The Tennessee women’s basketball team ended this season with a rare first-round exit from the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Vols will begin next season with something rarer: no player on the roster with experience playing for the program.
All eight Lady Volunteers with eligibility remaining have opted to transfer following a difficult 16-14 season that ended with an eight-game losing streak and the program’s first winless March.
The latest blow came on Monday, when freshman guard Jaida Civil announced in an Instagram post that she was entering the transfer portal.
The Lady Vols were already graduating four seniors, including Janiah Barker and Zee Spearman, when the statements began circulating on social media.
“After much thought, conversation, & soul-searching we have decided to enter the transfer portal,” freshman twins Mya and Mia Pauldo wrote in a statement last week on Instagram. “We’d like to thank the coaching staff for the opportunity to be part of the Lady Vol family. Thank you to our teammates whom we’ve formed a sisterhood with. Thank you for your energy and support. Excited to accept the challenge of the next phase in our journey.”
Other statements followed: transfer portal, transfer portal, transfer portal. Some have already announced new schools, such as junior Alyssa Latham, who will play for Virginia Tech. Others still seeking a new school to transfer to include Civil, Kaniya Boyd, Lauren Hurst, Deniya Prawl and Talaysia Cooper.
The Lady Vols have also lost a player yet to arrive on campus: Oliviyah Edwards, the No. 2 recruit in the SC Next 100 class of 2026, has decommitted from the school. Gabby Minus, a four-star recruit at wing, is currently the lone player set for next season’s team.
The roster exodus adds to what was a tumultuous second season for coach Kim Caldwell. After leading Tennessee to the Sweet 16 in her first season, the Lady Vols faded down the stretch this season before losing to NC State in the first round of the tournament. They also lost to South Carolina, 93-50, on Feb. 8, the largest defeat in program history. A week before that, they lost to UConn by 30 points.
Tennessee, historically a powerhouse, hasn’t won the title since 2008. Caldwell has a $4 million buyout, and her contract runs through 2030.
Caldwell called the 2025-26 season “the worst year of my professional career” and said “our players deserve better than that from me.”
