COLUMBUS, Ohio — First-year University of Tennessee women’s basketball coach Kim Caldwell brought a unique substitution pattern with her from her previous stops at Glenville State — an NCAA Division II program and her alma mater — and Marshall, which she led to the D-I tournament last year in her lone season with the program.
Caldwell’s fifth-seeded Lady Volunteers (23-9) will face fourth-seeded Ohio State (26-6) in a second-round game Sunday night, with the Buckeyes hosting the 8 p.m. matchup that will be televised by ESPN. She has used a system in which she subs five new players roughly every two minutes of play, which allows her team to keep its pace of play on both ends of the court high throughout a game.
“I’ve always done it, and you have to have 10 or 11 players that you trust,” said Caldwell, who won the 2022 D-II national championship with Glenville State. “That’s a big step for a coach to have everyone accept their roles and lean into their roles and trust them.”
On Friday night, nine Lady Vols played nine minutes or more in a 101-66 rout of 12th-seeded South Florida in the team’s first-round win. Talaysia Cooper scored 20 points and Samara Spencer had 15 as the Lady Vols set program records for made 3-pointers (16) and attempted 3s (37) in an NCAA tournament game.
“They played great yesterday,” Ohio State coach Kevin McGuff said after scouting the Lady Vols. “I was really impressed watching them live, and so we know we’ve got our hands full. We’ve got to get back in transition and try to challenge them at the 3-point line.”
McGuff’s Buckeyes advanced with a 71-51 victory over 13th-seeded Montana State. All five Ohio State starters scored in double figures, led by Taylor Thierry with 16 points and Chance Gray and Cotie McMahon with 15 apiece.
“I thought we played a good 25 minutes,” McGuff said. “The first 15 minutes weren’t very good. Twenty-five minutes won’t win, so we’ll have to play even closer to 40 tomorrow.”
Tennessee is second nationally in scoring at 87.6 points per game, while Ohio State is 18th at 78.6. Both teams like to press their opponents defensively to create turnovers and fast-break opportunities. Ohio State forced 26 turnovers and Tennessee forced 24 in the first round.
“I would say their press is a 2-2-1 zone, and ours is just run and jump at all costs, so those are different styles,” Tennessee’s Tess Darby said. “We see presses literally every day because we’re practicing against each other.”
Ohio State swept a home-and-home series with Tennessee the past two seasons, winning 87-75 at home in November 2022 and 78-58 in Knoxville in December 2023.
Despite those losses, Tennessee owns a 10-3 all-time edge in the series. That includes a 3-0 record in previous NCAA tourney matchups, although this is the first time the Buckeyes will host the Lady Vols in March Madness.
There are some ties between the teams.
Ohio State guard Jaloni Cambridge was the co-freshman of the year in the Big Ten after being a top-five recruit nationally last year. She spent her senior year of high school at Montverde Academy in Florida, although she and her teammate and sister Kennedy Cambridge are from Nashville.
So she knows all about the Lady Vols, whose eight NCAA title trail only Connecticut’s 11 for the most in D-I women’s basketball history.
“I just wanted a new start in my life,” Jaloni said. “You’ve got to grow up at some point, so that opportunity for me was to get away from home. Tennessee definitely has a good legacy. Just to be able to play against them means everything.”
Ohio State was third in attendance among Friday’s eight first-round host sites, attracting 6,584 fans to Value City Arena. Only South Carolina (11,683) and Notre Dame (7,542) drew more fans. The Buckeyes are 16-0 at home this season.
“We know we are definitely on the road,” Caldwell said. “We have to make sure that we keep our bench energy up, and our huddles tight, and we stay focused when Ohio State goes on a run.”
The winning team will be back in the Sweet 16 for the third time in four years and moves on to the Regional 3 site next weekend in Birmingham, Alabama.