By james art 
Kim Caldwell will return to the sidelines Monday night when her 17th-ranked Tennessee The Lady Vols host the defending national champion South Carolina Gamecocks.
Exactly one week after her birth first child – Bouncing boy.
“It’s good to be back,” Caldwell told reporters Sunday.
Caldwell gave birth to Connor Scott on Monday while dealing with the flu. She missed exactly one game, 80-76 loss at No. 7 Texas On Thursday night, Assistant Jenna Burdette filled in as acting coach for this road play.
“It was just more of a helpless feeling than anything else,” Caldwell said of having to watch a game she missed, even with the addition of Burdett doing great in her absence.
Caldwell was in practice Friday and was busy rehydrating along with some of the Lady Vols with the flu around the locker room. That’s one reason her son stayed 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 microbes,” Caldwell said.
Asked about the baby’s height and weight stats, Caldwell said her son came out the size of his late father, and thankfully some.
“It can grow outside,” Caldwell said.
The Lady Vols’ (15-4, 3-4 Southeastern Conference) four losses have been by a combined eight points, with three of those opponents ranked in the top 10. They get another chance Monday night with No. 2 South Carolina (19- 1, 6-1) Coming to Knoxville.
The First year head coach I couldn’t watch this game from home, not with the Lady Vols trying to avoid their first three game sweep of the season.
Caldwell has a good support system, starting with her husband, who won the drawing to name her baby. Her mother is also in Knoxville to help her sister soon.
“It would be a completely different story if that wasn’t the case,” Caldwell said.
Caldwell is working to get the Lady Vols to stop committing the same fouls over and over again, even as she and her assistants keep going over those points.
Tennessee ranks first in the country averaging 93.4 points per game and no one has made more 3s than the Lady Vols, who average 11 1/2 per game. They have struck out 10 or more 13 times already this season, more than doubling the previous school mark of six. They went 9 of 17 against Texas.
Now comes the challenge of balancing coaching and being a mother.
Caldwell said she visited with Rick Barnes, her husband’s boss and men’s trainer, during her pregnancy to talk. Barnes, who has two children and five grandchildren, recalled the birth of his daughter on Friday. His advice on balancing coaching and parenting can easily apply to both Caldwells.
“That’s what we do,” Barnes said. “It can’t be who you are.” ___
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