Kristy Curry is heading to South Florida, which leaves Alabama women’s basketball searching for its next head coach.
Curry won more than 200 games over 13 seasons with the Crimson Tide, leading the program to the NCAA Tournament in five of the last six seasons. It’s a far cry from the program she took over, as the Crimson Tide won four SEC games the two previous seasons before Curry was hired in 2013.
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Curry was making $700,000 a season with the Crimson Tide. If Alabama wants to stay in-house, they have two assistants with head coaching experience. There’s three head coaches in-state that elevated their programs and a local junior college coach that is one of the best in the nation that could be options for the Crimson Tide.
Here are eight names to consider as Alabama women’s basketball searches for a new head coach.
Tennille Adams
Current Role: Assistant at Alabama
Adams is one of two options if Alabama wanted to stay in house. She brings head coaching experience from a two-year stint at Howard. She has been an assistant coach at UCF, Memphis, Wright State and Ball State since then. Over two years at Howard, she went 14-47. Adams has been at Alabama since 2023.
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Hannah Barber
Current Role: Assistant Coach at Samford
Barber is young and might be too inexperienced, but the former Crimson Tide guard was given high praise by Curry during her playing days. In the 2022-23 season, Curry told the Tuscaloosa News that it wouldn’t surprise her to see Barber as a head coach in the SEC within 10 years. Since graduating from Alabama, Barber has taken roles as a grad assistant at Indiana and assistant at Valdosta State before returning to Homewood with Samford.
Pauline Love
Current Role: Associate Head Coach at Oklahoma
Love is in her first season with the Sooners after spending the 2024-25 campaign at Alabama. She was an assistant at Arkansas from 2017-24 and spent time at her alma mater Southern Miss and McNeese State before that.
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Chanda Rigby
Current Role: Head Coach at Troy
Rigby has been the head coach at Troy since 2012, previously serving as a community college and high school coach. She has won 278 games over her time there. Since 2015-16, she has never finished below fourth in the conference and has made four NCAA Tournaments. Troy went 23-5 and fell in the Sun Belt title game this season.
Madonna Thompson
Current Role: Head Coach at Shelton State CC
Thompson played for Alabama from 1992-95 and was on the 1994 Final Four team. She took over at Shelton State ahead of the 1997-98 season and won more than 750 games in her time there. She has won more than 20 games in each of the last 25 seasons, with 12 30-win seasons. She has coached in five NJCAA Final Fours and the 2025 team played for the title after going 31-5.
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Dawn E. Thornton
Current Role: Head Coach at Alabama A&M
Thornton had the Bulldogs at 22-9 and the No. 1 seed in the SWAC Tournament in just her second season. She previously has coached at Arkansas Pine-Bluff, Prairie View A&M and Shorter. She has gone 42-20 in two seasons with the Bulldogs.
Roman Tubner
Current Role: Assistant at Tennessee
Tubner spent three seasons coaching at Alabama from 2021-24 before heading to the Lady Vols. He hasn’t been a head coach yet, but has spent 13 years as an assistant around the country. While at Alabama, he helped lead them to two NCAA Tournaments and a WNIT Elite Eight. He is a known recruiter, helping Tennessee to one of the top high school and transfer classes in the nation last year. At Alabama, he had a top 15 signing class.
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Brooks Donald Williams
Current Role: Assistant Coach/Recruiting Coordinator
Williams is in her second stint at Alabama, working there from 2016-2019 as well as for the 2025-26 season. She left in 2019 to lead the ULM program and was the McNeese State head coach from 2007-2016. She has two stints at Southern Miss as well. She is McNeese State’s all-time winningest coach with 161 wins in nine seasons and made two NCAA Tournament appearances in 2011 and 2012. She went 17-94 at ULM over four seasons.
Matt Wise
Current Role: Head Coach at Samford
Wise just finished his first season leading the Bulldogs after spending three years as an assistant there. Wise previously was on the Alabama staff under Curry in 2021. He has spent time at East Tennessee, Wyoming and Florida. Samford went 16-18, but made a surprise run in the SoCon Tournament and clinched its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2012.
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Maxwell Donaldson covers high school sports, Jax State athletics, the outdoors in Alabama and more for the Gadsden Times and USA TODAY Network. Find him on Twitter/X @_Max_Donaldson and contact him at MDonaldson@usatodayco.com.
This article originally appeared on The Tuscaloosa News: Top picks to replace Kristy Curry as Alabama women’s basketball coach
