Tennessee, which is receiving votes in both the Associated Press Poll and USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, welcomes Florida A&M to Food City Center on Tuesday night for an exhibition game. The Lady Vols and Rattlers will tip at 6:30 p.m. ET in a contest streamed on SECN+.
UT is coming off a season in which it qualified for its 44th straight NCAA Tournament appearance. The Big Orange, however, suffered losses in the campaign’s final eight contests to finish 16-14 overall with a sixth-place mark of 8-8 in SEC play. The Lady Vols fell in the NCAA First Round to NC State, 76-61, to close out the year.
Florida A&M, meanwhile, went 9-22 overall and 7-11 in league play to place eighth in the Southwestern Athletic Conference in 2025-26.
Tennessee holds a 3-0 record in the all-time series, with a 93-64 victory in Knoxville on Nov. 7, 2023, in the last meeting. This tilt, though, will not officially count.
Lady Vol head coach Kim Caldwell begins her third season on Rocky Top and will face off against LVFL Bridgette Gordon, who opens her fourth year at FAMU and makes her second trip back to UT with that school.
BROADCAST DETAILS
- Zack Nelson (play-by-play) and LVFL Niya Butts (analyst) will be on the call for the SECN+ broadcast.
- All of the games included in the ESPN package (ESPN, ESPN2, ESPNU) will be available through WatchESPN, accessible online at WatchESPN.com, on smartphones and tablets via the WatchESPN app, and streamed on televisions through Amazon Fire TV, Apple TV, Chromecast, Roku, Xbox 360 or Xbox One to fans who receive their video subscription from an affiliated provider.
- The contest also can be heard on Lady Vol Network stations and by audio stream, with Brian Rice providing play-by-play and Jay Lifford serving as studio host.
- A link to the live audio stream can be found on the WBB Preview page or the schedule on UTSports.com.
- For a list of Lady Vol Network affiliates, please click the Fans tab at the top of UTSports.com, select Vol Network and then click on the Vol Network Affiliates tab.
- Air-time generally occurs 30 minutes prior to tip-off.
SETTING THE STAGE
- Tennessee will open its 40th season of play at Food City Center. The Lady Vols won their very first game played there back on Dec. 3, 1987, racing to a 102-59 victory over Stetson in front of a crowd of 16,464.
- LVFL and Florida A&M head coach Bridgette Gordon was the game’s leading scorer, tallying 20 points to lead UT. Dawn Marsh, a native of nearby Alcoa, scored the first points on a layup.
- UT is 54-5 all-time in preseason exhibition games, with the only losses coming to the Soviet National Team (1979), Athletes in Action (1992) and the USA National Team (1995, 2007, 2023).
- In the post-Pat Summitt era, UT is 14-1 in preseason exhibition games, defeating Carson-Newman 11 times (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), as well as Columbus State (2025), Georgia College (2021) and Coker (2012) on one occasion each. The only loss was to the USA Women’s National Team in 2023.
- This season marks the 50th year the UT women’s basketball team has been called Lady Volunteers and worn the iconic logo.
- March of 2027 will mark 40 years since the Lady Vols won their first NCAA hoops title in 1987.
A LOOK AT THE LADY VOLS
- The Lady Vols feature an all-new roster in 2026-27, including 13 players from the transfer portal and two freshmen.
- USA TODAY Sports rated Tennessee’s 13-player 2026 portal signing class No. 9 overall, while On3 had UT at No. 13.
- ESPN had Kaylene Smikle rated No. 14 in its 2026 portal class player rankings and the 15th most impactful transfer.
- Jada Eads, Kennedy Fauntleroy, Fatmata Janneh, Avery Mills, Aaliyah Moore, Kaylene Smikle and Naomi White have earned all-conference honors during their college careers. Riley Makalusky was an all-freshman honoree.
- USA TODAY had the following Lady Vols ranked among its top portal acquisitions: No. 19 Kaylene Smikle (Maryland), No. 30 Naomi White (Northern Arizona), No. 46 Fatmata Janneh (Texas A&M), No. 57 Rylie Theuerkauf (Georgia), No. 87 Harissoum Coulibaly (Auburn), No. 91 Kennedy Fauntleroy (East Carolina), No. 105 Jada Eads (Seton Hall) and No. 110 Aaliyah Moore (Texas).
- Nine of UT’s transfers were double-figure scorers at their previous universities.
WHERE WE START IN THE PRESEASON POLLS
- UT opens the year receiving votes in the Associated Press and USA TODAY Sports Coaches Preseason Polls.
- The Lady Volunteers have been predicted to finish eighth in both the Southeastern Conference Preseason Coaches and Media Polls.
- UT tied for sixth last season in the SEC and did not finish in the top 25 of either poll. The Big Orange will feature a new roster in 2026-27.
CALDWELL HEADS INTO YEAR THREE
- Head Coach Kim Caldwell heads into year three on Rocky Top and season 11 as a head coach, seeking a return to the expected standards for a team under her watch.
- Last year’s 16-14 record was an anomaly for a skipper who has compiled a 257-55 (.824) career record, ranking her No. 11 among all active NCAA coaches and No. 4 among those at the NCAA Division I level.
- Those numbers include an astounding 165-29 (.851) mark in conference games.
