Tennessee women’s basketball coach Kim Caldwell will not coach the team’s Thursday night’s game against Texas, the school announced, after giving birth to her first child, a son named Conor Scott Caldwell.
— Lady Vols Basketball (@LadyVol_Hoops) January 24, 2025
Assistant coach Jenna Burdette will step into the role of acting head coach in Caldwell’s absence. The 29-year-old has worked with Caldwell since 2018, first at Division II Glenville State, then Marshall and now Tennessee.
The Lady Vols did not announce how long of a leave Caldwell would take. Last week, Caldwell told The Athletic that her plan was “to return to basketball as quick as possible and then take my maternity leave after the basketball season,” noting that Tennessee was very supportive of that plan and with whatever Caldwell felt most comfortable doing.
After a big game against the Longhorns, the Lady Vols’ schedule doesn’t slow down. Tennessee welcomes No. 2 South Carolina to Knoxville on Sunday for a top-25 matchup, then travels to Missouri on Feb. 2 and hosts No. 6 UConn in a non-conference matchup on Feb. 6.
Caldwell is the second power-conference head coach to give birth during this season. In December, Oklahoma State coach Jacie Hoyt welcomed daughter Harlow in December and returned to the sideline 10 days later, where the Cowgirls got their first Big 12 win of the season with a victory over Iowa State.
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