When it rains, it pours. The Lady Vols had very high expectations coming into the 2025-26 season, but the Lady Vols have slowly begun to fall off course after starting the year on a very positive note. Tennessee hasn't won a game since February 12, when they knocked off Missouri 98-53 in Knoxville.
The No. 6 seed Lady Vols opened up the SEC tournament yesterday against the No. 11 seed Alabama. The game didn't go nearly as planned. Tennessee lost 76-64 to an Alabama team they beat by 11 on the road in January. Yesterday marked the first time the Lady Vols have gone one and done in the SEC conference tournament since the 2016-17 season, and the seven-game losing skid is the longest in 50 years. It just doesn't get any worse than this. This team has hit rock bottom.
This is also the longest stretch of losses in over 50 years for Tennessee women’s basketball. https://t.co/bJ5ncLAH1N
— Emilie Rae Cochrane (@EmCochranetv) March 6, 2026
How does Tennessee bounce back from this?
At this point, many Lady Vols fans want head coach Kim Caldwell fired. The program ahs completel;y fallen off from where it once was. Caldwell had a solid year last year, making the sweet 16, but now it seems like the Lady Vols have taken multiple steps back instead of forward. In the loss to Alabama, Kim Caldwell benched star Talaysia Cooper, who went to the team bus when the rest of the Lady Vols were in the locker room. After the game, Caldwell said, "It was a coach’s decision, and we just wanted to give her some air. I think your emotions can get running, and just wanted to get her outside and with the staff members, so she could breathe."
The Lady Vols will be in the NCAA Tournament, but making any sort of deep run feels like wishful thinking. Tennessee will likely be anywhere from a No. 7-9 seed and will have to play an elite program if they win their round one game. Athletic Director Danny White is still in support of Caldwell, so fans who want to see Caldwell gone will likely have to wait another year. Caldwell still has time to get the sour taste out of Tennessee fans' mouths with a deep run, but the way things are looking, it feels like a long shot that this team lives up to the hype it once had.