Lady Vols head coach Kim Caldwell makes honest admission before the start of the NCAA Tournament

One of the most impressive streaks in all of sports continued this week with the Lady Vols reaching the NCAA Tournament. 

Tennessee has now reached 43 straight NCAA Tournaments. The Lady Vols are the only program to compete in every NCAA Tournament since the women's tourney started in 1982. 

UT is in its first season under head coach Kim Caldwell, who was hired in 2024 to replace Kellie Harper, a former Lady Vols player who led the Tennessee program from 2019 to 2024 (Harper was named this week as the new head coach at Missouri). 

On Thursday, ahead of the Lady Vols' first NCAA Tournament game (against USF on Friday at 8:00 PM ET), Caldwell was asked if it was a relief to not be the coach that blew Tennessee's impressive tournament streak. 

Caldwell was quick to point out the contributions of coaches and players that came before her before admitting that it's definitely a relief to not be the coach that ended the streak. 

"I'm thankful to be the leader of this program," said Caldwell. "It's remarkable. It's a long history that has a lot to do with the people that came before us and we want to continue to make them proud and keep the streak alive."

"It's a huge streak," added Caldwell. "I think it makes Tennessee the best job in the country. It makes us one of the best programs in the country because of the dominance that we've had, and absolutely it feels really good to not be the coach that blew it."