Tennessee, which is receiving votes in both the Associated Press Poll and USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll, welcomes Duquesne to Food City Center on Monday night for the 2026-27 season opener for both schools.
The Lady Vols and Dukes will tip off 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 berth. 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.
Lady Vol head coach Kim Caldwell, who begins her third season on Rocky Top, led Tennessee to a 132-63 victory over Florida A&M on Oct. 27 in her squad’s lone exhibition game.
Duquesne, meanwhile, went 12-19 overall and 4-14 in league play to place 12th in the Atlantic 10 Conference in 2025-26. DU’s schedule includes no exhibition games.
These programs are meeting for the first time, but the Big Orange women enter with a 26-0 record against schools currently in the A10.
BROADCAST DETAILS
- Cruz Martin (play-by-play) and Genesis Bryant (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
- The Lady Vols are opening their 40th season of playing at Food City Center on the banks of the Tennessee River. UT won its very first game played here back on Dec. 3, 1987, racing to a 102-59 victory over Stetson in front of a crowd of 16,464.
- The Big Orange women have gone on to produce a 541-68 (.888) record in the historic venue that seats 21,678 spectators and has led the NCAA in attendance 19 times.
- UT is the all-time winningest program in NCAA Division I women’s basketball, producing an impressive record of 1,511-411-2 (.786) over 81 seasons.
- In games held at Alumni Gym, Stokely Athletics Center and Food City Center since 1974-75, Tennessee has rolled up an incredible mark of 694-92 (.883) in front of its home fans.
- This season marks the 50th year the UT women’s basketball team has been called Lady Volunteers or Lady Vols and worn the iconic logo.
- March of 2027 will mark 40 years since the Lady Vols won their first of eight NCAA National Championships in 1987 in Austin, Texas.
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.
LADY VOLS IN OPENERS
- During the modern era (1974-present), the Lady Vols are 46-6 all-time in season openers over the past 52 years, including 30-3 at home, 8-2 on the road and 8-1 at neutral sites after falling, 80-77, to No. 9/8 NC State at a neutral venue in Greensboro, N.C., on Nov. 4, 2025.
- UT has a 49-3 all-time record in its first home contest of the year through 2025-26 after beating ETSU, 97-47, on Nov. 7, 2025.
- The Lady Vols have won 26 straight times in their first appearance of the season at Food City Center and have been victorious in that case in 43 of their past 44 campaigns.
- The Big Orange women are 42-10 in their first road game of the season after defeating UT Martin, 72-61, on Nov. 9, 2025.
- The Lady Vols are 11-5 in road openers when facing a ranked team.
CALDWELL IN OPENERS
- Kim Caldwell is 8-2 in season-opening games during her career, including 1-0 at home, 2-1 on the road and 5-1 at neutral sites after falling to No. 9/8 NC State, 80-77, in a neutral site match-up in Greensboro, N.C., on Nov. 4, 2025.
- She is 1-1 as head coach at Tennessee in openers after that setback to the Wolfpack and beating Samford in year one.
- Caldwell was 0-1 in season openers at Marshall and 7-0 at Glenville State.
- The 2024-25 campaign at UT was the first time one of her teams opened a regular season on its home court and 2026-27 will mark the second.
- Caldwell is 9-1 in the first home game of a season all-time, including 2-0 at Tennessee, 1-0 at Marshall and 6-1 while at Glenville State through 2025-26.
- Caldwell is 8-2 in her squads’ first true road contest through 2025-26, including 2-0 at Tennessee, 0-1 at Marshall and 6-1 at Glenville State.
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.
A LOOK AT THE LAST GAME
- Eight players scored in double figures, helping propel Tennessee women’s basketball past Florida A&M, 132-63, in an exhibition game on Tuesday night, Oct. 27, in front of a crowd of 9,926 at Food City Center.
- Facing a Rattlers squad coached by LVFL Bridgette Gordon, whose jersey banner hangs from the venue’s rafters, the Lady Vols used an extremely fast pace on offense and intense pressure on defense to roll up 37 points in the first quarter and 40 in the second period en route to a 77-27 lead at the intermission.
- UT put up 48 shots by halftime and finished with an astounding 101 attempts, making 49 of them on its way to a 48.5 percent shooting night. Kim Caldwell‘s troops also connected at a 92-percent rate from the free-throw line, knocking down 23 of 25 tries.
- Fifth-year guard Kaylene Smikle led all scorers with 19 points, followed by junior Naomi White with 16 and senior Riley Makalusky and sophomore Harissoum Coulibaly with 14 each. Also hitting double digits for the Big Orange were junior Jada Eads with 13, freshman Gabby Minus with 12, sophomore Zhen Craft with 11 and fifth-year Kennedy Fauntleroy with 10.
