TUSCALOOSA, Ala. - You could see the emotion on Pauline Love's face.
Love had just picked up her first win as the Crimson Tide's head women's basketball coach, the culmination of an entire life spent around the sport and nearly 15 full years of coaching. In the moments following the final buzzer of the team's 92-56 win over Queens , athletic director Greg Byrne met Love at halfcourt and presented her with a commemorative basketball in honor of the milestone.
"I'm just so proud of her," sophomore guard Ace Austin said. "This is like, you know, the position she's wanted to be in, I think, her whole life. You know, it ain't been easy for her."
Austin passed up on a significant amount of money from other schools to stay in Tuscaloosa this season following the departure of old head coach Kristy Curry. The sophomore guard is undeniably the face of the program and is beloved among the fanbase as one of the most decorated players in Alabama high school basketball history.
Her commitment to the program was a defining moment of the team's offseason. It played a role in everything else that happened in the wake of Love's hiring - the decisions three of her teammates made to return, the players who committed to the Crimson Tide in the portal- it is a key reason Alabama, as the smallest team in the SEC (Love's own words), came in at No. 10 in the preseason SEC poll and not significantly lower.
Now, Love ultimately was the one who recruited all these players. She deserves a ton of credit for the offseason she had. With almost the entire Alabama roster in the portal by the time she took over, she managed to use one of the smallest women's basketball budgets in the SEC to create a squad that looks to be capable of making an NCAA Tournament. That is no small feat.
My point in all of this exposition is that there were a lot of factors surrounding Alabama's opener that could have been cause for excitement. The beginning of a new era, the first career start for Austin, even just the first opportunity to watch a real basketball game in Coleman Coliseum since last March. Take your pick.
And what was the sum total of these storylines? An empty arena.
"We're getting constant sellouts at men's games, and then I just feel like the women's program gets swept under the rug," Wyat Burton, Crimson Chaos' head women's basketball board member, said. "We're winning so consistently, and then when you come to games, there will be nobody here, just no student presence."
Crimson Chaos is the official student group of Alabama athletics. They are, for lack of a better term, fanatics. They show up to everything, they are loud, they lead chants, and they oftentimes do it entirely by themselves.
Love recalls the organization well from her previous stint as an Alabama assistant during the 2024-25 season. Burton emailed Love when she arrived back in Tuscaloosa, and she immediately remembered him from the student section two years prior. The organization had a solid contingent, a little more than a dozen strong at the opener, the lone true Alabama stronghold in the midst of a sea of empty red seats all the way around. The attendance was reported as 2,376 fans; I didn't see anywhere close to that number.
Selfishly, I would love for Alabama women's basketball to explode in popularity. The more fans show interest, the more I can cover the team, the more work we get to do at Alabama Crimson Tide on SI, the more clicks and revenue we can generate - basic economics.
But I am not writing this piece to advocate for fans to show up to Alabama women's basketball games -that's the job of the program and athletic department, a job both are actively trying to do.
"I would challenge some people just to come out and watch them, and just spend a little bit more time with our players," Love said. "They're a fun group, and they want to be able to make this community proud."
I am writing this simply because I am surprised by Monday night's turnout. Because I legitimately expected the fanbase to show a vested interest in watching Love, Austin, and the rest of the program. Because I thought that surely, surely AT LEAST a couple thousand of the sports-crazed Crimson Tide faithful, coming off a football bye week, would want to see the start of this new era.
Specifically, I'm not at all surprised by the fact that Alabama women's basketball played a game and nobody showed up to watch.I'm surprised by the fact that it was this game. A week from now, when the Crimson Tide is immersed in its stretch of six straight mid-majors to start the home schedule, this attendance would make sense. It doesn't right now. It doesn't for the debut.
What is the ceiling for Alabama women's basketball? That's a question that clearly weighed heavily on Curry as she made her decision to leave for South Florida. I recognize the low opening-day attendance, I acknowledge the roster budget near the bottom of the SEC, but I am also reminded of the highs this program has experienced. I remember a February 2025 upset of Kim Mulkey, Flau'Jae Johnson, and No. 7 LSU, a game that featured 3,300 fans in attendance (a number that actually feels legitimate), a game that Love was on the sideline for.
Could Alabama recreate that kind of atmosphere in future SEC matchups, when the likes of LSU, Texas, and South Carolina come to town over the coming years? Maybe?
One night doesn't decide the ceiling, but the debut was the easiest game to generate real excitement for, and it didn't even come close.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com/college/alabama as Of All the Games to Skip: Alabama Women's Basketball Opens New Era to an Empty Arena .
