Kim Caldwell has been running her system for a decade now, which is long enough to have internalized every relevant question, complaint and frustration. There are plenty of them, and she can understand many, but there is one that has always bothered her. She hates when people call it a gimmick. If her teams look unorthodox—pressing aggressively, shooting on sight, making group substitutions like a hockey team makes line changes—that’s only in service of strategy. The coach hates the idea that she runs this for attention or novelty or style points. Caldwell runs it to win.
The system is a useful key here. It’s a reflection of the basketball philosophy that Caldwell has installed as the women’s head coach at No. 15 Tennessee. And it’s an answer to many of the questions that swirled when she was hired last year.
