That was an unexpected destination
For weeks there had been rumors of Alabama women’s basketball coach Kristy Curry stepping down, perhaps for a destination like Northwestern. She wasn’t particularly unhappy, and her job had never been endangered at Alabama; she had just earned a better one.
So, news of Coach Curry leaving would not be unexpected. However, today’s news — the destination — very much was.
Alabama women’s basketball coach Kristy Curry has taken the South Florida job, as announced by USF Tuesday, March 24.
Curry leaves the Crimson Tide after 13 seasons and with a 244–172 record. This season, Alabama went 23–10 and made a fifth NCAA Tournament appearance in the last six seasons.
She had led Alabama to five straight seasons of 20+ wins, and after 13 years on campus, departs as the second-winningest coach in program history.
She’s one of only 10 women to coach three separate teams to 100+ wins, and even made an appearance in the 2001 national title game with Purdue. Coach Curry knew her business.
Beyond that, Kristy Curry was an unalloyed good on campus, a steady presence, a credit to the program and university, and a pure delight as a colleague and coach. She ran a clean ship. Her team played clean ball. She was competitive, and had she chosen, she could retire in Tuscaloosa.
Coach Curry will be missed. And for fans of the program, it stings mightily that someone of her stature was poached by a mid major.
To say that Coach Curry is nearly irreplaceable is not an exaggeration. Women of her caliber aren’t just waiting in the wings to go to an underfunded WBB school like Alabama, in the meatgrinder of the SEC.
Like other programs on campus (beyond the major tentpoles), women’s basketball does not enjoy as much financial support as their rivals, despite being able to eke out marginal profits year over year. So, whoever takes the job will have to realize that Greg Byrne’s notion of supporting women’s athletics is a competitive salary and a boss with forgiving expectations, but not much in the tank for NIL or facilities. Even when it’s earned.
Someone with experience is not going to be lining up for that job. Rather, look to the current staff for a most likely replacement (Tenille Adams, for instance), a low/mid major like Dawn Thornton, or a hot assistant at another major program.
Alabama very much lucked into Coach Curry the first time around, and she inherited a team that won four SEC games in two years before her arrival, eventually netting a $700,000 salary. But in the current landscape, gems like that don’t stick around.
We also know painfully and unequivocally where Alabama lies in the pecking order: this is not a destination job.
