BATON ROUGE — Nikki Caldwell was officially introduced as the seventh women’s basketball head coach in the illustrious history of the LSU Lady Tiger program at an introductory news conference on the fifth floor of the LSU Athletic Administration Building on Monday.
Caldwell was introduced by LSU Vice Chancellor and Director of Athletics Joe Alleva, who called this a bright new day for the future of LSU basketball.
“She’s a star, she’s a role model and she has the priorities of the young student-athletes in her heart and in her mind,” said Alleva. “She wants to make them better, not just as basketball players but as people, and that’s what this is all about.”
Caldwell, 38, discussed taking over an LSU program with an established legacy of winning, being involved in the community and the late legendary coach Sue Gunter.
“When I got the call from my agent and he told me that LSU was interested in me, the first thing I thought about was Sue Gunter,” said Caldwell. “She came to mind right off the bat.
“Having played in the SEC and having played against those old Sue Gunter teams back in the 1990s, I was just moved because she has meant so much to a lot of us, our career, and our choices to go into college coaching because of what she has done for women’s basketball. I can’t tell you enough how honored I am to be a part of such a great legacy.”
Caldwell arrives at LSU as one of the elite coaches in all of college basketball. She won national championships as both a player and an assistant coach at Tennessee and turned UCLA into a national power in just three years.
Widely recognized as one of the nation’s top assistant coaches during stints at Tennessee and Virginia, Caldwell took over at UCLA in 2008. In three years with the Bruins, she turned around a UCLA program that had won only one NCAA Tournament game in the nine years prior to her arrival.
Caldwell led the Bruins to a 72-26 overall mark, reached the NCAA Tournament twice and finished second in the Pac-10 in both 2010 and 2011. She was named the Pac-10 Coach of the Year in 2010 after going 25-9 overall and reaching the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Her best season at UCLA came in 2011 as she led the Bruins to 28 victories, just one shy of the school mark of 29 set back in 1980-81. The Bruins spent the entire 2010-11 season ranked in the top 20 and they claimed the No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament. The Bruins finished the year with just five losses, the fewest in school history during the NCAA era. She also signed the nation’s third-ranked recruiting class according to ESPNHoopGurlz.com.
Caldwell made an immediate impact in her first season as a head coach in 2008-09, directing UCLA to a 19-12 overall record and a fourth place finish in the Pac-10.
Caldwell broke into the head coaching ranks after serving as an assistant on the staff of legendary women’s coach Pat Summitt at Tennessee from 2003-08. During that time, she helped the Lady Vols capture a pair of NCAA titles in 2007 and 2008 and reach the Final Four a total of five times. The Lady Vols compiled a 195-24 mark during her six years as an assistant coach.
Caldwell joined the Tennessee staff for the 2002-03 season and became the recruiting director in the spring of 2003. Her impact was immediate as the Lady Vols signed perhaps the most prolific freshman class in the history of women’s collegiate basketball in the fall of 2003. That class consisted of six 2004 high school All-Americans, including three players of the year. In 2008, Caldwell helped sign five players who went on to play in the prestigious McDonald’s All-American Game.
Prior to her return as a coach at her alma mater, Caldwell served as an assistant at the University of Virginia for three seasons (2000-2002). She was responsible for recruiting, scouting, film exchange, player development, camps and monitoring academic progress of student-athletes. Virginia compiled a record of 60-36 in her three seasons in Charlottesville and advanced to the NCAA Tournament each year.
As a player at Tennessee from 1991-94, Caldwell was known as a tenacious defender with tremendous 3-point shooting ability. The Lady Vols posted a 118-13 mark during her four-year career, winning the NCAA title during her freshman season in 1991 and capturing two SEC regular season titles and a pair of SEC Tournament titles.
