Ahead of the 2024-25 season, Tennessee basketball hired Justin Caldwell to be an assistant coach on the Vols' staff.

With Kim Caldwell, Justin Caldwell's wife, the head coach of the women's program, their family is represented on both sides of the practice facility.

In the Caldwell household, this means perspectives are being shared from both the Vols and Lady Vols practices.

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This starts with Justin Caldwell being taken aback by the coaching style of Rick Barnes. The Hall of Fame coach has left the impression on Justin Caldwell that Barnes does not hold back on his players and expects the best out of each and every one of them.

"He loves Rick Barnes," Kim Caldwell said. "He'll just come home and he'll just be so amazed at the type of coach that Rick is about how he is always on them, the standard that he holds them to and just the way he coaches and it's just, it's been really, really helpful for me honestly to come back and hear what's going on on that side of the gym."

This coaching style aligns and is different from Kim Caldwell's at the same time.

The Lady Vols' coach has a whiteboard that she uses to tally mistakes that her team needs to learn from and improve on. This style of holding players accountable throughout practices is similar to Barnes'.

"They hate it. So we do a whiteboard and we'll have different things that we hold them accountable for every day and we'll give them a mark and so we just publicly put it up there and hey, this is what needs to be fixed," Kim Caldwell said. "And sometimes we'll have a consequence. Sometimes we'll just use it as a teaching point, but just making sure that they're self-aware because sometimes as a player you make the same mistake four or five times. You don't really realize it over a two hour practice, but when you have to see it and you compare it to everyone else, then you do kind of realize it's something that needs to be fixed. And so it's not a player favorite."

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The way Kim Caldwell differs from Barnes is the immediate nature the men's coach uses to correct his players. He isn't afraid to pause a practice to make sure something is corrected the right away.

On the other side of Pratt Pavilion, Kim Caldwell lets her players play through the mistakes and learn from it without immediate correction on the practice floor.

"You know there are some times where I'm like, okay, well then this is, I don't feel so bad for, you know, keeping tallies on a whiteboard like it's other people are holding the standard as well," Kim Caldwell siad. "And from everything I have heard about Coach Barnes is his standard is elite and he'll never wave from that. I'm a little bit different on that end where I will let them play through mistakes but it just really confirms that, alright, like he's a Hall of Fame coach, he made it to the Elite Eight, he's right next door, like we're all right."

The two programs are now set to begin their seasons at very different steps in their tenures. Barnes is coming off his first ever Elite Eight with Tennessee as he looks to continue to build his program into a national contender. Kim Caldwell enters her first season with the Lady Vols and second at the Division I level.

Now, the coaches who are both similar and different, will split time in Food City Center representing Tennessee.

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