Kentucky lets go of women's basketball coach Kyra Elzy

Kentucky women’s basketball is heading in a new direction as the school announced Monday morning that Kyra Elzy has been relieved from her position as head coach.

Here was the announcement from the university’s own release:

“Kyra Elzy, head coach of the University of Kentucky women’s basketball team, has been relieved of duties, Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart announced Monday. Elzy has been head coach of the Wildcats since November, 2020, when Matthew Mitchell resigned.  Her four seasons as head coach were highlighted by winning the 2022 Southeastern Conference Tournament championship.”

The release also provided a brief statement from Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart on the decision:

“I appreciate Kyra for her efforts at Kentucky, on and off the court, and wish her and her family the best in the future.”

Elzy initially took the job due to some unfortunate circumstances. In November of 2020, just days before the season started, longtime head coach Matthew Mitchell announce a surprise retirement due to some health circumstances, which thrusted his top assistant, Elzy, into the position.

However, despite that development, Elzy still led Kentucky to a decent season on the court in 2020-21, in large part thanks to superstar Rhyne Howard, with the Wildcats finishing 18-9 and fifth in the very loaded SEC.

In 2021-22, the regular season was a big disappointment with Howard and other terrific veterans on the roster as UK limped to a .500 mark in SEC play. But they did make noise in the postseason, winning the SEC title by way of beating South Carolina with a 3-point shot in the final seconds.

It was all downhill after that, though. The team lost in the first round of the NCAA Tournament and then said goodbye to Howard, who became the first Lady Wildcat to be selected No. 1 overall in the WBNA Draft. She wasn’t the only loss, as players jumped ship from Kentucky by the boatload through the transfer portal.

Those losses set up a rough 2023 season where Kentucky finished 12-19 and won just two SEC games, finishing in 13th. There was another roster overhaul after that season as well, but to no avail, as the Wildcats were nearly as bad this season, winning four SEC games while racking up 20 total losses. Ultimately, those results just weren’t good enough to justify continuing to keep Kyra Elzy around.

Now, Barnhart says Kentucky will conduct a national coaching search to determine the next leader of the program.