CHATTANOOGA – Kim Caldwell has had quite the offseason going into her third season coaching Lady Vols basketball.

Caldwell had to rebuild her entire roster in a matter of weeks after all eight returners hit the transfer portal. Now Tennessee has 12 players committed out of the portal and 14 on the 2026-27 roster with two incoming freshmen.

Caldwell met with the media for the first time since the season ended at the Big Orange Caravan stop in Chattanooga on April 28. Caldwell said the last month of rebuilding the roster from scratch has been "fantastic."

"It's been a breath of fresh air. We're really excited about it," Caldwell said. "We're excited about the players we've had on campus, the way our staff has hit the ground running. I think when people invest in you when things aren't so great, you know what their intentions are.

"We brought in players that are very hungry and have a chip on their shoulder and have something to prove, which really matches my mindset."

Tennessee added eight guards out of the portal with Liberty sophomore Avery Mills, Northern Arizona freshman Naomi White, Georgia junior Rylie Theuerkauf, Auburn freshman Harissoum Coulibaly, Maryland senior Kaylene Smikle, Penn State sophomore Shaelyn Steele, Seton Hall sophomore Jada Eads and East Carolina senior Kennedy Fauntleroy.

The Lady Vols have also added four forwards in Stanford sophomore Harper Peterson, Georgia freshman Zhen Craft, Texas A&M junior Fatmata Janneh, and Texas senior Aaliyah Moore.

All eight of Tennessee's returners entered the transfer portal after the season ended in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, but it wasn't entirely surprising for Caldwell.

"I think we could see it coming and start to mentally prepare. And we knew that this period right now would be a grind," Caldwell said. "I did not know that we were necessarily going to get it done in three weeks, but I'm happy that we got it, and I'm really happy with the players that we signed."

Tennessee athletic director Danny White recently praised Caldwell's leadership through the offseason changes and emphasized how important the CEO aspect of her job is.

"The way she’s handled it and the pivots and internal stuff I know of the decisions that she’s had to make, I think has been brilliant," White said April 28. "I’m really excited about seeing the team compete next year. We finally have a full roster, I just got that news on the way down here."

Caldwell said the CEO aspect of her job is ever-changing, and it's important to "construct your roster in the right way."

"The biggest thing for us, and we told everyone, is heart," Caldwell said. "We want heart and mentality and having some grit and having some stuff to you, and again, having something to prove, and playing with something to prove."

Rebuilding the entire roster was a little daunting in the beginning, but Caldwell said after they "got off to a really hot start" signing players who set the tone, it started to be fun.

"Once we got the ball rolling, it was better," Caldwell said. "And we got a little tired at the end. But overall, it was a really great three weeks."

Transfer portal recruiting moves quickly, and finding the right fit includes making a lot of phone calls about the player's character, work ethic and what they value on the floor, Caldwell said.

She said they had a whole page of questions they ran through with multiple people in the player's life and check those boxes before they get on campus.

"When they got to campus, we almost tried to scare them away with how hard we were going to work," Caldwell said. "We were going to do two-a-days, they're going to be up before the sun, that we're going to be running, and they had to look me in the face and say that's what they wanted to do. And if they said yes to it, then we knew that they were our type of player."

The phone calls with the list of questions wasn't something Caldwell has done before. It was something new they put in this year partially as a result of what happened this season.

"I think it's also just the way of learning how to utilize a staff," Caldwell said. "You have a staff of 13, let's put them to work, and let's make sure we're doing a good job of making sure that we're all on the same page."