ARE THE LADY VOLS READY?? Kim Caldwell Selection Sunday Press Conference Reaction.

In this episode of The MidMajors Podcast, Tacarra and Courtney react to the Selection Sunday press conference from Kim Caldwell following the announcement of the NCAA Women's Basketball Tournament bracket. We break down Coach Caldwell’s tone, confidence, and insights as Tennessee Lady Volunteers Women's Basketball prepares for tournament play. 

From team chemistry and preparation to coaching style and mindset, we analyze what her comments reveal about Tennessee heading into March Madness.

Transcript

SPEAKER_05 0:08

Kim Codwill gave her thoughts about her team headed to the tournament. Let's talk about it. Welcome to the Mid Majors podcast where the real hoop talk happens unfiltered and unapologetic. I am your host, Dakara. And with me, I got my girl Courtney. And we are the Mid Majors. Baby, we're still on a roll. We're on a roll. If you haven't watched our last few videos, we have we're doing press conferences going from Selection Sunday, well, after Selection Sunday going into the tournaments. Um, so like I said, I'm gonna attach them to this video. Please go subscribe and make sure that you guys like the video. Now we are going to watch Kim Cotwell's press conference. If there's one in particular that you guys think that we need to see, we got into what Friday?

SPEAKER_06 0:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_05 0:56

What yeah, so you better better send them. We're reacting, okay? So we're reacting. This is fun. I need to see that.

SPEAKER_06 1:02

And let us know when you send them. Like, this is a reaction video so that we don't watch them. So we can watch them on here. Right. So you can get a real reaction. Right.

SPEAKER_05 1:11

The first time. First time, right. Okay, so let's tap into oh, Kim here. Let's see what sis had to say.

SPEAKER_03 1:23

But just kind of your initial reaction, the team's initial reaction to seeing your job in the NCAA tournament. Yeah, I think that their reaction was the reaction that I you always want to see as a coach. You want to have some life, you want to be fired up, and you want March to matter and for you to be excited. And when you have five days of practice, you're just excited to get an opponent.

SPEAKER_04 1:43

We surprised that you got a rematch in the first round.

SPEAKER_03 1:46

I was surprised with that. You've seen the boards, you've seen the different scenarios, you look at it, I was surprised with our matchup. We didn't have that one picked.

SPEAKER_04 1:54

Do you like having a rematch? Is there an advantage to it?

SPEAKER_03 1:57

Um I don't love having to play a team that we've already played, but it's not a game where it was. I think we're both very different teams.

SPEAKER_06 2:08

Who do they play again? They play NC State. There it is. That's gonna be a good game, though.

SPEAKER_05 2:18

So they play So they play NC State. That is gonna be a good one. I'm excited about that. That's gonna be a good game. What time what day is that? They should have the time set for that one. Um March 20th at 8 p.m. So that's Friday. That's Friday. 8 p.m. Okay. Well, you want to tap in? Yeah, we can do that one. We can tap in for that one.

SPEAKER_06 2:36

Cool. Now, my birthday is on Saturday. Saturday, y'all. So I might be a little for the show.

SPEAKER_05 2:43

Might be a little tipsy. They love that. That makes sense. Love that for you. Okay.

SPEAKER_02 2:50

Both different. Since it was so long ago, do you look back at that game at all?

SPEAKER_03 2:54

Or yeah, we do. We we look back at it and we look and see. We had a lot of individual players get a lot better since then. They've had a lot of individual players get a lot better since then. You're it wasn't a good game. You go and you look at the percentages and you look at the game all the way around. It wasn't a great game. And and again, I think we've we're both different, but you do you do look at it.

SPEAKER_01 3:11

Who's taking the biggest leap since that game?

SPEAKER_03 3:13

I think Naya has. In what way? Uh, she was taking some wild shots at the rim. Um, she's much more confident, she's playing much more under control. She's more of a leader for us now. I think she again has her feet under her and understands a lot more. And so going back and watching the tape. You're fresh, our freshmen have all grown up, and then that's fun to see, but I think she's Naya's a completely different player.

SPEAKER_01 3:35

Have you guys watched it back as a teen recently?

SPEAKER_03 3:37

We're going to.

SPEAKER_01 3:37

Oh, okay. What do you think Naya's reaction will be to seeing how she was?

SPEAKER_03 3:42

Yeah, I'll be interested to see what she thinks about it and kind of get you know what we've told her all year if she can kind of go back and look at the old version of herself and see that.

SPEAKER_02 3:50

What do you feel like NC State does better now than you guys last song?

SPEAKER_03 3:53

Yeah, I think that they guard better than they did game one. I think that they rebound better. I think that they have again two dominant guards, and obviously on the inside, we didn't do a very good job rebounding with uh Camille, and we have to fix that.

SPEAKER_04 4:06

What's been the focus of the last week or so since the SEC Charlie?

