Tuesday night, Tennessee Lady Vols basketball hosted Florida A&M for their exhibition game. Tennessee took a 132-63 win, with eight players scoring in double figures. After the game, Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell spoke with the media. Everything she said is below.

Opening statement

“I really appreciate Coach Gordon bringing her team. It was such a special moment to see her be welcomed back here. She is such a beautiful person and has a great light and pours into everyone she is around. Recruiting, she is so kind to every single coach that’s around her. She’s so nice to us. She did the same to our players today. A positive light. She is one of the most beautiful people that I have ever met, and I’ve just been around her for a short period of time. So we appreciate them coming to play us, and we wish them the best of luck.”

Do you have an update on Kennedy Fauntleroy after she went to the locker room?

“The update is she looks OK. She’ll see the doctor tomorrow, but she came running back on the floor, and I could have killed her for having that response. But we hope she’s OK.”

What does having eight players in double figures say about how your system is working?

“I love it when we can have a lot of players in double digits. You can get scoring from everywhere. I think we do have a deep team, and I think we have a very balanced team where multiple people can step up on any given night. More so than the eight people in double figures, I was excited with the fact that we had 26 assists. We were sharing the basketball, and we didn’t take very many shots on two passes. We passed the ball pretty well tonight.”

Did you expect Naomi White to lead the team with seven assists?

“Nope. I knew she was going to let it fly. No, she is such a great player, and she is a little bit of a gamer too. As a coaching staff, we were talking about her before the game, and I think we’ll see a little bit of a different spark. She always plays hard. She’s in the gym as much as, if not more than, anyone. So she deserved to have a great stat line. She always deserves to have a great stat line. I was proud of her assist numbers, and I think she was proud of her assist numbers.”

What did you think of freshman Gabby Minus’ performance?

“I was very proud of Gabby. She had those two rough shots early in the game, and she’s coming off to the sideline, and I’m trying to coach her up on the shots. I said, “Well, tell me about those two shots,” and the correct answer was, “I shot them too quick.” And she just grabbed me and said, “Coach, I’m so nervous.” That’s why tonight was so good. We had so many players that sat last year or sat part of last year, and two freshmen that got their debut, and it means something to them. They were nervous, and I think they settled into the game. That’s why you have these exhibitions, so that the first time out isn’t really the first time out.”

How did your point guards play on both ends of the floor?

“I thought they did a really good job of taking care of the ball. It’s been a number we’ve been trying to get down every day in practice. We had nine turnovers. I would have liked it to be a little bit lower tonight, but that number is going to fluctuate night to night just because we have so much new. But I thought they did a really good job of pushing pace and putting people in the right spots, and they took care of it.”

How encouraged were you by 92% free throw shooting after shooting 67.4% last season?

“I was very pleased with that. That was a great number for us. I was even more happy with how many times we got to the line. That’s always been something that’s really important to me as a coach, making sure we’re scoring from three, one and two. Getting to the foul line and getting those possessions is going to be really important for this team.”

How did your team perform with the press after the first few minutes?

“I think we were very aggressive in the press, almost too aggressive at times. There were some wide-open layups on the back end that we have to clean up, about when to rotate and when to rotate back. That will eventually start to bite us in the butt a little bit when we don’t make the right rotation of when to play off of each other. This time of year, I’m much more satisfied with aggressive mistakes than passive mistakes. It’s way easier to pull them off than it is to get them to go forward and be aggressive. And that’s who they’ve been since we put the press in, an aggressive team, a team that wants to get it right, a team that wants to get the ball back and play that way. So now we just have to clean it up going forward.”

Were you happy with 41 3-point attempts?

“It was a little bit high, because I think we could have gotten whatever shot we wanted at the rim. We are going to be a high-volume 3-point shooting team. I think we settled for some, especially early. I think we took some where we could have had layups at the rim. I think we are going to shoot at a higher percentage for the most part, but I did like the way we rebounded the ball when we weren’t shooting well. I liked that us not hitting threes didn’t make any difference whatsoever in our defensive intensity or our offensive rebounding effort.”

What do you want to clean up before the season opener Monday?

“We need to clean up our half-court defense. We’ve talked a lot through our scrimmage about knowing your personnel. We let their shooters have too many wide-open threes. We helped up too much right under the rim. Our scrambles on the back end once the press was broken need to be cleaned up. All of those things were pretty eye-opening. And we talked midgame about sharing the ball more on offense. I think early we were just shooting whatever the first shot was, and that’s not going to hold throughout the season. I think they did a really good job in real time of trying to do the right thing, making the right pass and swinging the ball sideline to sideline a little bit more.”

How important is attacking the offensive glass after 30 offensive rebounds and 42 second-chance points?

“We’re going to need that. That’s a big part of our offense, to try to go get those extra points, those extra possessions. On nights where you’re not shooting very well, you’re going to have four people in there that are really going to seek that ball to get another one. And that’s who we have to be consistently, night in and night out. Whether our opponents are short or tall, we have to go in there and get those possessions back.”

Was Kaylene Smikle with a game-high 19 points. Was her four-fouls a product of the aggressive defense?

“I think she is another player who, along with Jada and Aaliyah, hasn’t played in quite some time. So it’s a big deal for them to be back out there. I think all three of them came out playing very aggressive. They didn’t come out playing hesitant or timid, and they were ready for the moment. She wanted to get that ball back. She’s an aggressive player, and that’s how she plays. I think we’ll see her in foul trouble in some games this year, because she goes and gets the ball, and she is long, and she’s in your space. So that’s something we have to continue to work on with her in practice. 

“But I was proud of those three for stepping up to the moment. I’d rather have her be aggressive than just walking around and not guarding, and that’s something we can fix.

And to put it in perspective what it is like to sit out a season, Aaliyah Moore’s last basketball game that she played, Conor was three days old. He is now a whole human being, walking around, talking in full sentences. That’s a long time to not play basketball. I think she said it was 655 days or something since she’s played basketball, and I think she looked pretty good tonight. And K.K. too. She’d been sidelined for a season. You can only replicate fans so much, and I think they all enjoyed playing here today.”