For the first time in 25 years, the Alabama women’s basketball team will begin the season ranked in the preseason AP Top 25 women’s basketball poll, landing at No. 24.
The Crimson Tide finished the 2023-24 season with a fourth-place finish in the SEC and earned a bid to the NCAA tournament for the third time in four years.
Head coach Kristy Curry will be coaching her 12th season at Alabama, and she currently sits three victories shy of 200 wins with the team. Last season, Curry guided the Crimson Tide to its fifth season with at least 20 wins in her coaching tenure, winning 24 games total, 10 of which were conference wins.
“There is a lot of well-deserved preseason excitement around our program,” Curry said. “We all understand it’s about the finish and are focused on getting better each day. This is a talented, special group who have helped us elevate the program in so many ways.”
In Aug., Curry agreed to a five-year contract extension with Alabama through June 2029. This season will be the last year she gets to coach her superstar guards, Sarah Ashlee Barker and Aaliyah Nye.
Curry said that Barker and Nye have played big roles in elevating the program to its current state and wants to see them put a special finish on their collegiate careers.
On Oct. 14, Barker was named to the preseason All-SEC first team for the 2024-25 season. Last season, Barker surpassed 1,000 career points and led Alabama in scoring in 19 games.
Nye is also a member of the 1,000-point club and currently has the program record for most 3-pointers made in a single season, with 108.
This season, the path to an SEC championship could be a little more rugged than before because of the new additions of Oklahoma and Texas to the SEC.
With new challenges in a deep conference, Curry continues to preach three core values to her team: grit, love and gratitude.
“We want to be the grittiest team in the SEC. We want to love the front of our jersey more than the back and love each other,” Curry said. “We are grateful to be at The University of Alabama.”
Building the player-coach relationship and creating a welcoming environment are top priorities in the program, the head coach said.
“It’s important to build relationships and understand what’s important to the players academically, socially and basketball-wise,” Curry said. “Sometimes players won’t care about how much coaches know until they know that we care about them.”
Chloe Spreen, 2024’s Indiana Miss Basketball, said she committed to Alabama because of the coaching staff. The freshman also said she believes in Curry’s vision for the program.
Spreen is not the only newcomer who credited the coaches as the reason why they came to Tuscaloosa.
Freshman Eris Lester decided to call The University of Alabama home because she wanted to play for a successful coach like Curry, who can develop players into pros.
The Crimson Tide landed graduate student Zaay Green in the transfer portal this offseason. Green said that she came to Alabama because she has a great relationship with all the coaches and a unique connection with Curry. In 1993, Curry served as an assistant coach at Stephen F. Austin, where she coached Green’s mother, Yolanda Harris.
This season, Alabama’s schedule consists of 14 nonconference games and 16 SEC games. Alabama will open the regular season in Coleman Coliseum against New Orleans on Nov. 4 at 5:00 p.m. CT. It will air on SEC Network+.
