After Angel Rizor's four-year career with Cincinnati that featured starts in each season and over 1,000 points scored, she decided to keep her basketball career alive by going overseas.

Rizor played a season with Cesme-Izmir in Turkey while helping the squad reach the TKBL playoffs. In 2022-23, she took her professional career to Germany while also helping coach local club and high school teams.

A year and a half later, she is now an assistant coach with the Lady Vols as a part of Kim Caldwell's first staff at Tennessee.

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Rizor initially met Caldwell following her professional season in Turkey. She wanted to take a break from playing and her college coach at Cincinnati put her in touch with Caldwell who was with Division II Glenville State at the time.

During that season, the pair helped steer the school to a national title. After she picked her professional career back up, Caldwell came calling. She wanted Rizor to join her staff at Marshall as she made the jump to the Division I level.

There was no hesitation to jump at this opportunity.

"She called me when she got to Marshall," Rizor said. "And it was nothing for me to drop what I was doing to come and coach with her."

When Caldwell got hired at Tennessee, Rizor was one of two coaches from her stop at Marshall who followed her to Knoxville.

Going from a professional player in Germany to an assistant at one of the top programs in the country in just over a year was unexpected but certainly welcomed.

"It's very crazy," Rizor said. "When I started playing in Germany, I did not think I would be here in a year and a half. I knew I would be at Marshall, probably, but not here. And I think it's just amazing and I'm just forever humbled and grateful to be here, especially at the University of Tennessee."

Now, Rizor is being asked to teach Caldwell's unique system to a band of all new players. The Lady Vols will employ a full-court press and run in transition for entire games which is a tough adjustment to make from the two decades of basketball players previously played by each athlete.

This transition is something Rizor had to undergo herself.

When she initially found out about Caldwell at Glenville State, she didn't know the style the school ran. She played fast with the Bearcats, but it paled in comparison to the system she was about to coach.

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It didn't take long for her to grasp the new concepts, though.

"I had no knowledge of it, learned it all the first year," Rizor said. "But (Caldwell) is also a very great teacher. She's good to her coaches and to her players, teaching them it. So I learned pretty quickly and I'm able to help the other ones learn."

Part of what helped Rizor learn so quickly was her background overseas. The leagues she played in featured a much faster and intense pace of basketball which can mirror what Caldwell does.

This also helped her see how successful it could be. Experiencing it first hand gave her trust it would work in the United States, as well.

"One thing I did learn is that the translation from American basketball to overseas and how different it is in some of the style of plays of overseas to here," Rizor said. "Very fast, very quick, which helps, because that's style of play for Kim. And so just seeing how successful that is overseas and it can be very successful here in America."

This is something she shares with the players on her team. Not only does she talk about the similarities, but she also raves about her experience and recommends it to players who may follow similar steps that she took after college.

With Rizor just 26 years old, she's also able to connect with her players on a personal level. To senior guard Kaiya Wynn who will miss the season due to injury, this is a major advantage of having her on the staff.

Not only is it someone that's easy to relate to, but it's also a coach with immense basketball knowledge that's willing to share it all.

"She's young, so she can relate to us," Wynn said. "But she'll yell, she'll get into you. She brings a sense of, just young. She has a lot of knowledge already and she has a lot of knowledge of the game of basketball. You can ask her any question, guard, post, about defense or offense, and she always has things to say and always knows the answers. I look forward to being able to sit next to her during games and talking to her."

Caldwell likes this young energy she's brought, too. She's noticed the juice she brings to practice and has enjoyed the effect it's had.

She also appreciates that despite her age, she's not afraid to step in and correct players. Whether this is verbal instruction or getting on the hardwood and literally showing it, it's a valuable asset for the Lady Vols.

"It's really nice when you have somebody that knows you, knows what to expect, who has been around you in the past," Caldwell said. "I am very thankful that I got to work with her when we won the National Championship at Glenville. She's high energy, she's not afraid to coach them, she'll get out there and show them if she needs to. She does it all."

There are still some adjustments for Rizor, though. Although she's knowledgeable about the system, doing it in the SEC and at a school like Tennessee is still something to adjust to.

This starts with the roster she's coaching. The skillsets that players at this level have compared to mid-majors and Division II athletes is immense.

Rizor thinks this will be to their advantage, but it also means conference play will be against similarly talented opponents.

"I think the biggest adjustment is being on the SEC level, one of the best programs out here in America," Rizor said. "So we know that and we know we have to work hard. Our team knows that they have a lot of goals they want to accomplish this year, so making sure we push them all as far as the talent of our players have changed. We have top 25 type of players here, everything of that sort. So we just know that we have a lot of more athletic, longer players and it's going to help our style play, but making sure they adjust to that from where they were last year."

Of course, there is also the aspect of adjusting to a place with so much history. From the eight National Championships that Pat Summitt brought to the school to the brand that was developed, the Lady Vols are as unique as a program as it gets.

Rizor grew up with an appreciation for Tennessee but it's still different being on campus.

"You feel the community, you feel the support, you understand what it means to be here," Rizor said. "As soon as we walked on to this campus, you can just feel it by seeing the Pat Summitt statue outside, by just walking in the gym, seeing all the banners. You just feel like what Tennessee women's basketball means to this state and to the nation honestly, so it just makes it feel good. Want to get it back to where it was."

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