{"id":1163346,"date":"2026-02-22T20:41:47","date_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:41:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/?p=1163346"},"modified":"2026-02-22T20:41:47","modified_gmt":"2026-02-23T01:41:47","slug":"espn-analyst-slams-tennessees-kim-caldwell-over-abandoning-her-team","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/espn-analyst-slams-tennessees-kim-caldwell-over-abandoning-her-team\/","title":{"rendered":"ESPN analyst slams Tennessee's Kim Caldwell over abandoning her team"},"content":{"rendered":"

ESPN analyst slams Tennessee’s Kim Caldwell over abandoning her team<\/a> originally appeared on The Sporting News<\/a>.
\n Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by clicking here<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

Tennessee\u2019s recent skid drew national attention Sunday when ESPN analyst Andraya Carter publicly challenged Lady Vols coach Kim Caldwell\u2019s handling of her team\u2019s struggles.<\/p>\n

During a segment on College GameDay, Carter reacted to Caldwell\u2019s blunt postgame remarks following a 43-point loss to South Carolina on Feb. 8. Caldwell criticized her players\u2019 response to adversity, saying, \u201cWe just had a lot of quit in us tonight,\u201d and later added the performance was \u201cembarrassing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter said such comments can send the wrong message.<\/p>\n

\ud83d\udc40 ESPN’s @Andraya_Carter<\/a> Calls Out Kim Caldwell: “She has a lot of things to figure out” and the team “has no belief.” “If you’re a coach, you are required to figure out a system that fits your players. There’s no amount of NIL money that can buy buy-in.” \ud83d\udc40 #LadyVols<\/a>#SEC<\/a>pic.twitter.com\/PEDlNjKv6w<\/a><\/p>\n

\u2014 The Ball Out (@theballoutmedia) February 22, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cYou should never say that your team has a lot of quit,\u201d Carter said on the broadcast. \u201cYou never want to tell the fans that are watching and spending money to come watch your players that they\u2019re quitting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tennessee has dropped four of its last five games, not including a 30-point loss to No. 1 UConn to start out the month of February. Caldwell has wanted urgency, repeatedly saying the solution is simple to \u201cWin your next game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Carter argued the issue goes beyond effort. She questioned whether the Lady Vols believe in their system, pointing to heavy reliance on 3-point shooting and aggressive trapping defense that can leave the team vulnerable in transition.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you\u2019re struggling, you\u2019ve got to believe in yourself, the system and the staff,\u201d Carter said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t look like they know who to turn to.\u201d<\/p>\n

More:\u00a0<\/strong>Mark Cuban says women’s college basketball stars must stop taking a WNBA pay cut<\/a><\/p>\n

Carter added that buy-in cannot be purchased or demanded. \u201cThere\u2019s no amount of NIL money that can buy buy-in,\u201d she said. \u201cYou have to create it collectively.\u201d<\/p>\n

The spotlight now turns to Caldwell as Tennessee searches for answers down the stretch of SEC play. They face three ranked opponent (No. 11 Oklahoma, No. 7 LSU and No. 5 Vanderbilt) to end the regular season.\u00a0<\/p>\n

More college basketball news:<\/h2>\n

Adrian Autry buyout, contract details as Syracuse Orange coach<\/a>Darryn Peterson situation not alarming to NBA teams, ESPN insider says<\/a>AJ Dybantsa makes college basketball history never done by NBA stars<\/a>John Calipari says college athletics is broken \u2014 Here\u2019s his plan to fix it<\/a>Bill Self sends clear message to Darryn Peterson over ducking out of games<\/a><\/p>\n

\u200bhttps:\/\/sports.yahoo.com\/articles\/espn-analyst-slams-tennessees-kim-204147146.html<\/a>\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

ESPN analyst slams Tennessee’s Kim Caldwell over abandoning her team originally appeared on The Sporting News. Add The Sporting News as a Preferred Source by…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":1163347,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1163346","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sports","wpcat-1-id"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163346","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1163346"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1163346\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1163347"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1163346"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1163346"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bugaluu.com\/sports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1163346"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}