Tennessee’s Kim Caldwell announced her first full Lady Vols coaching staff on Tuesday just a week after her introductory press conference in Knoxville.
Caldwell is bringing two assistant coaches with her from Marshall and is adding two coaches with experience coaching in the SEC.
“I am very pleased to welcome our new coaching staff members to Rocky Top,” Caldwell said in a statement. “It’s an outstanding group of high-energy coaches that is gifted in the areas of recruiting, teaching, motivating, mentoring and player development. I’m so excited to get our basketball team on the court with this group and can’t wait to see what we can collectively do as a staff to help our current players and future Lady Vols become the best they can possibly be.”
Caldwell’s first coaching staff at Tennessee will include Roman Tubner, Gabe Lazo, Jenna Burdette and Angel Rizor.
Tubner spent the last three seasons as an assistant coach at Alabama and was the Crimson Tide’s associate head coach last season. He helped lead Alabama women’s basketball to a renaissance in recent years and was its top recruiter, responsible for signing 16 players during his time at Alabama.
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Prior to his time at Alabama, Tubner had coaching stints at Arkansas Tech (2014-17), Austin Peay (2017-18), Indiana State (2018-19), UNC Wilmington (2019-21) and Ball State (2020-21).
Lazo comes to Tennessee after spending the last two seasons on Sam Purcell’s staff at Mississippi State. Earlier this offseason, Purcell promoted Lazo to the Bulldogs’ new associate head coach.
Prior to his time in Starkville, Lazo had coaching stints at Florida International (2017-19), Stony Brook (2019-21) and George Washington (2021-22).
Burdette has spent three years as an assistant coach for Caldwell, first at Glenville State and then at Marshall where she was Caldwell’s associate head coach. The young assistant coach graduated from Dayton in 2018 where she played on the Flyers basketball team.
Rizor spent two seasons coaching under Caldwell first at Glenville State and then at Marshall. A 2020 graduate of Cincinnati, Rizor was a four-year collegiate starter before playing professionally in Germany.
With her first staff set, Caldwell and Tennessee now look to add players to its roster via the transfer portal.
