Kentucky women's basketball coach Kyra Elzy fired after four seasons leading Wildcats

LEXINGTON — Kentucky women's basketball is in the market for a new coach, firing Kyra Elzy Monday after four seasons at the helm. Elzy went 61-60 during her tenure, with a 23-40 mark in SEC play.

“I appreciate Kyra for her efforts at Kentucky, on and off the court, and wish her and her family the best in the future,” Kentucky athletics director Mitch Barnhart said in a statement Monday. 

Her dismissal comes less than a week after Elzy's alma mater, border rival (and longtime women's hoops power) Tennessee, bounced UK from the SEC Tournament. Kentucky lost, 76-62, in the second round in Greenville, South Carolina.

After the loss, Elzy said she still expected to be UK's coach next season.

"We did grow up," Elzy said. "It didn't always show in the win and loss column, but if you go back and look at the stats, the minutes, they did grow up. They grew up on the job. … No excuses. Not where we want to be, but it does take time to build.

"And we'll get to where we need to be."

Kentucky will have to get there with another coach.

The setback to the Lady Vols brought an end to a dismal campaign for the Wildcats, who finished 12-20 overall and went 4-12 in league games during the regular season. The 2023-24 season followed an equally dreary 2022-23 season, when UK went 12-19 — with its 2-14 mark in SEC play the worst in the 14-team conference.

While the 2022-23 Wildcats had a worse record in league play, they were far more competitive on the court than the 2023-24 edition.

UK averaged 67.8 points per game in 2022-23 and gave up 68.8. Of its 20 losses, nine were by double digits.

Compare that to this season: The Wildcats scored 64.4 points per outing and allowed an SEC-worst 74.3. As of Monday, UK ranked 334th nationally (of 349 Division I teams) in scoring defense.

Of UK's 20 setbacks in 2023-24, a whopping 17 came by double digits. That included a pair of lopsided losses to top-ranked South Carolina (one by 62, the second-largest margin of defeat in school history, and another by 48) and five more setbacks of 25 points or more: Colorado (37), Ole Miss (30), N.C. State (29), Auburn (28) and Arkansas (27). UK also lost to a pair of non-power-conference foes (Austin Peay and Florida Gulf Coast) in back-to-back games in November.

Kentucky ranked last in the conference in field goal percentage defense (46.3; 347th nationally), free throw percentage (63.4; 336th nationally), rebounds per game (34.19; 269th nationally), turnovers per game (16.5; 225th nationally) and assist-to-turnover ratio (0.70; 259th nationally)

The past two seasons were a swift fall from grace for Elzy and the Wildcats.

Especially given the preceding two seasons.

In 2020-21, Elzy's first as coach, UK went 18-9 (9-6 SEC), finished ranked among the top 20 in both the USA TODAY Coaches and Associated Press polls and defeated five top-15 foes en route to an NCAA Tournament bid. Elzy became the first coach in program history to earn an NCAA Tournament berth in her maiden campaign.

The Wildcats followed that up with a 19-12 (8-8 SEC) showing in 2021-22, which included an upset of top-ranked South Carolina in the SEC Tournament championship game. That Gamecocks squad went on to capture the national title. After UK's upset in the conference title tilt, it lost 40 of its next 64 games before the Elzy era came to a close.

Barnhart tabbed Elzy as the eighth coach in program history on Dec. 14, 2020, removing the interim tag that had been been affixed to her name for a month after the retirement of former head coach Matthew Mitchell.

Prior to taking over for Mitchell, Elzy had served as the team's associate head coach for four seasons (2016-17 through 2019-20) and had a prior assistant-coaching stint on the staff from 2008-09 through 2011-12. Elzy also worked as an assistant at Tennessee (2012-13 through 2015-16), Kansas (2004-05 through 2007-08) and Western Kentucky (2002-03 and 2003-04). She began her coaching career as an administrative assistant at Virginia Tech during the 2001-02 season.

Elzy was born and raised in Oldham County. Upon her hire, she became only the second coach in UK history to be a Kentucky native; the other is Sue Feamster, who led the Wildcats during their transition to varsity status in 1974 and was UK's first coach of the modern era.

Elzy was a star at Oldham County High, tallying 3,020 points, 1,703 rebounds, 449 assists and 516 steals and later was inducted into the Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame. She also won a state track title in the 400-meter dash as a junior.

Going on to play at Tennessee for iconic Hall of Fame coach Pat Summitt, Elzy was a member of two national championship teams (1997 and 1998) and another that was a national runner-up (2000). The Volunteers won the conference regular-season championship four times and the SEC Tournament three times during Elzy's playing career.

Reach Kentucky men’s basketball and football reporter Ryan Black at rblack@gannett.com and follow him on X at @RyanABlack.