SPEAKER_03 4:09

Yeah, it's again, it feels really good to have an opponent. Um you're trying to get your legs back under you, you're trying to get some juice back, you're trying to get as much skill as you can. It's a long break, it's very different than the men where you have a lot of practices, and so trying to try to be back to who we want to be and playing fast and again getting some rest, but while still trying to get a feel back for how we want to rotate and things.

SPEAKER_05 4:32

It need to be team bonding.

SPEAKER_06 4:37

Maybe walking across some some tight ropes or something.

SPEAKER_05 4:43

It need to be skating rink, team movies, it team, yeah, yeah. Watching a movie night, sleepover, massage night, something, spa day, going to get the nails done, get your locks retwisted. I don't know. Damn. I don't know. It needs to be team bonding. That need that need to be the first two days. That's the court stuff at the time.

SPEAKER_06 5:11

Listen, team bonding should have been happening after that last game.

SPEAKER_05 5:14

Hey, it's that's what it should. We need to be, you know.

SPEAKER_06 5:17

We should have been doing some team.

SPEAKER_05 5:18

Um by ya.

SPEAKER_03 5:21

Okay. Yeah. What did you think? Yeah, um, we took a couple days off, and then when we got back, we got back to work. We had a couple days that were just purely individual skill, and I think that's kind of a nice break from the traditional practices that you have for four straight months of where okay, we can work on you, we can do some ball handling, we can do some finishing, we can do some one-on-one, we can play some three-on-three. Really just getting some conditioning in, but working on individual skill and then getting back to it. Um, didn't have practice guys, so they're our practice guys came back last night, so they were excited. We had some juice into the practice going right into the selection show, and then our we should have a full practice squad today, which they definitely helped make us better, and they like going against the guys much better than themselves.

SPEAKER_04 6:06

Is there anything that's really stood out to you at this week of practice?

SPEAKER_03 6:09

Yeah, I think uh the twins have really locked in. It's exciting to see the young ones how excited they are, and sometimes you take this out.

SPEAKER_05 6:20

Interesting.

SPEAKER_06 6:22

For granted. You know what's crazy though? Like I Tennessee really has good pieces. They have really good, good, good, good pieces.

SPEAKER_05 6:37

That's they there's some they're a team that we should be talking more about of like contenders, suite 16, Elite. If for what the heck, we should be having that discussion. But we saying they need to have Team Bondic.

SPEAKER_06 6:49

It's crazy, and the crazy part is the the discussion around like uh how far Tennessee goes in the tournament, it's gonna be an upset no matter who they beat. And I think that's crazy. Crazy. You get what I'm saying? Like, it's gonna be an upset for whoever they beat when it's just like it shouldn't even be considered that, right? Because they really do have the pieces and the talent. Um so I I'm I'll be interested to see if I see a shift in like the the coaching moving forward into the like going well, like going well, going with it. I would like to see like just excitement, hype, excitement, fire, like, and it's like if you gonna let them rock and let them play, like you gotta be with you gotta be loose just like that.

SPEAKER_05 7:38

Right.

SPEAKER_06 7:38

You get what I'm saying?

SPEAKER_05 7:40

She's always like up tight though. Like she's uptight in this damn interview. Like, uh yeah. I mean, like said, relax, sis.

SPEAKER_06 7:47

I know, I know we Kim Kim is like, yeah, yeah. Kim Moki, no, I'm sorry, Kim Moki. She's like in her interview, she's like, I mean, hey.

SPEAKER_05 7:57

She's like super chill, like, but we got job security and we got we we don't know. Okay, baby. That's my point. She don't know. She don't know. We don't know. We got job security and we got baby I'm on edge.

SPEAKER_06 8:13

Hey, I bet Kim better give it all she got. I'm that's what I'm trying to see a coaching clinic fact from the tournament.

SPEAKER_05 8:20

Yeah, I'm trying to see her slap the full slap the floor face.

SPEAKER_06 8:24

I'm trying to see cut somebody out, cut somebody out. That's what I'm trying to see. I want to I want to see Kim lose her shit. That's what that's what I want to see.

SPEAKER_03 8:36

Jesus. Sometimes you take playing in March, oh, it's supposed to happen, it's supposed to be here, and then you we have a lot of players that have never done it. And I think that was the best part about last night is to see how excited they were because it means something. And a lot of players go their entire career and they never get to see a selection show and they never get to keep playing. There's a lot of teams that are done. Thanks. What does it mean to you? I mean, you're not taking it for granted. Your second year here. Yeah, you know, I'm in a situation too where throughout my career we've always got in and we've always known we were gonna get in. And sometimes you have to have those conversations with yourself of hey, you still have to try to enjoy today, you still have to try to make the most of this and make a memory here. And you know, sometimes in this profession you have some selection shows that aren't fun, and but they should all be fun. They should all be fun.

SPEAKER_01 9:17

What impact do you see having on the younger players knowing that they're part of a historic streak that continues with the appearances in the party?

