With the departure of head coach Kristy Curry for South Florida, an era of resurgence for Alabama women’s basketball comes to a close.
The team lost narrowly to Louisville in the second round of the NCAA Tournament, cementing the third consecutive year that the Crimson Tide was unable to advance past the Round of 32 and the second in a row that it fell in heartbreaking fashion, with last year’s loss to Maryland coming in double overtime.
“There’s a lot of emotion and a lot of tears,” Curry said after the Louisville game, “ I couldn’t be prouder of everything this group has done all year long.”
That pride is specifically for a team that, after losing its three best players to the WNBA draft, equaled its win total and once again reached the tournament. Despite meager preseason predictions, Alabama sustained its success and won 20 games for the fifth straight year, a streak that hadn’t been matched or even approached since the 1990s.
Reaching historical marks and reestablishing the Crimson Tide program isn’t just a characteristic of this year or the past five, but rather the entirety of Curry’s tenure. After a seven-year stint at Texas Tech, she took over an Alabama team in 2013 that had only three winning seasons since the turn of the century and no 20-win campaigns.
“The Alabama program has tremendous potential and I am very excited to get the chance to lead the Crimson Tide back to national prominence,” she said at her introductory press conference in 2013.
It was a gradual rebuilding process — the team didn’t get above .500 in its first three seasons under Curry’s guidance — but in 2016-17 the Crimson Tide went 22-14, officially reaching 20 wins for the first time in the 21st century. Curry proved that she was putting Alabama women’s basketball on an upward trajectory, and she maintained it, as the team finished with a winning record in eight of the next nine seasons after only having one in the previous 14.
Her Crimson Tide reached the next significant milestone in 2020-21 by making it back to the NCAA Tournament. It would’ve likely gone the prior year if the tournament hadn’t been canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak, having boasted an 18-12 record before the season abruptly ended. The 2020-21 team landed a No. 7 seed, won its first game and got throttled 100-64 by 2-seeded Maryland in the second round.
Alabama missed the tourney the next year despite going 20-14, likely due to a lackluster 6-10 record in conference play, but it was the beginning of the long-unachieved 20-win season streak.
Since then, the Crimson Tide has been a consistent participant in the NCAA Tournament, and it has won every first-round game following a close loss to Baylor as a No. 10 seed in 2022-23. Curry’s four tournament wins are the most since former head coach Rick Moody, who led the team to a run of success that included a Final Four appearance in 1993, and they’re the second-most by any coach in women’s program history.
Tournament appearances aren’t the only measure of positive impact from Curry’s time in Tuscaloosa. From the start, she helped the Crimson Tide break barriers it hadn’t in years, and at times even decades: In 2015-16, for example, the team beat Tennessee for the first time in 42 games dating back to 1984. That landmark win started a five-game winning streak against the Lady Volunteers that was the longest by any SEC team in history.
In 2021, after having been coached by Curry, guard Jasmine Walker was selected in the WNBA draft, making her the first for the program since 2005. Two years later, guard Brittany Davis became Curry’s second draft pick with the Crimson Tide following a season where she made the most 3s by any Alabama player in three decades.
In 2025, Sarah Ashlee Barker, Aaliyah Nye and Zaay Green were all draft picks, with Barker going ninth overall. The five WNBA draft picks under Curry’s watch are the most by any coach in school history, with Moody having three. That 2024-25 team was also historic in that it was ranked in the preseason AP poll (No. 24), a feat no other Alabama women’s team has accomplished.
From a cultural, statistical and overall respectability standpoint, Curry leaves Crimson Tide women’s hoops in a far better place than she found it. Her mantra of “culture never graduates” leaves a strong blueprint for a program in search of its next leader — with the foundation of grit, love and gratitude, it’s no longer just about what coach is at the helm, but the culture that they inherit.
“To me, it was a no-doubter where I was going to go to school because Coach Kristy just made it feel like home. She creates a very family atmosphere,” guard Karly Weathers said following her final game last weekend. “Truly, this has been four of the greatest years of my life.”
Whether Curry is here physically or not, her impact on that culture will be felt for years to come.
