Alabama Women's Basketball Selected to NCAA Tournament for First Time since 1999

Alabama women's basketball is going dancing for the first time since 1999.

"For the first time in 22 years, we're going dance and so we're really, really proud of that," Alabama coach Kristy Curry said.

It was announced during Monday night's selection show that the Crimson Tide earned a seven-seed and will face 10th-seeded North Carolina in the opening round matchup March 22 at 11 a.m.

Alabama beat North Carolina 83-77 in a non-conference matchup in December 2019, so even though it is obviously not the exact same Tar Heels roster from last season, several Crimson Tide players have experience against this team.

"We were supposed to play them [North Carolina] this year, but due to COVID weren't able to get a date figured out, so it is a pairing that we have some familiarity with," Curry said.

This is Alabama's first NCAA tournament under Curry. She has nine previous tournament appearances at Purdue and Texas Tech, including a Final Four run in 2001.

Like the men's tournament in Indianapolis, the women's tournament will also be played entirely in one city across various sites, this time in San Antonio, Texas.

The Crimson Tide is in the Hemisfair region which includes No. 1 seed and conference foe South Carolina, Maryland, UCLA and Jamsine Walker's previous team Florida State among others.

Alabama was led all season long by the senior trio of Jordan Lewis, Ariyah Copeland and Walker. The senior-dominated team finished the regular season with a 16-9 record overall, 8-8 in the SEC.

Walker, one of the best three-point shooters in the country, averaged nearly a double-double with 19.2 points per game and 9.6 rebounds per game. Lewis and Copeland also averaged double-digit scoring at 16.8 and 15 points per game respectively.

"It's an exciting an exciting feeling knowing that our hard work has paid off this season," Walker said."

The Crimson Tide started the season undefeated in non-conference play before winning four of their five first SEC games. The team then faced a tough stretch against four ranked teams in six games and lost five of six. However, Alabama righted the ship and won its next three games and then ended the season with back-to-back losses to ranked teams.

Alabama won its opening game of the SEC tournament over Missouri and put up a battle against the eventual tournament champion South Carolina in the quarterfinals.

Even though this is the team's first appearance in over 20 years, Lewis said they are not just satisfied with making the tournament.

"As seniors we've bought in, and it's just really exciting to know that your hard work has finally paid off, but this is definitely not where we want to stop,"Lewis said. "This is just the beginning."

Coach Curry echoed the same sentiments of her senior point guard.

"Like Jordan said, we're not just happy to be here," Curry said. "We want to go win."