KNOXVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 There\u2019s no shortage of excitement in Knoxville as the Tennessee Lady Vols gear up for the 2025\u201326 women\u2019s basketball season.<\/p>\n
Coming off a 24\u201310 campaign and a Sweet 16 appearance in head coach Kim Caldwell\u2019s first year, the Lady Vols are once again in the national spotlight entering the season ranked No. 7 in ESPN\u2019s \u201cWay-Too-Early\u201d Top 25.<\/p>\n
Caldwell\u2019s fast-paced, high-scoring system turned heads last year, and the energy around this group feels even stronger. Tennessee returns three of its top four scorers and rebounders, including Talaysia Cooper, an All-SEC Second Team and SEC All-Defensive Team selection who led the Lady Vols in both points and assists last season.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s not just about who\u2019s back \u2014 it\u2019s also about who\u2019s arrived. The Lady Vols landed the nation\u2019s No. 1 transfer class, highlighted by standout additions Janiah Barker, Nya Robertson, and Jersey Wolfenbarger. They also welcomed a freshman signing group ranked among the top two nationally by major recruiting services, adding even more depth to one of the SEC\u2019s most talented rosters.<\/p>\n
For senior forward Zee Spearman, what stands out most isn\u2019t just the skill level \u2014 it\u2019s the mindset.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so excited for the season,\u201d Spearman said. \u201cThey just have so much joy and so much \u2014 like they just wanna win. I just love seeing that they don\u2019t wanna lose. They go to the gym every day, they\u2019re always working, great energy.\u201d<\/p>\n
That combination of experience, competitiveness, and relentless effort could make Tennessee one of the most dangerous teams in the country this season \u2014 and the Lady Vols are already setting the tone in practice long before opening night on Rocky Top.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"KNOXVILLE, Tenn. \u2014 There\u2019s no shortage of excitement in Knoxville as the Tennessee Lady Vols gear up for…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":204185,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[7082,402,117460,117456,398,400,401,7702,99,117457,117458,37754,117459],"class_list":["post-204184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-ncaa-basketball","tag-2025-26-season","tag-basketball","tag-janiah-barker","tag-kim-caldwell","tag-ncaa","tag-ncaa-basketball","tag-ncaabasketball","tag-sec","tag-sports","tag-sweet-16","tag-talaysia-cooper","tag-tennessee-lady-vols","tag-transfer-class"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=204184"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/204184\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/204185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=204184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=204184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=204184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}