- Along the way, her teams have earned berths in 10 NCAA Tournaments, and she directed those squads to one national championship, two NCAA DII Final Fours, seven conference championships and five conference tournament titles.
- Caldwell is one of three active SEC women’s coaches to win an NCAA title and one of only 10 active NCAA Division I coaches to do so at either the Division I, II or III levels.
- While last year saw UT perform below expectations, her first Lady Vol unit in 2024-25 went 24-10 and set various NCAA, SEC and UT records for three-pointers made and attempted, and it put up 86.6 points per game in the process to post the No. 4 scoring average in program history while attracting 10,647 fans per contest to watch the exciting style of play.
- The 2025-26 season, though, did include an increased average attendance of 10,850, which was the largest per game number since 2013-14.
- Caldwell’s first unit at UT claimed victories over No. 18/19 Alabama, No. 17/20 Iowa, No. 15/13 Ohio State and eventual NCAA champ No. 5/5 UConn, while last year’s squad recorded wins over No. 11/12 Kentucky and No. 21/21 Alabama as well as at Stanford, the Lady Vols’ first there since 2017 and only the second since 2005.
FOUR NEW FULL-TIME STAFF MEMBERS
- Tennessee welcomed new assistant coaches Bill Ferrara (Florida State) and Isoken Uzamere (Georgia).
- Uzamere played her college ball at Hofstra while Ferrara was serving as an assistant at the school.
- Players Rylie Theuerkauf and Zhen Craft were at Georgia along with Uzamere last season.
- Director of Video & Strategy Brandon Miller joined the Lady Vol staff after serving on Wes Moore’s staff at NC State for nine seasons.
- Denise Jilka, who served as director of academic services for the program, has taken on a new role as executive director of basketball operations.
UT/FAMU SERIES NOTES
- UT is 3-0 all-time vs. Florida A&M, winning all three contests at Food City Center.
- This marks the second time Tennessee has played the Rattlers during Bridgette Gordon’s tenure as head coach at FAMU.
- The Lady Vols prevailed, 93-64, the last time these squads met on Nov. 7, 2023, in Knoxville.
- The programs were supposed to tip off the 2020-21 season in Knoxville on Nov. 27 when LVFL Kellie Harper was leading UT and LVFL Shalon Pillow was head coach of the Rattlers, but FAMU announced the cancellation of its season on Nov. 23 due to health concerns surrounding the COVID-21 pandemic.
- Tennessee holds a 9-0 all-time mark vs. schools from the Southwestern Athletic Conference.
A LOOK AT THE RATTLERS
- Florida A&M had two players, Tahnyjia Purifoy and Shaniyah McCarthy, named to the 2026-27 Preseason All-Southwestern Athletic Conference First Team.
- McCarthy, a 5-foot-8 senior guard/forward, led the Rattlers in scoring at 12.6 points per game and added 5.1 rebounds per contest. She started 28 of 30 games and shot 37.6 percent from the field and 70.9 percent from the free-throw line.
- Purifoy, a 5-0 redshirt-senior point guard, averaged 10.6 points, 4.3 assists and 2.1 steals per game last season. She shot 82.9 percent from the free-throw line (126-of-152) and started 25 of the 28 games played.
- The Rattlers’ third returning starter is 6-0 redshirt junior guard/forward Miya Giles-Jones, who put up 8.0 ppg. and 5.8 rpg. in 2025-26.
- FAMU lost starters Breazia Robinson (13.0 ppg., 10.0 rpg.) and Camille Jackson (8.8 ppg. and 4.0 rpg.) from last year’s unit.
ABOUT THE HEAD COACH
- The Rattlers are led by fourth-year head coach and LVFL Bridgette Gordon, who starred at Tennessee from 1985-89, helping the Lady Vols claim their first two NCAA titles in 1987 and 1989.
- Gordon also served a stint as an assistant at UT from 2017-19 under then-head coach Holly Warlick.
- She stands No. 2 all-time in career points (2,462) and No. 11 in rebounds (915) in UT history.
- Her historic tenure at Tennessee is commemorated with a No. 30 retired jersey banner suspended from the rafters of Food City Center, and she is enshrined in the UT and Women’s Basketball Halls of Fame.
- The DeLand, Florida, native replaced another LVFL, Shalon Pillow, who coached FAMU for three seasons before stepping down on July 6, 2023.
- Gordon also has been an assistant at Stetson, Georgia State, Wichita State, SMU, Kansas State, Cincinnati and New Mexico State in a college coaching career that began in 2004-05.
LAST TIME WE PLAYED FAMU
- Jewel Spear hit five three-pointers and finished with 20 points to fuel No. 11/12 UT to a 93-64 season-opening home victory on Nov. 7, 2023.
- Karoline Striplin (18), Rickea Jackson (13), Kaiya Wynn (12) and Sara Puckett (11) also were in double figures for the Lady Vols.
- Guard Ahriahna Grizzle led the Rattlers with 16 points.
NEXT UP
- After the exhibition game vs. FAMU, Tennessee will open the regular season next Monday night, Nov. 2, as Duquesne comes to Knoxville for a 6:30 p.m. ET match-up. The contest will be streamed on SECN+.
- It will mark the first-ever meeting between the Lady Vols and the Dukes, who hail from Pittsburgh and are members of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
- DU forged a 12-19 overall record, including 4-14 in the A-10, with one of youngest teams in the league last year.