Caldwell still ranks among the top 10 in Tennessee history in three-point field goals made (128) and three-point shots attempted (364). She burst onto the scene as a rookie, scoring 20 points in her first collegiate game against Stanford. Caldwell earned SEC All-Freshman honors in 1991. In the 1991 NCAA title game victory over Virginia, Caldwell’s defense was considered a key in the Lady Vols’ overtime win. She received the Gloria Ray Leadership Award in both her junior and senior seasons at Tennessee.
After graduating with a degree in public relations in 1994, Caldwell moved behind the microphone as a color analyst on Tennessee games for Fox Sports Net South. She went on to become the color analyst for the SEC’s Game of the Week from 1995-97. Her television exposure opened the door for her to become the hostess of the sports segments for the Knoxville-based cable network show, Shop at Home (1997-98).
She then decided to return to basketball, becoming a graduate assistant for administration for Tennessee in 1998. In her 14 seasons as a collegiate player and assistant coach, Caldwell’s teams compiled a record of 404-76, appeared in the NCAA Tournament each year, and claimed three national championships.
Off the court, Caldwell is a passionate crusader for breast cancer awareness. She and Tennessee assistant coach Holly Warlick have founded the non-profit organization, Champions for a Cause. Since 2007, they have raised over $250,000 through Cruisin’ for a Cause, a long-haul motorcycle adventure to raise dollars and awareness for a cure for breast cancer. Caldwell and Warlick chronicled their cross-country rides on their website, www.cruisinforacause.com. In 2010, Caldwell joined the Board of Directors for the Kay Yow Cancer Fund and is currently serving on the Executive Committee as Treasurer.
Caldwell was raised in Oak Ridge, Tenn., by her mother, Jean Caldwell. Caldwell has a younger sister, Simone, brother-in-law, Kirk and niece, Khayla.
What They Are Saying …
“I am absolutely thrilled for Nikki. It’s UCLA’s loss and LSU’s fantastic gain to get a brilliant, rising coach of Nikki Caldwell‘s caliber. LSU is committed to its women’s basketball program both financially and with the resources they have in place to compete amongst the best teams in the nation. The Southeastern Conference will become much stronger with Nikki joining the league. Her accomplishments in the three short seasons she was at UCLA is indicative of more of what will come from Nikki and her staff at LSU.”
— Tennessee head coach and Hall of Famer Pat Summitt
The complete transcript from Monday’s news conference is below:
LSU VICE CHANCELLOR AND DIRECTOR OF ATHLETICS JOE ALLEVA
Opening statement…
“This is a great day. I don’t wear this purple jacket very often. I love this purple jacket, but I don’t wear it very often. I wear it on special occasions. To me, this is a special occasion. I’ve been fortunate to have been in this business for awhile, and I know a lot of people in the basketball community. When I started making phone calls around and asking people who I should look at to take this position, Nikki Caldwell‘s name came up every single time, and I’m not kidding you. Every single person I talked to brought up her name, so I said I need to meet this lady, and I did. I was obviously very impressed. She’s a star, she’s a role model and she has the priorities of the young student-athletes in her heart and in her mind. She wants to make them better, not just as basketball players but as people, and that’s what this is all about. This is a bright, new day for LSU basketball. The future here is really, really bright.”
LSU HEAD COACH NIKKI CALDWELL
Opening Statement…
“When I got the call from my agent and he told me that LSU was interested in me, the first thing I thought about was Sue Gunter. She came to mind right off the bat. Having played in the SEC and having played against those old Sue Gunter teams back in the 90s, I was just moved because she has meant so much to a lot of us, our career, and our choices to go into college coaching because of what she has done for women’s basketball. I can’t tell you enough how honored I am to be a part of such a great legacy. I’ve been very fortunate. I’ve been able to work for the legendary Debbie Ryan at Virginia and obviously that other coach who’s won a few games in orange and white, Coach (Pat) Summit. Obviously when you look at coming from UCLA, Billie Moore and the great coaches that have meant so much to the game. I’m grateful to be able carry on that type of legacy. It was a very tough decision. (Athletic Director) Dan Guerrero and his administration, I thank them for giving me the opportunity to be a first time head coach. I also thank them for teaching me a lot about what it means to work with great people, great coaches, and a great support staff.”
