Happy Gump Day, everyone. Unfortunately this first news isn’t terribly Gumpish: women’s basketball coach Kristy Curry has left Alabama for South Florida. Yes, you read that right.
USF has lured Kristy Curry, a veteran coach with 554 career wins, away from Alabama to lead its women’s basketball program.
Only two days after men’s basketball coach Bryan Hodgson left Tampa to coach the Big East’s Providence, the Bulls have managed to flip the script.
Curry, 59, is one of 10 collegiate women’s basketball
coaches to record at least 100 wins at three different programs. Over 13 seasons at Alabama, she accumulated 245 wins and led the Crimson Tide to the NCAA Tournament in five of the last six seasons. This season, Alabama went 24-11 and lost to Louisville by a point in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
Curry was asked to do more with less in Tuscaloosa. As Matt Stahl notes, Alabama’s spending on women’s basketball was dead last in the SEC this season. When Curry arrived, Alabama hadn’t been to the NCAA tournament in 13 seasons. It took her eight seasons to get there, but she made the last four in a row. She will undoubtedly have an opportunity to compete for conference titles in the AAC, and Alabama will have an opportunity to build on her success with a new voice.
Hubert Davis was fired as North Carolina’s head basketball coach, and you know what that means.
Why it would make sense: It’s North Carolina basketball, arguably the pinnacle of the sport. Basketball at UNC is on a different tier than it will ever be at football-crazed Alabama, despite the fact that Nate Oats has led the Crimson Tide to historic heights. Oats may enjoy being the most powerful coach on campus for a change.
While it hasn’t come without some concerning off-the-court headlines, Alabama has made the second weekend in four of the last five seasons. Oats has a Final Four on his resume. He is one of the elite offensive masterminds in the sport, and his offenses generate corner 3s at an absurdly high rate. Brandon Miller became a lottery pick at Alabama, and guards would flock to Chapel Hill to play in this backcourt-friendly scheme.
Alabama had to sweat out the Kentucky and Michigan openings, and this one won’t be any different.
Nate is currently laser focused on beating Michigan.
UA head coach Nate Oats gave his initial thoughts on facing the Wolverines during Monday night’s ‘Hey Coach’ radio show.
“We have a great group of guys that fully has bought into wanting to play together as long as they can, and that’s what it’s going to take to beat Michigan,” Oats said. “Some people have them as the best team left standing. KenPom has them as the No. 1 team. They’re very good.
“We know we’re underdogs. Sometimes that’s not the worst thing. You come in with a chip on your shoulder. We were small underdogs against [Texas] Tech — they were favored by a point and a half.”
I think that’s the right approach. This is a game for Alabama to play loose, as all of the pressure is on the other sideline.
In football news, Kalen DeBoer added a coach to help develop the defensive line.
Alabama football isn’t finished filling out its defensive staff, with Matt Zenitz of CBS Sports reporting that the Crimson Tide is hiring Trent Simpson from Oklahoma as an assistant defensive line coach.
Simpson has worked at Oklahoma for the last four seasons and was a defensive analyst for the Sooners over the last three. According to On3’s report on Simpson’s hiring with the Crimson Tide, he will get a promotion in his move to the Crimson Tide. He joins Alabama defensive line coach Freddie Roach in coaching the Crimson Tide’s defensive line under defensive coordinator Kane Wommack, who is in his third season commanding the Tide’s defense after previously being the head coach at South Alabama.
Oklahoma has had some dudes along the defensive front. Hopefully Simpson is able to make an impact in Tuscaloosa.
TE Kaleb Edwards spoke about the QB competition and said nothing.
Alabama football tight end Kaleb Edwards wasn’t making any picks in the Crimson Tide’s ongoing quarterback battle between Austin Mack and Keelon Russell.
“I think they’re both just hard-working,” Edwards said Tuesday in Tuscaloosa after UA wrapped up a spring practice session. “And just putting their head down, just grinding like all of us.”
The sophomore tight end has much more of a background with one of the passers though. He and Mack are both California natives, and played against each other in sports growing up.
Zabien Brown is all in on Dijon Lee.
Lee started in each of Alabama’s final five games of the 2025 regular season, while seeing time in every contest. The cornerback totaled 34 tackles, including 4.5 tackles for loss, two interceptions and five pass breakups. Coming into the SEC Championship game against Georgia, Lee allowed just 10 receptions on 24 targets for a team-low 41.7 percent catch rate.
“I think Dijon Lee really stepped forward,” Alabama cornerback Zabien Brown said on Tuesday, following the Crimson Tide’s fifth spring practice and first since March 13. “I’ve seen his game really develop and he’s starting to produce a lot more.
“I think the sky is the limit for a guy like Dijon. I really feel like everything is starting to glue together and I can’t wait to play with him.
Last, Tua Tagovailoa wants everyone to know that he’s not done.
In 2025, Tagovailoa’s completion rate was 5 percent lower, his interception rate more than doubled and he averaged 70.6 fewer passing yards per game than he did in 2024.
“If you’re looking at last year, my play wasn’t up to the standard of the way I’ve been playing football the past – what? — three years since the new contract,” Tagovailoa said. “So just got to play better football. That’s what that really means. There’s no other way to sugarcoat that or go around that. …
“I’ve talked to a couple veteran quarterbacks about basically the season that I had, and they’ve shared some of their experiences of having tough seasons and not having, I guess, fun throughout those times. And I’ve shared what I’ve learned with them as well, and we’ve come to common ground with things that we’ve shared.
Nobody deserves a little good fortune more than that man.
That’s about it for now. Have a great day.
Roll Tide.
