By the time she showed up for her McKale Center introduction Friday afternoon, Becky Burke had all of two players on her new Arizona Wildcats roster. Maybe.
That’s nothing. The first time she became a college head coach in 2015, tasked to start a new program at Prescott’s Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, Burke had no players. No assistants. No team history. Nothing.
Just an office and a rented Kia Soul to get around.
“It was lime green,” Burke said of that ride. “I’m like ‘Where am I and where am I going?’”
In the short term, she was going to find players, of course. While Burke must scramble to put together a 2025-26 roster at Arizona after being hired nearly three weeks after the transfer portal opened, at least she’ll have a much different platform to recruit from this time.
Becky Burke, new coach of Arizona women’s basketball, takes reporters’ questions after a news conference at McKale Center on April 11, 2025.
“I wasn’t sitting at the same tables Arizona was sitting at” during recruiting events as Embry-Riddle’s coach, she said. “I promise you that.”
But Burke did have an aeronautical business program to sell at Embry-Riddle. She said she eventually “found some business majors who could make layups” and took off from there.
A year after Burke arrived in Prescott, her team began competing at the NAIA level and went 35-18 over two seasons.
“It was arguably the most valuable three years of my entire career because I had to put my head down and find a way,” Burke said.
A decade later, after successful head coaching stops at Division II Charleston and Buffalo, Burke landed in Tucson.
This time, she stepped off a charter airplane, her new employer posted video of her arrival to social media and by the end of the afternoon, she was inside a small but packed McKale Center room speaking to staffers, fans and media with a firm but bubbly intensity.
No Kia was necessary to fuel her this time.
“I am in the top 1% of competitive people on the planet,” Burke said. “That comes down to winning national championships or eating dinner. I don’t turn it off. I don’t know anything different.”
Arizona women’s basketball coach Becky Burke speaks during an introductory news conference at McKale Center on April 11.
Burke said she’s the same sort of coach she was as a standout player at Louisville from 2008-09 to 2011-12, crediting well-regarded Louisville coach Jeff Walz for his influence and mentorship.
“You can go back and watch the film of me on the court and it’s going to look very similar to what it looks like on the sideline,” Burke said, vowing that nobody would outwork her. “I’m hoping that our team takes a little bit of the personality that I have … and I think the key thing that people need to know about me, and what I’m promising you guys, is that I have one speed, and that’s full speed.”
Burke said she’s also driven by the chance to pay the game back for what it gave her as a player, something Arizona AD Desireé Reed-Francois cited as a reason to hire Burke.
No contract terms were provided for Burke’s hiring, though they likely will be voted on by the Arizona Board of Regents in June.
“One moment that stayed with me was when I asked Becky why does she coach?” Reed-Francois said. “She didn’t lead with the wins or the accolades. She talked about what women’s basketball did for her and how deeply she believes, in her core, in her DNA, about paying it forward.
“She spoke about impacting young women, not only as athletes, but as strong, empowered leaders. Her purpose, her passion and her clarity in that moment was unmistakable. That was when I knew we had the right leader for our esteemed program.”
Of course, Burke also didn’t really need to talk about her record. That spoke for itself.
Buffalo improved each season under Burke, going from 12-16 to 19-14 to 30-7 over Burke’s three seasons, while winning the WNIT championship earlier this month.
Buffalo’s head coach Becky Burke reacts to a referee’s call during the first half against Kent State in the championship of the Mid-American Conference tournament in Cleveland, March 16, 2024.
Before joining Buffalo, Burke spent two seasons at USC Upstate in Valley Falls, South Carolina. The Spartans improved from 8-15 to 22-8 under her leadership, and Burke was named Big South Coach of the Year in 2022.
Earlier, Burke coached at Division II Charleston, where she posted a 48-14 record over two seasons, after starting the women’s basketball program at Embry-Riddle.
“I’ve been a lot of places with a lot of challenges,” Burke said. “That’s why it’s exciting to be at a place like this where there aren’t many I can think of.”
Still, at the high major level Burke has now ascended to, NIL and other monetary considerations can drive recruiting much more than at lower levels. Burke said she believed UA offered the necessary support.
“I’m very aware of what I walked into. I’m very aware of the roster situation, and I’m very aware of the support,” she said. “And I wouldn’t choose to be here and be standing in front of you guys if there was not the support needed to help us be competitive this season.”
Burke will be starting nearly from scratch after Adia Barnes left the Wildcats to take over at SMU following a nine-year stint in Tucson. Only one returning Wildcat player remains on the tentative roster for next season, forward Montaya Dew, whose future is uncertain after she reinjured her surgically repaired knee late in 2024-25.
The rest of UA’s players from 2024-25 either have run out of eligibility or entered the transfer portal, while three players and two signees followed Barnes to SMU. However, one of Burke’s players at Buffalo, guard Noelani Cornfield, announced earlier Friday she would follow Burke to Arizona.
That gives Burke two possible players to start with and she said the UA players from the 2024-25 season who are still in the portal are welcome to return if they decide to.
Toward the end of her question-and-answer session, Burke joked that she had to end it because she had to get back to her phone for recruiting.
But when asked if she also needed to raise money immediately in order to recruit, Burke said she already felt tremendously supported and would be “thrilled” to announce her recruiting class eventually.
“It’s important that you have things, but I also think you don’t need everything,” Burke said. “I’ve never been anywhere where I’ve had the most or the best or — and I’m not saying we don’t — but I prefer it the hard way, and we’re going to get it done.
“We’re going to find a way, and I’m going to roll my sleeves up and figure it out. But the support is there, the vision is there, and the conversations have been had.”
