Over the next two years, the Tigers posted 9-17 and 8-21 marks while Cram continued to rebuild the program. In year foCoaching veteran Rusty Cram is getting ready for his eighth season at West Alabama after being named head women’s basketball coach at UWA on July 15, 2014.
After getting started late with the Tiger program and not recruiting a single player in his first year at UWA, Cram was able to guide UWA to a 10-16 record, improving the win total by six over the previous season.ur, the Tigers were 14-15 and advanced to the semi-finals of the Gulf South Conference Tournament after making the field for the first time since the 2013-14 season and landing an upset over the second seed North Alabama Lions in the quarterfinal round.
The 2018-19 season saw UWA battle injuries and fight to an 11-18 record and a quarterfinal exit in the GSC Tournament quarterfinals. The Tigers finished 11-15 in the 2019-20 season and missed the GSC Tournament for the first time in two seasons.
The 2020-21 season was compressed due to the pandemic, with West Alabama finishing the season 10-8 overall and 9-7 in conference play. However, the Tiger saw a return to the quarterfinal round of the GSC Championship Tournament after narrowly missing in the season prior.
Cram came to UWA from Belhaven University, where he served as head coach for two seasons. Prior to that, he was the head coach for 16 years at Georgia Southern University. He also served as an assistant coach at Georgia Southern for five years, two as associate head coach, before being elevated to the head coaching position.
In 25 years as a collegiate head coach, Cram has a 329-358 career record and is 63-95 in five seasons at UWA.
Cram was a two-time Southern Conference coach of the year (1998, 2001) and guided Georgia Southern to two regular-season titles (1998, 2001), eight 15-win seasons, and two 20-win seasons. He is the winningest women’s basketball coach in Georgia Southern history.
Prior to his stint at Georgia Southern, Cram spent eight years as a high school coach in Alabama and Georgia. He was the boys’ head coach at Evangel Christian Academy in Mobile, Ala., the head boys and girls’ coach at Sam Crow Academy in Oak Grove, La., and the head girls’ coach at Cedar Creek High School in Ruston, La.
He led Evangel Christian to a state title in 1981 and the Cedar Creek girls to a state championship in 1983. From 1983-88, CCHS made four state playoff appearances. Cram led both the boys and girls teams to the state final four berths at Sam Crow in 1982, and the girls team won the state crown in 1983.
Earning his Bachelor of Science Degree from Louisiana Tech University in 1985, Cram played two seasons of college basketball at Kilgore (Texas) Junior College. He and his wife, Jana, have two grown sons, Scott and Ryan.
