The Extra Point: Was Alabama Women's Basketball's Season A Success?

Alabama head coach Kristy Curry's ninth team was a unique one.

The Crimson Tide finished the season 20-14, making the SEC Tournament quarterfinals and the WNIT quarterfinals. But the journey to get there was anything but ordinary.

A year removed from a Round of 32 appearance in the NCAA Tournament, Alabama had a lot to replace in 2021-22. Nearly 70% of scoring from the Round of 32 team was gone, and a lot of new faces and transfers were brought in.

The season began on a promising note. In mid-December, the Crimson Tide sat at 9-2, just before SEC play was about to begin.

Then after two games were cancelled due to COVID-19, Alabama began experiencing COVID issues of its own. Right at the start of SEC play in January, at the height of the COVID-19 omicron variant's tear through the country, Alabama went almost a month consistently missing players due to the virus.

Senior guards Megan Abrams, Hanna Barber, and more all missed games, resulting in a rough 2-8 start in SEC play. Included in that 2-8 start, were blown leads against multiple ranked teams.

In February, Alabama finally got healthy, and saw the emergence of a star.

Alabama won four of its last six regular season games, while senior guard Brittany Davis had many 20- and 30-point games, boosting her scoring average to 17.7 points per game and leading her to be recognized as a second team All-SEC selection.

Even despite the wins at the end of the season, including two gutsy overtime wins against Vanderbilt and Texas A&M, Alabama's postseason hopes were in question.

Entering the SEC Tournament as the conference's 11 seed, Alabama knocked off rival Auburn in an exciting first round game, and followed it up with a win over a ranked Georgia team in the second round. The run sparked NCAA Tournament hopes, but the run fell short against a ranked Tennessee squad in the quarterfinals.

Alabama did not let that waiver their confidence, though. The Crimson Tide made the WNIT, and won three games before being eliminated in the 'Elite 8' round.

Given the COVID difficulties, injuries, ad resilience that this team showed, many would consider the ending to the season a success, given the accomplishments the team made when it was healthy.

Coach Curry would agree.

"I honestly couldn't be prouder of a group of kids and how they continued to get better every day," Alabama head coach Kristy Curry said. "I felt like this team gave everything they had, they controlled every controllable. I honestly am not sure I've ever been prouder of a team and a staff they way they handled adversity and were able to step up. The harder it got the harder they stepped up every day."

Check out the video at the top of the page where BamaCentral’s Blake Byler and Clayton Connick discuss Alabama Women's Basketball's season.

Gallery: Alabama Women's Basketball's Final Game vs South Dakota State