Tennessee is back where it belongs among the final 16 teams still playing in the NCAA tourney.

A little less than a year ago, Kim Caldwell was hired to coach the Lady Vols despite just one year of Division I college experience. But that one year resulted in Marshall getting to the NCAA tourney for the first time since 1997. That earned Caldwell the WBCA’s Spalding Maggie Dixon NCAA Division I Rookie Coach of the Year and the Sun Belt Conference Coach of the Year.

At the Division II level, Caldwell won a national title at Glenville State. That earned her the Pat Summitt Trophy, which honors the WBCA’s NCAA Division II National Coach of the Year.

But it’s not the hardware that made a difference at Tennessee.

It’s how she assembled a combination of returning players who chose to stay plus five transfers from the portal and got them to commit to a different way of playing basketball. Four of those transfers, Samara Spencer, Zee Spearman, Ruby Whitehorn and Alyssa Lathan, were all over the box score in the 82-67 win over Ohio State last Sunday night to knock out the Buckeyes in the second round in Columbus.

It also marked the first time Ohio State lost at home all season.

Tennessee played inspired on both ends of the court, and Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff mentioned the hustle of the Lady Vols in the post-game presser.

“To their credit, they beat us to a lot of loose balls,” McGuff said. “We were batting the ball around and they were grabbing it. I bet that happened five or six times, and they would grab it and convert it into points.

“So not only did we give up too many second-chance points and points off turnovers but there were several times where they were getting loose balls. In a game like this and this intensity and this much talent, you have got to win the 50-50 balls.”

Tennessee smoked Ohio State in second-chance points, 21-6, and points off turnovers, 37-15. Four players, Talaysia Cooper, Spearman, Whitehorn and Spencer, reached double digits. The five-for-five substitutions – broadcasters called it the hockey line all season – wore down Ohio State.

A Buckeye player had mentioned the day before the game in a media presser that Tennessee had not seen their pressure, and apparently that didn’t sit well with the Lady Vols. Tennessee had a manageable 14 turnovers and 15 steals.

“I thought we did a really good job of playing through our mistakes,” Caldwell said. “We had a couple possessions where we turned it over, and we got it right back. We turned it over, and we got back and contested a shot at the rim and got the rebound.”

Ohio State had 23 turnovers and eight steals.

Zee Spearman and Ruby Whitehorn react during the game against Ohio State. (Kate Luffman/ Tennessee Athletics)

The Lady Vols will now play in the program’s 37th NCAA Sweet 16, the most of any school, in 43 years. Tennessee has never missed a NCAA tourney since it started in 1982, and that feat is a list of one.

When Caldwell took the reins last April, the naysayers arrived. Others took a wait-and-see approach. A few immediately embraced the new coach or, at the least, were intrigued by her style of play and track record in the trenches of the sport. Caldwell has now brought nearly all of them – there will always be some skepticism – into the fold with a Sweet 16 berth.

“It means a lot for the program and the people that are here right now with Coach Kim and the people that stayed and the transfers that came,” said guard Jewel Spear, who was one of the ones who stayed and has thrived this season to the point where the fifth-year senior should get attention from the WNBA. At the least, Spear can pursue a professional career overseas in the higher level leagues.

Caldwell, Spear and Cooper met with the media after the win, and a transcript of what they said is HERE for those who like to read quotes. The presser also can be watched HERE.

No. 5 seed and No. 20-ranked Tennessee, 24-9, will now play No. 1 seed and No. 5-ranked Texas, 33-3, in the Birmingham Regional in Alabama, on Saturday, March 29, at 3:30 p.m. with the broadcast on ABC.

Technically known as Regional 3 in Birmingham – a different foursome is in Birmingham with eight teams in Spokane after the women went to two regional sites – the other two team’s on Tennessee’s side of the bracket are and No. 2 seed TCU and No. 3 seed Notre Dame. Whoever emerges from the stacked group will make it to the Final Four in Tampa.

The Lady Vols bench celebrates during the Ohio State game. (Kate Luffman/ Tennessee Athletics)

An updated bracket can be viewed HERE.

Tennessee had staggered to the finish line in the SEC and then used the break between tourneys to, as Caldwell said, “get back to our roots.” That meant all-out effort, better defense and commitment to a withering pace of play that caused first round foe South Florida – a 101-66 win for Tennessee – and Ohio State to eventually unravel.

“I think there was a period of time when we had that four-game home stretch where we were playing really well, and again, we all know what happened at the back half of the season,” Caldwell said. “At that point in time, I knew we could do it. That was something we talked about from the very beginning, is we wanted to make it to the Sweet 16.”

Consider it done. And the Lady Vols will seek two more wins in Alabama. Regardless of what happens in Birmingham, Tennessee is on the right course.

KARLYN PICKENS: A past column HERE noted how Lady Vols softball pitcher Karlyn Pickens tied the record this season against Oregon for the fastest pitch in softball history at 77 mph – a record set by Lady Vols legend Monica Abbott in 2012 during a National Pro Fastpitch game.

Pickens broke it Monday night in a 3-2 win over Arkansas with a 78 mph pitch to set the all-time softball record.

Tennessee, 27-6, needed the win at Lee Stadium after dropping the first two games against the Razorbacks and losing the first SEC series since late in the 2023 season, also to Arkansas. The series’ loss also is the first for Tennessee at home since 2022. In the stick sports with all the variables in a series, that was a remarkable streak.

After Arkansas scored twice in the first inning for a 2-0 lead, Tennessee answered in its half of the inning with Saviya Morgan singling up the middle and stealing second, and Kinsey Fiedler and Taylor Pannell walking to load the bases.

Sophia Nugent flied out to left field to bring Morgan home, and Laura Mealer doubled off the right field wall with Fielder and Pannell crossing the plate for a 3-2 lead. Replays showed Mealer hit the grate above the wall, and it should have been a homer.

Tennessee will travel next to Norman for three games against defending national champions Oklahoma on March 28-30.

Maria M. Cornelius, a senior writer/editor at MoxCar Marketing + Communications since 2013, started her journalism career at the Knoxville News Sentinel and began writing about the Lady Vols in 1998. In 2016, she published her first book, “The Final Season: The Perseverance of Pat Summitt,” through The University of Tennessee Press.