Lady Vols basketball hosted its annual media day to preview Kim Caldwell’s first season in Knoxville on Wednesday.
Tennessee will take the court for an exhibition against Carson-Newman on Oct. 31 (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+) before opening the season against Samford on Nov. 5 (6:30 p.m. ET, SEC Network+).
Here are four takeaways from the day.
Jillian Hollingshead in concussion protocol
Caldwell said the team is “a little banged-up” but none of them are major injuries outside of senior guard Kaiya Wynn, who was announced out for the season Tuesday with a torn Achilles.
Senior forward Jillian Hollingshead, who is in concussion protocol, was not present at Market Square Madness on Friday because of the noise level and lights. Caldwell said Hollingshead is returning this week, but is still in protocol and limited in practice.
“She can shoot, but she’s still not full contact yet,” Caldwell said. “Then we have a few more that are banged-up, but they should be back, hopefully, by the exhibition.”
Hollingshead has been in concussion protocol at least once in each of her three seasons at Tennessee. As a sophomore, she missed the Virginia Tech loss because of a concussion and last season, she missed UT’s loss to Middle Tennessee State with one.
Start to the season is ‘not going to be pretty’
Caldwell has cautioned that the first month of the season may be “horrendous,” but by January, in the past, her teams hit their stride. She said even in the exhibition, the team is still going to be “pretty raw” and they may turn the ball over and foul a lot.
“I promise you, it’s not going to be pretty,” she said. “We want to play hard. We want to force the pace. We want to be all over the floor. We want to be a team that somebody hates to play, but we’re still going to make a lot of mistakes.”
The start to the season is something Caldwell talks about with the team. She tells them they’re going to be significantly better by January, and the players have to trust that.
“Generally, our numbers will go up in the past. I don’t know that will be the same going into SEC play,” Caldwell said. “But they will get better. They will get more confident, and they will get more comfortable.”
How Kim Caldwell determines starters
Caldwell decides starters a little differently, and some people aren’t fans of it.
It’s based on player productivity in the previous game. Whoever had the best productivity in one game will start the next.
Caldwell has had teams in the past where the same people start every game because they all had consistent production. Some of her teams have had different starters every game.
“We don’t really have to fool with starting lineups a lot,” she said. “It’s earned every single game.”
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Jewel Spear having a solid preseason
The general consensus among teammates is that senior guard Jewel Spear looks great in practice, and it showed Wednesday.
Spear was hitting 3-pointers with confidence and finishing around the rim at a high clip. Her boost in confidence from last year is obvious, and Caldwell called Spear “remarkable.”
“She’s a phenomenal leader, will put people in the right spot. She’s an absolute gamer,” Caldwell said. “She comes in every day with a great mindset of not only getting better herself, but making people around her better.”
Cora Hall covers University of Tennessee women’s athletics. Email her at cora.hall@knoxnews.com and follow her on Twitter @corahalll. If you enjoy Cora’s coverage, consider a digital subscription that allows you to access all of it.
