LEXINGTON, Ky. — Kentucky women's head basketball coach Kyra Elzy has been given a contract extension through the 2027 season. A source confirms with LEX 18 the annual compensation will be just more than $750,000 and increase annually through the length of the contract.
Elzy guided the Wildcats to their first SEC Tournament Championship in the last 40 years and she's the first UK coach to take a team to back-to-back tournaments in her first two seasons. The Wildcats knocked off number one South Carolina in the title game. Elzy is now 37-21 in her two seasons as head coach of the UK program.
“I will always believe that there is no better place in the world for a young woman to live out her academic and athletic careers than the University of Kentucky. I want to thank Mr. Barnhart, President Capilouto and our women’s basketball administrator Tiffany Hayden for believing in me and having a shared vision for this great program. I am 100 percent confident in what we offer our student-athletes here at Kentucky. Our coaches and staff commit ourselves daily to our players. Their individual successes, on and off the court, is our collective success as a program. As seasons come and go, our focus and commitment haven’t and won’t waver from the expectations set for this program. We have a core group of talented and driven players returning along with an exciting group of signees that cannot wait to wear those eight letters across the front of their jersey. They model the core values our program will continue to be built on: Accountability, Hard Work, Discipline, Servant Leadership and FAMILY. We are counting down the days until we can all be together again inside Memorial Coliseum. Until then, we will continue to work to bring home more championships.”
The contract extension is basically for one extra season as she was already signed to be the coach through the 2026 season.
“We’re excited to extend Kyra and continue our investment in women’s basketball and in her as a coach and positive role model in our community. After the adversity the team faced throughout the season, the turnaround at the end of the year was impressive – defeating the eventual national champion and winning our first SEC Tournament Championship in 40 years, a strong step in building the championship vision we all have for this program.”