“I’m excited to be the head coach here. I’m excited about the fact that I get to work with some unbelievable young ladies. I remember when they came to Westwood and I remember when they beat us in Westwood. That tenacity, that type of passion, that type of will, we ‘re just going to dial that up another notch and keep this thing rolling. I’ve known Van Chancellor for a very long time as well. He’s been a tremendous, tremendous asset to the women’s game, not only at the collegiate level but also professionally. I appreciate his body of work that he’s done and I know that he will be missed. Again, when you look at opportunities and the opportunity for me to be here, I’m extremely, extremely excited.”
“In regards to my family, you have to be kind of quiet about a lot of things when you’re in negotiations and things, and my mom said ‘I’m hearing things Nikki, on the Internet, that you’re leaving. Is that true?’ and I said, ‘No mom, it’s not true. Not yet.’ I had to tell her that. My mom talks a lot, and I didn’t want her to talk because she’ll tell everybody in Oak Ridge, Tenn. I knew the whole city would know by the time my mom got the news. I ended up calling her and she broke the news to the rest of the family and they basically had a party that night in my grandmother’s house because we’re closer now. They feel now they can come over here a lot more, and I said, ‘OK only when you’re invited.’ I will say this, you’ve made my family very proud Joe [Alleva] and they are excited to be a part of this family as well.”
“To my other family, which is my staff. I have Stacie Terry with me today. Taking on the endeavor at UCLA, it was a huge one. I felt so confident in getting the job done because of the staff. When you’re doing things, it’s not just about you. It’s about those people around you, so you always want to be surrounded by great people. I’ve got one of the best staffs in the country. Like I said, Stacie Terry with me today, Tony Perotti was a practice player when I was a grad assistant so I’ve known him for over 13 to 14 years now, and Tasha Butts who played at Tennessee and who I coached is also on the staff with me. Not only are you getting me but you’re getting an unbelievable coaching staff with the assistants.”
“The thing I will also talk about is this team. We had a chance to meet prior to this meeting and they were a little shy, which I can understand that. The two things I asked them to do, one was to be open to growth. That’s what we want you to do at LSU is grow as young ladies, as students, as basketball players, but most importantly as a woman. And that’s our job. Our job is to mentor you in every way that we possibly can, but we’re going to be about each other. We’re going to be about this community, we’re going to be about this institution, but we’re going to be about this team and where we’re going to go. I asked them to do those two things and everything else will take care of itself. Having that togetherness, having that giving mentality is to me the difference to me between good and great teams. I gave them examples of that, whether a teammate is down on the floor and reaching your hand down to pick them up? If a teammate gets beat on penetration are you there to cover them in the help side? To me, those are the things we want to instill. Philosophy wise, we are going to run, run, and run. I love up-tempo. I love quick, early shots when they’re going in, and when they’re not, we’ll be patient. The cornerstone of our program will be our defensive play, and then on the other side will be our defensive play. To me, that is the difference between winning championships. You have to be able to defend and you have to be able to rebound the basketball. Again, I am honored to be here today. I am honored to be the head coach here, but most importantly, I am honored to be a part of the LSU family.”
On watching LSU go to five Final Fours and getting this team back there…
“I think the rising process is just that, a process. It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to have great leadership, you have to have a cohesion amongst your team, and you have to have an relentless desire to not quit. Having scouted Sylvia Fowles, Temeka Johnson, and Seimone Augustus, you had Batman, Robin, and Batgirl. It is hard to defend those three, and then they have super friends on the way. You have to have people who can score the basketball and who can defend. You have to have playmakers. During that era and that run, everybody understood their responsibility and everybody understood what they had to do day in and day out. Those victories, as far as the game was concerned, weren’t won at the game. Those victories were won in the off-season and through practicing at a level where practices where harder than the game. That’s the culture that was there when they were making their run for national championships.”
