Women’s basketball has a new member of the coaching staff with Monday’s news that Bill Ferrara will join Tennessee, while Gabe Lazo will exit the Lady Vols.

Ferrara, the associate head coach for Florida State women’s basketball, will join Kim Caldwell’s staff at Tennessee as an assistant coach. Lazo, who came to Tennessee from Mississippi State when Caldwell was hired in April 2024, submitted his resignation last Friday and has been considered a head coach candidate in the offseason at several schools and has a proven recruiting record. Roman Tubner, who also arrived at Tennessee in 2024 as an assistant coach via Alabama, recently interviewed for a head coaching job at Kennesaw State, and while he didn’t get that post, Tubner also could receive offers from other programs or could stay in Knoxville.

The movement of assistant coaches is part of the off-season in college sports, whether it’s to become head coaches or take assistant positions at a new school.

“I am thrilled to join Kim Caldwell’s staff at Tennessee and excited to be part of a program with such a rich history,” Ferrara said. “I look forward to bringing my energy and experience to the Lady Vols. Kim’s incredibly successful 10-year track record as a head coach speaks for itself, and I’m ready to get to work in recruiting and can’t wait to get on the floor with the most storied program in women’s basketball.”

Ferrara also graciously thanked Florida State and posted on social media: Thank you Florida State! What an incredible and joyful ride! I love you all. You changed my life. Go Noles!

He became the associate head coach for the Seminoles before the 2022-23 season. While he was on the staff, Florida State had three seasons of 23+ wins and NCAA appearances in three of the past four years. During his tenure, the Seminoles’ scoring averages and three-point shooting metrics ranking among the country’s best.

“I am pleased to welcome Bill to our staff,” Caldwell said. “He has played an instrumental role in Florida State’s high-scoring offense and three-point shooting over the past four seasons. We look forward to adding his technical knowledge, experience and recruiting abilities to our program.”

Ferrara also seemed enthusiastic to arrive in Knoxville and posted with an orange emoji: So thankful for this opportunity! No bigger stage. It’s time to get after it!

SOFTBALL

The softball team secured a 4-3 win Sunday to avoid being swept by Ole Miss in a three-game series. Tennessee will now host South Carolina this week for a three-game series starting Thursday, April 2, at 6 p.m. with a livestream on SECN+.

“This league is unforgiving, and the thing about sports is you’ve never arrived,” coach Karen Weekly said. “You’ve never gotten over a hump, and I think that’s a good lesson for us to learn. I talked to them about putting our season in perspective. You start off with a 26-game win streak. Now, again, this is a very young group of people, but you start off with a 26-game winning streak, and not too many things go wrong. And when they do go wrong, we figure it out, and we find a way to come back. You can kind of get into this false sense of security that we’ll always be able to just figure it out, and then the last 10 games have been a real struggle.

“We went from one extreme to the other extreme, and I think we’ve learned a lot about how to manage our emotions, how to manage outcomes and expectations, going from really high to really low, and finding that place in the middle where we stay centered and we realize that every day we come to work and we have to earn every single pitch.”

Tennessee had to work for the win after taking a 3-0 lead in the third inning with Ole Miss tying the game in the sixth with a three-run homer. Karlyn Pickens struck out the side in the seventh inning after allowing the homer to set up the bases-loaded walk-off win for Tennessee.

The series overlapped with alumni weekend with nearly three dozen former Lady Vols softball players and their families in attendance for get-togethers with the team.

“I really appreciate how they invest in our players,” Weekly said. “They spend time with them, but I also appreciate the perspective they give them because I’m going to coach them hard, and the alumni are going to tell them, ‘Hey, you’re going to get coached hard, but you’re going to grow from it. Don’t shy away from it. Don’t think she’s picking on you. You’re going to grow from it, and it’s going to make you better.’ ”

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 and a 10th anniversary edition will be released June 16, 2026.