Elzy out as UK women's coach

Former Oldham County girls basketball star Kyra Elzy was relieved of her duties as the University of Kentucky women’s basketball head coach on Monday after serving in the position for four years, the school announced.

The decision to fire Elzy, who went 61-60 in four seasons but most recently produced back-to-back near-the-bottom finishes in the Southeastern Conference, is an expensive choice in the short term for Athletics Director Mitch Barnhart.

Elzy grew up in La Grange and graduated from Oldham County High School in 1996. She finished her high school career as one of the state’s top basketball players.

Elzy was an in-state high school star at Oldham County and was a four-year player at Tennessee under legendary head coach Pat Summitt. She played 126 games for the Lady Vols, earning national championship titles in 1997 and 1998.

She carried her love of the game into a career, coaching and mentoring student-athletes through women’s basketball programs at Virginia Tech (2001-02), Western Kentucky University (2002-04), University of Kansas (2004-08), University of Kentucky (2008-12) and UT (2012-16).

In 2016, she returned to UK where she served as associate head coach for the women’s basketball program under head coach Matthew Mitchell. She was the associate head coach at the time of her promotion in 2020, which came following the abrupt resignation and retirement of Matthew Mitchell, the former UK head coach.

Elzy became UK’s head coach on an interim basis in November 2020, before having that interim title removed in December 2020. She signed a contract extension in the wake of Kentucky winning the 2022 SEC Tournament, a first for the program since 1982.

After this season, UK still owes Elzy $2.475 million on a contract extension she signed in 2022 that lasts until June 30, 2027. Because she was fired without cause — meaning NCAA violations or some other act beyond win-loss records — Kentucky Athletics owes Elzy that entire amount over the next three years.

On top of that Kentucky will have to cover the cost of a new head coach in a world where coaching salaries never stop increasing.

With her base salary, multi-media deal and endorsement money, Elzy was set to receive $775,000 for the 2023-24 season, $800,000 for the 2024-25 season, $825,000 for the 2025-26 season and $850,000 for the 2026-27 season.

Numerous performance bonuses stood to earn Elzy even more money if her team won SEC championships or advanced to the Sweet 16 of the NCAA Tournament or beyond.