The Lady Vols finished the first week of the regular season with two wins over in-state foes with one at home and one on road and will face two more from the Volunteer State in the next two games that also are split as far as location.

The first came last Thursday with a 50-point win over East Tennessee State, 97-47, that left coach Kim Caldwell annoyed with the lack of proper execution on both ends.

The second was a more poignant matchup as the Lady Vols traveled to UT Martin, the alma of the late Pat Summitt, for the first time since Nov. 23, 1997, when Chamique Holdsclaw and Tamika Catchings played for Summitt and were en route to the perfect 39-0 season in 1997-98. UT Martin had timed the naming of its basketball court in honor of Summitt to that 1997 game.

The on-campus Elam Center officially has a capacity of 4,300. The box score listed attendance at 4,560, and it included alumni who had played basketball with Summitt at Martin from 1970-74, and Bettye Giles, who is now 96 and was Martin’s first and only women’s athletics director from 1969 to 1994. Giles retired in 1995 after 43 years of service.

Bettye Giles, front and waving, with UT Martin players who overlapped with Pat Summitt. (UT Martin Athletics)

Fans filled the seats early – the venue was packed for player warmups – and included supporters wearing red, blue, orange and white or a mixture for both teams.

“I thought that was an amazing environment on the road for us,” Caldwell said. “To be able to show up and see the stands filled 90 minutes before the game, I don’t know if I’ve ever seen anything like that. I’m sad that we didn’t put a better product on the floor for them. I think it was a great day. Again, shoutout to our fanbase, it’s the best in the country and they continue to prove that year after year.”

Tennessee hadn’t shaken the doldrums from the ETSU game, and UT Martin took a first half lead before the Lady Vols found a spark after halftime and won 72-61. Caldwell noted that her team had wasted two quarters.

The Lady Vols are now 2-1 on the season after the opening three-point loss to NC State on the road. The schedule a year ago started simply for Tennessee with a load of home games. Caldwell wanted her team tested away from Knoxville early to start this season and welcomed the chance to travel to the other end of the state for a historically significant game.

“I think it’s really important,” Caldwell said. “Pat obviously has her hands in everything orange. Everything that involves our program and our university, and quite frankly, the entire state. You can see that when you come here. You can see that when you travel anywhere.

“To be able to do it back here on a floor that was named after her where she really got her start, I think that was a tribute that needed to be paid. You don’t see that a lot in the sport. Again, it was a game I’ll never forget just the way people showed up to watch the game.”

Summitt likely would have been proud of the effort of her old school and peeved by the Lady Vols. Caldwell has a talented team and also a young one with five freshmen. Three other newcomers arrived from the transfer portal. The product on the court hasn’t matched what the head coach sees in practice, as the players learn a new style of basketball with frequent substitutions and constant pressure.

Summitt had an explanation for that.

She always said that coaches are in charge at practice. They can stop the action and teach or put the team on the line to run.

Kellie Jolly, Pat Summitt and Chamique Holdsclaw with the championship hardware. (Tennessee Athletics)

But in games, the players are in charge. A coach can call timeout or make substitutions, but the players have a lot more control when the clock is running – and that can be good when the execution is as intended or bad when shots start going up that shouldn’t and defensive assignments are missed.

With three games and a mandatory off day, Tennessee has spent very little time on the practice court in the first week of the season.

The next game is against Belmont in Knoxville this Thursday, Nov. 13. The game will tip at 7 p.m. on the SEC Network. Tennessee will then have a week between games with a trip to Middle Tennessee State on Nov. 20.

That puts Caldwell in charge at practice for an extended stretch.

“We play an effort-based system and if you go out there and you don’t give effort, you’re going to look silly,” Caldwell said. “That’s what happened for the first two quarters. You can’t do this if you’re not going to play hard. It’s really all dedicated to playing hard, flying around, playing together, and we don’t have that right now.”

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.