Kim Caldwell will be back on the sideline Monday night when her 17th-ranked Tennessee Lady Vols host the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks.
Exactly one week after giving birth to her first child — a bouncing baby boy.
“It's nice to be back,” Caldwell told reporters Sunday.
Caldwell gave birth to Conor Scott on Monday while dealing with the flu. She missed exactly one game, an 80-76 loss at No. 7 Texas on Thursday night with assistant Jenna Burdette filled in as acting coach for that road game.
“It just was more of a helpless feeling than anything else,” Caldwell said of having to watch the one game she missed even with adding Burdette did a great job in her absence.
Caldwell was at practice Friday and has been busy filling up on fluids along with some of the Lady Vols with flu going around the locker room. That's one reason why her son will stay away from the team that held a baby shower for their coach no matter how eager the Lady Vols are to see the newest addition.
"We have a lot of germs,” Caldwell said.
Asked for the baby's height and weight stats, Caldwell said her son came out about the size of her late father and thankfully little.
"He can grow on the outside,” Caldwell said.
The four losses by the Lady Vols (15-4, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) have been by a combined eight points with three of those opponents ranked inside the Top 10. On Monday night, they get another chance with No. 2 South Carolina (19-1, 6-1) coming to Knoxville.
The first-year head coach couldn't watch this game from home, not with the Lady Vols trying to avoid their first three-game skid of the season.
Caldwell has a good support system in place starting with her husband, who won the drawing to name their baby. Her mother also is in Knoxville to help with her sister coming soon.
“It would be a completely different story if that wasn't the case,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell is working to get her Lady Vols to quit committing the same fouls over and over, even as she and her assistants keep going over those points.
Tennessee ranks first in the country averaging 93.4 points a game, and nobody has made more 3s than the Lady Vols who average 11 1/2 per game. They've hit 10 or more 13 times already this season, more than doubling the previous school mark of six. They made 9 of 17 against Texas.
Now comes the challenge of balancing the job of coaching and being a mother.
Caldwell said she visited with Rick Barnes, her husband's boss and the men's coach, during her pregnancy to chat. Barnes who has two children and five grandchildren recalled the birth of his daughter Friday. His advice to balancing coaching and parenthood easily can apply to both Caldwells.
“This is what we do," Barnes said. "It can’t be who you are.” ___
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