Tennessee hires Marshall’s Kim Caldwell as coach

Tennessee AD Danny White has moved quickly and gone outside the Lady Vols’ program in hiring Marshall coach Kim Caldwell, only its fourth coach in the NCAA era.

White announced the hiring Sunday, within a couple of hours of the women’s national championship game. It’s a game Tennessee has not played in since 2008, when it won its eighth and last national title under late coach Pat Summitt.

Caldwell, 34, will be introduced at a news conference Tuesday, wrapping up a search that started April 1 when White fired Kellie Harper after five seasons at her alma mater; Harper went 108-52. She replaced Holly Warlick, promoted to replace Summitt and fired after going 172-67 in seven seasons.

“Our goal has been to find a dynamic head coach who can restore our women’s basketball program to national prominence,” White said in a statement. “Kim Caldwell is the ideal person to lead us.”

Tennessee will pay Caldwell $750,000 annually through March 2029 under the memorandum of understanding signed Sunday. The agreement includes a pay raise for any season she wins a national title.

Caldwell won the NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year award for her work at Marshall, going 26-7 to earn the program’s second NCAA Tournament berth and first since 1997. She is 217-31 in eight seasons as a head coach. She led her alma mater, Glenville (W.Va.) State, to the 2022 Division II national title and earned an NCAA Tournament berth in each of her seven seasons there. Caldwell won the Pat Summitt Trophy in 202122 as the NCAA Division II coach of the year.

ROBERT SIMMONS/AP 2024 Kim Caldwell, who spent one season as Marshall’s coach, takes over one of the most storied programs in women’s athletics with her hiring at Tennessee. She also coached for seven seasons at Division II Glenville (W.Va.) State.