SPEAKER_03 9:24

And they helped to do it, and I think that they understand that and think that they they wanted to videotape it on their phones and they wanted to record it and they wanted to have those memories and they deserve that. They earn that.

SPEAKER_00 9:34

Seeing different celebrations, were you surprised nobody here like a dance move or anything like that?

SPEAKER_03 9:38

Yeah, I was a little concerned. I didn't we we talked about it a little bit beforehand, um, but I I think it was authentically them and it was good.

SPEAKER_05 9:48

Because they was what late for practice doing a TikTok, right? Apparently, uh that's what y'all let us know if y'all heard this or not.

SPEAKER_06 9:56

We did hear something about them being late for practice.

SPEAKER_05 9:59

They were late to practice because they was doing a TikTok or something like that, apparently. Baby, this post has to get off, okay? Baby.

SPEAKER_06 10:11

You know what they did when they probably came back?

SPEAKER_05 10:13

This is for NIL. Okay.

SPEAKER_06 10:14

Look, the the I need to post this.

SPEAKER_05 10:17

The algorithm says three o'clock, baby.

SPEAKER_06 10:19

This is my job.

SPEAKER_05 10:20

I need to post this. Okay. The algorithm says that everybody owns it three. If the post is getting done at three.

SPEAKER_06 10:27

I get 5,000 a post from this brand. Okay. I'm posting it. Free this practice.

SPEAKER_02 10:34

Did you have done any dance minutes? Absolutely not. It's denying back and practice expect your feet about both.

SPEAKER_05 10:41

And maybe that's what she needs to do. Maybe her ass needs to dance. She needs to dance. She needs to get in the TikTok.

SPEAKER_06 10:47

She gotta loosen up. I saw Oklahoma State's coach. She over there. Yeah. Yeah. You gotta hit that song. That I don't know. I don't know the song. I just know that. That's all I'm saying. They doing that to the flex. That wasn't a dance. Oh, girl, they doing something now. They doing some rap and they go, you know, they do the oh Jesus.

SPEAKER_05 11:05

And then you like like this. Absolutely not. Like she said. Okay.

SPEAKER_03 11:10

Yeah. Uh she should be back today in practice, and then um Jania's a little banged up. She'll be limited today, other than every once in a while.

SPEAKER_00 11:19

Like this is new life for you on the team right now.

SPEAKER_03 11:21

I hope so. I hope so. Um, I think again Corey would have said yes.

SPEAKER_05 11:26

Oh no, Corey Close would've said yes.

SPEAKER_06 11:30

Like that's yeah, that's how prepared.

SPEAKER_05 11:32

But I mean, like, that's yeah, like Corey Close would have said absolutely, even if she didn't believe it or not.

SPEAKER_03 11:43

You are going through spring break, you're going not on a great note coming out the SEC tournament, and you're just trying to get through some things, and then we're coming off of a good practice from last night. Now we have an opponent, we have an opponent that we've already played, we have motivation to try to make up for something that we didn't do well the first time. And I think hopefully, if I know my team that they're gonna be fired up, oh sorry, we'll walk into that film room um to try to go do better than we did round one.

SPEAKER_02 12:10

Is there anything you go ahead after the fractions are revealed, my neighbors were just talking about the break and talk about resetting and getting back to what you were good at during the season, really kind of focusing on that. Is that kind of the approach you've taken with the team?

SPEAKER_03 12:21

Yeah, I think so. I think we had a stretch there where we looked really good and we definitely didn't sustain it. And it's not we're not chasing something we haven't seen, we're chasing something that we have done. It's really easy to get lost in it and say, oh no, that doesn't work. Well, we need to just get back to a version that we were there for a month. Um, and that's kind of what this break has been about.

SPEAKER_01 12:42

When you look back to last year's tournament, do you think there's anything from that experience that you'll use to your advantage the second time around?

SPEAKER_03 12:49

Yeah, I think that last year we did a really good job as a team. We were really senior-led. Uh, it was all about the team. It was all about, hey, let's get as far as we can go. Uh, we had a common goal as a team to make it to the Sweet 16 Elite Eight last year, and no matter what, everyone was gonna do that. We did a really good job last year of returning the page and we had it better energy. We looked like a different team. We came out with great energy to start our our first two round games. Um, I'm hopeful we that but we can get there this time.

SPEAKER_05 13:17

So we don't have that this year. Got it.

SPEAKER_06 13:19

Exactly. You preferred your team last year than to this one, and hopefully, hopefully they come to show up and play, and hopefully they're ready to play.

SPEAKER_05 13:32

Got it.

SPEAKER_06 13:32

That's not, that's not, I don't feel if you're a Tennessee fan, you should be a little nervous. I'm not compliment. Okay. Um, you should be a little, I don't know. I I don't know. Hope hopefully they're ready. Hopefully.

SPEAKER_05 13:47

Hopefully. Who else is there? Wait, y'all have a good one. Yes. Yeah. Bye bye.