BATON ROUGE – Nikki Caldwell, who was officially introduced as LSU’s new women’s basketball head coach on Monday, will be featured on ESPNU’s SEC Weekly hosted by Cara Capuano at 4 p.m. CT Wednesday on the network.
The hour-long show will re-air at 11 p.m. CT Wednesday on ESPNU and then again at noon CT Thursday. It will also be archived on www.SECSports.com.
Caldwell spoke to ESPNU via phone and discussed taking over a tradition-rich LSU program and returning to her roots of the Southeastern Conference. Caldwell comes to LSU after producing an impressive 72-26 record in three seasons at UCLA as she turned the Bruins into national power.
The former Tennessee national champion player and assistant coach spoke confidently Monday about getting LSU back to the tradition of winning championships and advancing to Final Fours.
“I think the rising process is just that, a process,” said Caldwell. “It doesn’t happen overnight. You have to have great leadership. You have to have cohesion amongst your team, and you have to have a relentless desire to not quit. We want to make sure that we are always looking forward and advancing forward.”
Caldwell is the seventh women’s basketball coach in LSU history and she inherits a talented team that just missed advancing to the NCAA Tournament. LaSondra Barrett returns after producing a State Farm Coaches’ Honorable Mention All-America and first-team All-SEC season with 12.2 points and 6.3 rebounds per game.
Adrienne Webb was an All-SEC honorable mention selection as a sophomore after leading the Lady Tigers in scoring with 12.8 points per contest and burying 73-of-191 three-pointers, which ranked third in the SEC.
Season tickets for the 2011-12 LSU women’s basketball season are now on sale online at www.LSUtix.net.
Since Monday’s announcement, LSU has sold close to 100 new season tickets for what will be Caldwell’s first year as the Lady Tigers coach in the Maravich Center. Season tickets start as low as $50.