On playing Tennessee in the future …
“It’s going to be great. One of the first phone calls I got was from Coach (Pat) Summit. She was ecstatic for myself and for our staff. She’s like this proud mom in a way. She was very, very proud and welcomed us to the SEC. Her being the first phone call told me a lot. She’s someone who I wouldn’t be standing here today without. She’s someone who as a coach instilled in me what it meant to be a student-athlete. I felt like we can give back to this game that has afforded us so many opportunities. I played [Tennessee] two years ago at their place. Tony (Perotti) was a practice player, so you can see she’s all over the women’s game in so many programs. That’s just a complement to Coach. Having to play other schools that you beat on when you played. We beat people pretty badly when I played college basketball. They sometimes don’t forget that and they will carry that with them. Whatever they need to motivate them they’ll use, but we’ll use our own motivation as well. It’s going to be great to be able to have that type of competitiveness against teams that you’ve already played against as a player and obviously when I was at Tennessee I felt the same way.”
On deciding on taking the job at LSU…
“I think looking at leaving a UCLA, I’ve left a very special place. It’s special in so many ways because of not only the people there, but when you look at the athletes that have gone through that program; Jackie Joyner-Kersee, Arthur Ashe, Jackie Robinson, to me it’s just a deeper appreciation for where the women’s game is today. You can’t say enough about what Coach (John) Wooden has meant to so many of us. Having the opportunity to sit down with him, it’s unreal. I can’t even explain being able to talk to him. I think the first time we met and sat down was at a gymnastics meet, so he loved gymnastics. Coach Wooden really had an influence on Coach (Pat) Summit and then obviously she’s filtered that through us as her players. In making the decision to come here, it was a family decision and it was one that I was excited to be given the opportunity to come, get back to the South, closer to home and to family. Also, this program is very rich in tradition. LSU has been committed to women’s basketball when it wasn’t popular. I just hope that we are able to continue and move this game to the next level and keep moving it into the right direction. Coach Wooden said it best, no offense to any guys who have played basketball, but he said ‘the purest form of basketball being played is through the women’s game.’ We want to make sure that we are always looking forward and advancing forward and I know LSU has that type of commitment to women’s basketball.”
On the challenge of building new relationships with a new team…
“The good thing is, in building relationships, I think it starts with a pureness and an honesty and that’s something that our staff is about. We’re not here to be anything but who we are. I know these young ladies will be, just from their facial expressions when we walked in the locker room, just from having LaSondra [Barrett] call me and say ‘Hey coach, congratulations.’ When you have the players reaching out to you as well, to me that’s already in motion. I think the other thing too is that they understand, I hope they understand, that this is about them. Even when you look at the coaches that were here before us, it still was about you. No coach shoots any shots. No coach makes a layup. It’s you. We’re just here to help guide you, mentor you, bring you through the process, but at the end of the day it’s about you. The most important part of building the relationship to me, is knowing that it’s not just a temporary thing. This is a long time commitment. When they get married, I want a wedding invitation. I want it all. You continue your career after you leave here, but we always want to know where you are and what you’re doing. I think the relationships with your alums is so important. When you mention Seimone Augustus, I remember recruiting her. This was an unbelievable place for her to turn down when I was at Tennessee, so I understood that. Now I’m going to be in Seimone’s ear making sure she knows that we welcome everyone. We want all the alums to be a part of this new era of women’s basketball at LSU. I think you always have to pay tribute to those who came before you. Sylvia Fowles, Temeka Johnson, those people really put LSU on the map by going back to Final Fours. Knowing who they are and speaking to alums that have played in Sue Gunter’s years, to me that’s what it’s about as a part of this LSU family. You may not have played with them but you do need to know them.”