Nikki Caldwell will return to her basketball home this evening, probably prompting Tennessee fans to wonder if they eventually will welcome her back for good.
Ever since the former UT player and assistant coach became a head coach, there has been speculation about her one day succeeding Pat Summitt as the Lady Vols basketball coach. The speculation became more relevant last summer when Summitt announced she had been diagnosed with having early onset dementia, Alzheimer's type.
Caldwell has a prominent place in Tennessee basketball. She was a high school basketball star at Oak Ridge before she won national championships with the Lady Vols as both a player and assistant.
She has only enhanced her résumé since becoming a head coach, first at UCLA and now at LSU, which has won 13 of 17 games and is 4-1 in the SEC going into tonight's game at Thompson-Boling Arena.
She knows about the UT coaching speculation and acknowledges it could be used against her in negative recruiting. But she's adamant about wanting to be at LSU a long time, and just as adamant that UT won't have to look beyond its campus for Summitt's successor.
"People need to understand there are people on (Summitt's) staff more qualified," Caldwell said. "( Holly Warlick's) résumé matches Coach Summitt's. Her résumé is tremendous.
"She has carried the responsibilities of a head coach. She has recruited
and scouted. She bleeds orange and white. To me, Holly has really stepped up in a big way (this season), along with the rest of the (assistant) coaches."
Caldwell insists she isn't interested in job-hopping. She was happy at UCLA, where she won 72 games in three seasons and might have stayed if the Bruins had come close to matching LSU's offer, which more than doubled her salary, for Caldwell and her staff.
"I'm very appreciative of everything Tennessee has given me," she said. "But at the same time, I have a job to do at LSU. I'm very committed to this program and these young ladies."
Her first season at LSU became significant even before it started. In November, she announced she was pregnant. Or, as she put it in making the announcement, "Looking to have a March Madness baby."
The baby already is having an impact on the team.
"The team has been amazing about it," Caldwell said. "They have their little routine now when we high-five each other. Now, they high-five the belly."
Even as Caldwell prepares to start a new family, it's impossible to ignore her Tennessee family on nights like this. She's friends with everyone on Summitt's staff. Since 2007, she and Warlick have made an annual cross-country motorcycle trip to raise money for breast-cancer awareness. But the UT bench won't come close to accounting for her friends in attendance.
"We're trying to scrounge as many tickets as we can for 60 or 70 people, family and friends," Caldwell said. "I'm looking forward to seeing everybody."
Her affection extends to the program. But it won't distract her from the task at hand, which she stated very clearly in her introductory news conference at LSU. She talked about competing for championships and embraced the challenge of going "toe-to-toe" with Tennessee.
Tonight, she gets her first chance.
John Adams is a senior columnist. He may be reached at 865-342-6284 or adamsj@knoxnews.com. Follow him at http://twitter.com/johnadamskns.
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Comments » 17
Vol-Shy writes:
Nikki will be back! Maybe not right after Pat, but before its said and done Nikki Caldwell will be the University of Tennessee women's basketball head coach
pingkr62 writes:
One minor mistake, Nikki Caldwell played high school ball at Collierville.
iowa_vol writes:
She is right that the first choice should be Holly Warlick. Perhaps one day she will come home.
KNSsports (staff) writes:
Nikki Caldwell played at Oak Ridge. Nikki McCray played at Collierville.
BigVolinCarolina writes:
You're mixing-up your "Nikki's". Nikki McCray played high school ball at Collierville; however, Nikki Caldwell played high school ball at Oak Ridge. They both played at UT during the same time-period, though.
Hacksaw57 writes:
We have an "Allstar" staff at Tennessee. Holly, Mickey and Dean would be Head coaches anywhere else. All in due time - right now, Pat IS our HEAD COACH and until SHE decides NOT to be, that's the way it SHOULD be. It's HER decision, no one else's, as far as I'm concerned.
madrigal writes:
Mickie tried head coaching and it didn't work so well for her, apparently. Some people are just not cut out to be head coaches and I think Holly may be one of those. Of what we've got, I'd probably vote for Dean, but would love to have either Nikki Caldwell or Kellie Harper back at UT.
chuckfromwoodberry writes:
If we hold true to form, we won't hire Nikki or Holly. We'll go after the high school coach from Deer Lick Montana to match the other "economical" coaches we hired in the last few years.
Witch_Doctors writes:
"So Nikki even though Pat is still the coach with no hint of retiring anytime soon, would you like to destroy your recruiting by telling us how you will abandon LSU and those players at the drop of a hat and return to Knoxville?"
Witch Doctor say shes a helluva a poker player! lol. Witch Doctor say when that day comes(no one wants to think about) there will hundreds wanting that job including her.
Bones never lie.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
I agree. Not every coach aspires to be a head coach. While every assistant often wishes he or she had more input into a team's plans and such, it is a different matter to have to make final decisions on these things. Besides, there is SO much more that goes into being head coach at a place like UT that a person must be as much diplomat, media star, fund raiser, and chief recruiter as an on-court basketball coach, and not everybody wants their lives to be consumed by all that.
On the issue of who on the current staff would do the better job, I don't have a favorite right now, but I would prefer it NOT be Dean Lockwood. I have nothing AT ALL against Lockwood, but I do believe that the historical-standard women's basketball program should be coached by a woman. I don't consider coaching women's basketball demeaning to a male coach, but until women have as good a chance to coach a men's team as men have to coach a women's team, I vastly prefer to have at least the "plum" positions filled by women. If that makes me a "reverse sexist", so be it.
SummittsCourt writes:
Holly Warlick is handling a lot of the "PR" duties that Pat used to handle. It's obvious to me that if Pat decides to step down in the next year or two Holly will get the first call. However, don't be surprised if Holly goes out with Pat.
I can't see Nikki Caldwell coming back to coach at UT, at least not anytime soon and at least not right after Pat. That doesn't make sense to me to keep the continuity lines going.
It's either Holly or Dean who will take over.
However, I can see Pat coaching for 3 or 4 more years or longer depending on the progression of her disease.
johnlg00#206211 writes:
Good one, Witchy! That is why you get all these "no comment" and "nobody has contacted me" and "I'm happy where I am" and other degrees of public denial when the topic of coaching vacancies comes up. When the LV vacancy does occur, Nikki will be contacted in some fashion and she will consider it. After all, even if she is offered considerably less than Pat gets, the figure would still probably double her LSU salary.
pingkr62 writes:
Pardon me, I stand corrected.
DougSharp writes:
I recently heard Pat say in an interview that she planned on coaching another five seasons, (this year included) yet I get the impression John Adams would like to step up the timetable. The journalistic-Puppetmeister is at work again....Never underestimate the power of the pen/keyboard.
davids2010 writes:
I beg to differ….I think the only thing or person Caldwell is committed to is Caldwell….
She’s figured out the formula for success and is working hard to achieve that….she’s now in the ‘hired gun’ phase working for whoever is willing to pay the most, completely dismissing all other considerations…the American way..
AllforTenn writes:
When can we point to your successor?
pbishop06#1404960 writes:
We don't know when coach Summitt will retire, so let's not speculate on her successor until she makes that decision.
Pastor Pat
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