Tuscaloosa, AL, The Crimson Tide women’s basketball team held their third press conference of the preseason Tuesday morning, as they prepare to take the hardwood for the first time in just seven days.

Alabama will be looking for an answer for the loss of key now graduates Hannah Cook, who had a knack for the long range jumper and Coco Knight who averaged 10.7 points a game in her time at the capstone.

As head coach Kristy Curry prepares for the season, she will do whatever it takes to try to keep a rhythm on her team.

“It’s our job as a staff to eliminate so many inconsistencies right now and get ready to play.”

Alabama looks to take a big leap forward this season with impressive looking freshman coming in like McDonald’s All-American Megan Abrams, or two time Alabama 3A player of the year, Allie Cruce Craig.

“We need them, so I just lead by being vocal and lead by example, just pushing them to compete against themselves and compete against us…”

Senior, guard Shaquera Wade, or “Shaq” as she’s known by her teammates, has no trouble leading by example as she stated, with three career triple doubles and making the 2016 SEC academic honor roll.

With this mix of young, highly anticipated players plus wisdom and experience the Crimson Tide believe they are in good position to improve on their 20-14 overall record and losing 7-9 in the conference from this past season.

Coach Curry is in her 5th season with Alabama and had several takeaways from the team’s opening scrimmage vs Faulkner, that were both positive and negative.

“We were consistent throughout and that’s important, but I’m more concerned about giving up 44 because I think you can always control that.”

Her mindset is very defensive and that was a key to the Crimson Tide’s run to the NIT postseason tournament this past year.

“We absolutely do not want to be scored on, we absolutely do not!”

Alabama opens up at home Wednesday November 7th against SE Louisiana, and then will travel to Utah and SMU in Dallas, Texas on Nov. 13th and Nov. 15th before they return home to play Clemson on November 19th.

“It’s going to get a whole lot tougher really quickly, we have a nice test in Mississippi College on Thursday and then we turn and head right on the road.”

The opener will be played in Coleman Coliseum and will be free for all students, and $5.00 for general admission.

Leadership will need to go a long way this season for UA Women’s basketball but with help of Coach Curry and in-game experience, through exhibiton matchups like Faulkner and Mississippi College, Alabama will be ready to go come gameday.

The Crimson Tide may have lost two stars this past offseason, but have many young hopefuls that look to fill their shoes in 2018-2019.

(Photo courtesy of The Crimson White)