The Lady Vols basketball team held media availability sessions to start the month of August with coach Kim Caldwell and three players with a common theme: the hard work recruiting pitch to fill a roster in three weeks last April was spot-on.

“She did not lie,” said Kaylene Smikle, a 6-0 redshirt senior guard from Bay Shore, New York, who transferred to Tennessee from Maryland. “All of our workouts are hard. She told everybody on their visit, ‘You’re going have to go hard. This might be the hardest summer work that you’ve ever done.’ ”

Smikle is one of 13 transfers and two freshmen on the roster for the 2026-27 season – and 14 made the decision to come to Tennessee a little over three months ago and enrolled in June.

Gabby Minus, a 6-1 guard/forward from Dacula, Georgia, signed with Tennessee last fall as a high school senior and never wavered on her decision despite watching all eight players leave who were eligible to return, along with another freshman who signed last fall. Minus will have a freshman teammate in Irene Oboavwoduo, a 5-10 freshman guard from Manchester, England, who signed last April.

The 2025-26 season started with promise, especially in SEC play, and then unraveled in the month of February as coaches, players and staff struggled to get back on course. The best analogy is one of a boat with some rowing in the same direction, some not rowing much at all and others rowing in a different direction. It played out on the court for all to see. In the end, everyone made a decision that worked out the best for each person’s circumstances.

“I knew what it was going to be, especially with the season they had last year,” said Jada Eads, a 5-7 junior guard from Orlando, Florida, who transferred from Seton Hall. “We knew it was going to be work. We all wanted to be here and to play under Coach Kim. She’s so competitive. We want to win, and she wants to win. We’re willing to do whatever it takes and be under her wing to have a great year next year.”

Fatmata “Fats” Janneh, a 6-2 senior forward from London, England, who transferred from Texas A&M, is an early candidate for the All-Media team – an informal designation for players who are awesome in interviews – because of her candor and sense of humor.

Here are three selections from Janneh’s session, which can be watched HERE, about playing in the SEC, a nickname for Caldwell and her one-word reaction to the summer workouts. Janneh lit up Tennessee with 17 points and 12 boards in Knoxville on Feb. 19 when the Aggies beat the Lady Vols last season.

“Coming from a mid-major from the school that I came to, just coming into the SEC, I didn’t think that I was going to be any good. I thought it was going to be a learning year for me. I didn’t think I was going to come in and kill like how I did. I put in a lot of work at A&M, worked really hard.”

“I got a nickname for her. I call her Big Boss. Everyone calls her Big Boss. She’s head coach, and she’s the boss. So, I just called her Big Boss, and then her son, Little Boss.”

In a throwback aside from the 2011-12 season – which would be Pat Summitt’s final one – freshman Cierra Burdick gave assistant coach Mickie DeMoss the nickname of Big Boss DeMoss.

“Honestly, I was like, whoa, and I’ve been saying whoa every day, like it’s been whoa. But I’ve been falling in love with it. I knew it was going to be hard. I didn’t shy away from it. Nobody else shied away from it, and it’s just been amazing.”

Eads’ session can be watched HERE; Smikle’s can be seen HERE, and Caldwell’s is available HERE.

It’s summer, so full practice hasn’t started yet, playing time isn’t being divvied, and players are bonding over tough workouts. Still, after a season that took a toll on the team, Caldwell seems to have connected with this new group quite quickly.

“One of the closest teams I’ve ever been a part of,” Caldwell said. “We got to make sure that we keep it when games start. But they are truly friends. They have each other’s backs. There’s not an ego.

“They all know they play a different role, and they know what they do is important. But they really are friends. They can hang out with anyone. And it’s been probably Division II days since I’ve seen a team so close together and hang out all the time.”

The Lady Vols assembled an elite level of talent last season. But is a team of star power the best fit for Caldwell’s system of high-octane pace, full court defense and rapid substitutions? Based on last year’s body of evidence, the answer was a resounding no.

Talent, however, is needed to win big on a national scale – the Lady Vols are recruiting some elite high school players – but a team also needs glue players, blue collar workers and motivated transfers. A high school class of five, such as what Tennessee signed in 2024 for the 2025-25 season, also is untenable in the transfer portal era. Caldwell said this summer that future high school signing classes will focus on two players who can contribute immediately. Minus and Oboavwoduo fit that mold.

The new look Lady Vols team of 2026-27 has embraced its underdog role of 15 players with something to prove.

“We’re going to work you hard for 40 minutes,” Smikle said.” What we’ve done in these last couple weeks showed me that we’re definitely going to be outworking teams. We might not be the best at anything, but hardworking and defense and rebounds and running is definitely going to be our strength.”

Follow KnoxTNToday on Facebook, Instagram, X, and LinkedIn. Get all KnoxTNToday articles in one place with our free newsletter. Comments may be sent to news@knoxtntoday.com.

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 was released June 16, 2026. A third book, “The Legacy of Pat Summitt” will be released Nov. 17, 2026.