Alabama athletics is renowned for being at the top of the league, guaranteeing a cult-like fan base that is like no other. Women’s basketball is no exception. Though the undying love is there for the Crimson Tide, the real question is if Alabama can really compare to other SEC schools.
Since the inception ofthe NCAA Tournament for women’s basketball, the SEC has won nine NCAA Championships out of 31 games. All nine of those wins belong to Tennessee. Only one other school, besides Tennessee, has come close to winning the championship and that would be Georgia. No other SEC school has seen the championship in the past 31 years. Alabama made it to the final four once in 1994.
That being said, Alabama has had its ups and downs throughout the past decade. Currently, the Tide is 12-8 overall and 2-5 in conference and will face Georgia this upcoming Thursday.
“We have nine more games in the conference,” Coach Wendell Hudson said. “We have to keep fighting and see what the next games are going to hold.”
The Tide may not have made it to the NCAA finals, but that doesn’t mean it is out of it for good. Since 2000, Alabama has made it to the SEC championship 11 times. The Tide made it past round one three times and made it past round two once, but it never succeeded in winning the championship.
Compared to Tennessee, Alabama has room for improvement. Back when Hudson joined the Tide, Alabama was coming off a 10-20 season. Since joining, Alabama has had one winning season and three losing seasons. He currently has an average of 14.75 wins and 17.5 losses with the Tide.
Though currently not ranked in the country, Alabama has the focus to get noticed. With players such as Shafontaye Myers, who recently broke her high-scoring record against Auburn, Daisha Simmons, who transferred from Rutgers and started this year and Jasmine Robinson, a junior with a great shooting average, the Tide has the potential to come out with another winning season.
Hudson said Alabama has improved despite early losses against Texas A&M and Kentucky.
“Starting conference play, we started with Texas A&M, which is a really good basketball team, and then our second game against Kentucky, then ranked No. 6 in the country,” Hudson said. “I think we didn’t play as well as we needed to against Texas A&M, I thought we gave a much better effort against Kentucky. We had some opportunities and I really feel like we had some scoring opportunities and had opportunities to be in that game longer but I thought we played awfully hard and well against both of those teams.”
Current women’s basketball standings have five SEC schools in the top 25. Kentucky and Tennessee are ranked Nos. 8 and 9 followed by No. 13 Georgia, No. 15 South Carolina and No. 16 Texas A&M. Though none of these schools would comment on Alabama, rival Auburn described Alabama as a “good team.”
The Tide’s main goal is to take one game at a time, focus six games into the future ,because there’s always room for improvement. Last week it was working on the guards, this week it’s on shooting. Hudson wants to better his team for each game, building on the foundation he’s laid out before the season started.
The season is not over and there is still plenty of basketball left to be played. Alabama may not be the crème de la crème of all the SEC teams, but it has built enough hype and potential to have a better season than before. Georgia may not falter this Thursday, but the team has the dedication to make this season a better one.
