Crimson Tide Top 5: Women's Basketball

Throughout the month of June, Bama Central writers will pick the best five players in each Alabama sport, and for each position group in football

When it comes to doing all-time best lists like the Crimson Tide Top 5, there are always players you want to add but just can't.

For Alabama women's basketball, Tierney Jenkins definitely qualifies. So does Linda Burgess and Terri Hillard, along with the person who would get our sixth woman honor if there was such a thing, Carol Smith. 

The center/forward from the 1982-86 teams was a three-time first-team All-SEC selection and the first Alabama women's player top 2,000 career points. 

She was the first player in program history to average double figures in rebounds over a season, 10.1 as a junior, which she then topped as a senior (10.7). She grabbed 1,055 career rebounds, which still rank second all-time. 

The season after she left Alabama, the NCAA added the three-point line. 

5) Jasmine Walker

After helping Alabama return to the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 1998–99, forward Jasmine Walker was selected No. 7 overall in the 2021 WNBA Draft by the Los Angles Sparks. She was just the seventh Crimson Tide player to be drafted, and the first since 2005. 

Walker set the program's single-game scoring mark with 41 points against Auburn, breaking Amy Lannom's previous mark of 38 points scored against Florida on Jan. 4, 1992. She also worked her way on to the top 10 of every Crimson Tide career 3-point list.  

• No. 3 at UA in single-season three-point percentage (42.2 in 2020-21)
• No. 3 at UA in career three-point percentage (37.4)
• No. 8 at UA in career three-point FGs made (195)
• No. 9 at UA in career three-point FGs attempted (521)

Walker averaged a near double-double in 2020-21 with 19.1 points and 9.4 rebounds per game and was the only player in the SEC to rank in the top five in points and rebounds during the season. She was also int he top 20 nationally in nearly all 3-point shooting categories.

4) Yolanda Watkins 

The center may not have the stats of some of the other players on this list, but she helped lead the Crimson Tide to the 1994 Final Four, where Alabama lost to Louisiana Tech in the semifinals, 69-66. 

Former head coach Rick Moody called her "a franchise-type player." She was voted to the All-SEC team in 1994, and was a second-team selection in each of her other three years. Watkins was also an SEC All-Freshman selection. 

Watkins averaged 14.2 points per game, with her 1,778 total third on the Crimson Tide all-time list. Her 1,096 rebounds are still first in Alabama history, and her school record for blocked shots (187) was not eclipsed until the 2016-17 season.

3) Shalonda Enis 

Enis may have only played two years with the Crimson Tide, but her 20.5 points-per game-average is still the best in program history. The forward/center also averaged 9.2 rebounds. 

She ended up with 1,309 career points after transferring from Trinity Valley Community College, which won the 1993-94 junior college national title. 

Enis was a third-team All-American selection in both 1996 and 1997.  

Shen went on to play five seasons in the WNBA with the Washington Mystics and Charlotte Sting.

2) Niesa Johnson 

When Johnson's career concluded in 1995, she was the Crimson Tide's all-time leading scorer, and also held the Alabama records for assists, steals and three-pointers. 

Her 800 assists are still 180 more than anyone else to wear an Alabama uniform (and only five other players have topped 400). 

The two-time All-American is second on the Alabama scoring list with 2,134 points (17.1 per game average.). 

1) Dominique Canty

By the time she graduated in 1999, Canty was Alabama basketball's all-time leading scorer— male or female.

The two-time All-American and four-time All-SEC selection averaged 18.1 points, 7.2 rebounds and 3.6 assists from 1996-99. She's still the Crimson Tide women's all-time leading scorer with 2,294 points (18.1 career average).

Cantry was selected 29th overall in the third round of the 1999 draft by the Detroit Shock, and was the runner-up in the subsequent rookie of the year voting. She played in the WNBA until 2012. 

Over the years, Alabama women's basketball has just three players named a finalist for the Naismith Player of the Year Award (Enis and Johnson the others), but Canty is the only one to be a finalist twice. 

The Tide Top 5 will appear every day during the month of June on BamaCentral

Tide Top 5 Introduction

Linebackers

Softball

Tight ends