” said one fan.
“If this lady, Caldwell isn’t fired by 9am it is a travesty!,” said another fan.
“lol this lady gonna be coaching in Ghana soon lol,” another person added.
“You can tell she doesn’t want to be the coach anymore.,” claimed another commenter.
“Cooper is done. She loves her team mates but is done with how the season went and the coaching,” said another person regarding Talaysia Cooper probably hitting the transfer portal soon.
“Whole team is going to hit the portal & say goodbye to Edwards! She def going to decommit! 🤦♂️” predicted another person.
The Crimson Tide defeated the Vols to get to the second round of the SEC Tournament 76-64. The Vols were the No. 6 seed entering the contest, while the Tide were the No. 11 seed, which makes the upset all the more jarring as Tennessee came in as the overwhelming favorites.
Kim Caldwell Talks About Upset Loss vs. Alabama
During the postgame, Caldwell admitted that Bama had thoroughly outplayed them and stated that they currently have the “hardest schedule in the country” and should still make the NCAA tournament despite losing to the Crimson Tide.
“We had too many turnovers tonight. I think we got outworked, outplayed, outcoached from the very start,” she said.
The Vols still have a big chance to make it to the tournament, but that loss to Alabama would very much hurt their chances of making it.
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