The University of Alabama announced Saturday that it has hired former Texas Tech women’s basketball coach Kristy Curry as the Crimson Tide’s women’s basketball coach.
Former UA women’s basketball coach Wendell Hudson was reassigned to an administrative role in late April.
The Lubbock Avalanche-Journal first reported the hiring, which is the first head coaching hire for new UA Athletics Director Bill Battle.
“I am very excited to announce that Kristy Curry will be the next women’s basketball coach at the University of Alabama,” Battle said in a University release. “When we began our search for a head coach, we sought a veteran head coach that had a proven record as a consistent winner. Coach Curry has produced an impressive record at Purdue and Texas Tech. We are thrilled that she has chosen to lead our program, and we are looking forward to welcoming Kristy, her husband Kelly, and their children, Kelsey and Kendall, to Tuscaloosa.”
In seven years at Texas Tech, Curry, 46, led the Red Raiders to a 130-98 record and two NCAA tournament berths. Before being hired at Texas Tech in 2006, Curry went 179-51 in seven seasons as the head coach of the Purdue Boilermakers. While at Purdue, she won two Big Ten regular season championships, three Big Ten tournament championships, made the NCAA tournament all seven years and advanced to the national title game in 2001.
Curry was scheduled to make $750,000 at Texas Tech this upcoming season, according to the Avalanche-Journal. According to al.com, Hudson made a salary of $245,000 and a $50,000 talent fee while at UA.
“I am honored and thrilled to be the next women’s basketball coach at the University of Alabama,” Curry said in a release. “The Alabama program has tremendous potential and I am very excited to get the chance to lead the Crimson Tide back to national prominence. I want to thank the Alabama administration for the confidence they have shown in me, and for giving me this opportunity. We leave Texas Tech with heavy hearts. Kelly and I owe our deepest gratitude to so many people in the Red Raider family. We will always be grateful to the Texas Tech fans, the administration, the faculty and, most of all, our players”