- Senior Fatmata Janneh pulled down 13 rebounds to help her squad out-board FAMU, 58-25, including 30-4 on the offensive glass. White had a game-high seven of UT’s 26 assists and no turnovers for a team that committed just nine miscues to FAMU’s 37.
- The Rattlers were paced by Tahnyjia Purifoy and Kamryn Grant, who had 13 points each. Niah Rhodes added 11.
NOTES FROM THE FAMU GAME
- In the program’s first exhibition ever against an NCAA Division I program, the Lady Vols scored their fifth-highest point total in a preseason game with 132 against the Rattlers.
- It was the 28th time Tennessee has tallied over 100 in an exhibition game, and Caldwell’s teams have gone three for three hitting that mark.
- Prior to the FAMU game, the last time the Lady Vols had eight double-digit scorers was on Nov. 5, 2018, in the 128-59 exhibition win over Carson-Newman.
- With the victory, the Big Orange are now 55-5 all-time in preseason 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 15-1 in preseason exhibition games, defeating Carson-Newman 11 times (2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, 2019, 2022, 2023, 2024), as well as Florida A&M (2026), 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.
UT/DU SERIES NOTES
- This marks the first meeting between Tennessee and Duquesne in women’s basketball.
- The Dukes hail from Pittsburgh, Pa., and are members of the Atlantic 10 Conference.
- The Lady Vols enter the contest with a 26-0 record against schools currently in the A10.
- UT’s last meeting vs. a school from the A10 came in Kim Caldwell‘s first season on Rocky Top. Her squad defeated Richmond, 92-67, on Dec. 20, 2024, in the West Palm Beach Classic in Florida.
- Tennessee assistant coach Jenna Burdette played at A10 school Dayton from 2014-18.
- LVFL and current student assistant Nya Robertson began her collegiate career at George Washington and starred there from 2022-24.
A LOOK AT THE DUKES
- Duquesne returns six players from a team that finished 12-19 overall and 4-14 in conference play a year ago.
- DU won its first four games last season and claimed victories in five of its last eight games, scoring more than 100 points in its second and fourth contests of the campaign.
- Two starters are back, including 5-foot-9 redshirt junior guard Gabby Grantham-Medley and 6-5 sophomore forward Raevin Washington.
- Grantham-Medley started 23 of 27 games, producing 7.3 points and 3.9 rebounds.
- Washington averaged 5.1 points and 4.3 rebounds, while starting 23 contests as a freshman.
- Nadia Moore, a 5-10 redshirt sophomore guard also returns. Moore averaged 12.8 ppg. and 3.0 rpg. in six games with one start before an injury ended her 2025-26 season.
- Transfer De’Naya Rippey averaged 13.4 ppg. and 8.0 rpg. last season while earning All-Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference Third Team accolades at St. Peter’s University.
- Rippey was a teammate at St. Peter’s with first-year Tennessee forward Fatmata “Fats” Janneh in 2024-25.
- The 2026-27 roster for Duquesne is one that reflects the program’s growing international reach, featuring 13 student-athletes representing eight different countries. In addition to players from across the United States, the roster includes student-athletes from Canada, Germany, Hungary, Israel, Senegal, Serbia and Spain, bringing together a diverse mix of backgrounds and basketball experiences.
ABOUT THE HEAD COACH
- Dan Burt enters his 14th season as head coach of the Dukes and his 20th year on staff overall after serving as an assistant coach from 2007-13.
- Burt has forged a record of 242-164 as the head man in Pittsburgh, standing as the all-time winningest coach in Duquesne women’s basketball history.
- There have been seven postseason appearances under Burt’s watch, including an NCAA berth in 2015-16 after tying for the league title.
- In addition to the NCAA bid, the Dukes have gone to six WNITs. They had back-to-back Super 16 showings in 2023-24 and 2024-25.
DUQUENSE’S LAST GAME
- There are no games on record for Duquesne this season.
- The No. 12 seed Dukes ended last season with a 66-45 setback to No. 5 seed Saint Joseph’s in the second round of the Atlantic 10 Tournament in Henrico, Va., on March 5, 2026.
- DU was led by Alexis Bordas and Reina Green, who tossed in 13 and 11 points, respectively.
- Returnees Gabby Grantham-Medley and Raevin Washington checked in with nine and six points.
NEXT UP
- Tennessee will hit the road for its next game, traveling to Baltimore, Md., to take on Coppin State at 7 p.m. ET on Thursday at CSU’s Physical Education Complex Arena.
- The contest between the Lady Vols and the Eagles will be available for streaming via the MEAC Network.
- UT and Coppin met last season on Nov. 23 in Knoxville, with Kim Caldwell‘s squad securing an 88-35 triumph.
- Nya Robertson, who now is serving as a student assistant on the Lady Vol staff, hit a school-record 10 three-pointers in that game to tally a career-high 32 points. That total of treys ranks No. 3 in SEC history.
