Kim Caldwell needed no special invitation to show that no love was lost for the Lady Vols project after she was accused of abandoning her team.

ESPN analyst Andraya Carter publicly challenged the coach on the way the coach reprimanded her own team, which she felt created a bad image for the team. Kim Caldwell recently addressed the media after her loss to Oklahoma City.

“Sometimes the honesty is not good, and sometimes the honesty is good, and tonight, honestly, our team was fun to coach. We definitely made some basketball errors, but the people on the floor played hard. They played together. Not a good third quarter for us, but again, we can make some adjustments from today’s game going forward and be okay,” said coach Caldwell, making her feelings crystal clear.

Now, whether Kim Caldwell’s self-introspection was a clap back at Andraya Carter is not explicitly known, but the way Kim chose to give her team props even after the loss was commendable. Something that Carter felt was missing after hearing Kim’s postgame remarks following a 43-point loss to South Carolina on Feb. 8.

“We just had a lot of quit in us tonight,” Kim Caldwell had said after the lopsided loss against Dawn Staley’s South Carolina 93-50, and even went further to term it as “embarrassing.”

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Carter questioned Caldwell’s choice to point fingers at her team directly.

“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,” said Carter.

This time around, however, Andraya won’t find any reason to complain. Kim Caldwell praised her team for the sheer effort they put into the game despite the loss (100-93). Yes, the Lady Vols made errors; they lost out on the rebounds (47-34), and they made a lot of fouls (32), which helped the Sooners get back into the game.

But even then, they did not surrender. Scoring 93 points in the game, they went toe to toe with Oklahoma. Talaysia Cooper (22 pts), Jaida Civil (21 pts), and Nya Robertson (18 pts) did the bulk of the scoring for them.

Well, who knows, had it not been for Oklahoma’s Raegen Beers, the result might have been completely different for the Lady Vols.

Kim Caldwell Gives Full Marks To Oklahoma’s Raegan Beers

It was a tough day on the glass for the Lady Volunteers, no doubt, as they fell short against the Sooners, but even in defeat, Kim Caldwell was gracious in appreciating the opposition. One particular athlete from the opposition really impressed the coach, Raegan Beers.

“Oh, I mean, it’s so hard to to one get her to miss and then once you get her to miss, you’re already not in rebounding position to box her out, and she just has so much heart. She continues to go right back up, and it’s up right before we can even turn around. And so it takes multiple people to get on her,” said Caldwell.

Beers does bring it, and more with that, never-say-die attitude. The Sooners have been lucky to find the perfect mix in the backcourt and frontcourt with Aaliyah Chavez and Raegan Beers. The freshman and the senior combo also happen to be the leading point scorers in the team with their 18.5 and 15.9 ppg’s, respectively.

Beers has been instrumental for Oklahoma this season with her glowing statistics, and also a menace in the paint against Caldwell’s team. Out of her 28 mins she made 18 pts and 18 rebounds, which was more than half of what the Lady Vols could achieve. She also made 6-12 of the FGs, and that set the tone of the game.

Obviously, it’s hard to get any kind of momentum going when someone pulverizes you with their sheer physical force like Beers did. And when you have able teammates like Sahara Williams and Aaliyah Chavez to aid you in your quest, things get more than comfortable.

Unfortunately for Caldwell, this happened on a day when she really needed a win, and now with four losses in a row and LSU and Vanderbilt waiting in line for a shot, things do get a little murky.