Despite its perfect start, the Arizona women’s basketball team landed at No. 150 in the first NET rankings release for the 2025-26 season.
The reason: The Wildcats’ strength — or weakness — of schedule.
Per WarrenNolan.com, Arizona’s strength of schedule ranked 343rd out of 363 Division I women’s basketball programs entering Monday’s games. All six of the Wildcats’ opponents thus far are considered “Quad 4.”
Arizona’s nonconference schedule, which continues with a matchup against Southern University on Wednesday, is devoid of so-called "power" conference foes. Additionally, every game is at McKale Center.
First-year coach Becky Burke said the schedule was mostly finalized by the time she arrived in April. But she also didn’t push for tougher games outside of Tucson because almost every member of the team was new. None had played a minute together.
Arizona head coach Becky Burke and her staff try to get the Wildcat offense in place during their game against UC Irvine on Nov. 9, 2025, at McKale Center.
“I really wanted to do what I thought was best for our team,” Burke said earlier this season. “It's your job in the nonconference to improve every single game, to get better, to build confidence, to get them to believe.
“When you hardly know anything about your team, which is what the situation was when we were creating the schedule and having to finalize it, I wanted to ensure that we had the most chance for success — (that) we had the most chance for our team to get comfortable playing together, to build some confidence before we reach Big 12 play.”
Arizona (6-0) has the lowest NET ranking of any unbeaten team. Its strength of schedule is the third lowest among power-conference schools. Only Big 12 rivals Oklahoma State (344) and Iowa State (355) are lower.
UC Irvine (140) has the highest NET ranking of any team Arizona has faced so far. The other five are 200 or lower. Southern is ranked 274th.
(The Jaguars have played the toughest schedule in the country thus far, per WarrenNolan.com, including road games against Iowa, Iowa State, Ole Miss, UCLA and Washington.)
Arizona head coach Becky Burke makes a point to assistant coach Julie Brase Hairgrove during a timeout in the third quarter against Cal State Bakersfield, Nov. 29, 2025, at McKale Center.
Burke put together what she called “my little scheduling squad” to work on future schedules. The group consists of general manager Michelle Marcinaik, assistant coach Julie Brase Hairgrove and a graduate assistant. They recently shared with Burke a 25-slide PowerPoint presentation detailing the possibilities for next season.
“All options are open,” Burke said. “Our goal in scheduling in the future is, what is the best path for us to be in the NCAA Tournament? That is our No. 1 priority.
“There's so much more to it (scheduling) than you would ever imagine or believe. ... I don't think anybody has it completely figured out. But if you do it the right way, you study it enough, you can figure out your best path.”
Trammell honored
UA freshman forward Daniah Trammell was named to the Big 12 Conference's "Starting Five" for her performance this past week.
Trammell averaged 15.5 points and 5.0 rebounds in victories over Northern Colorado and Cal State Bakersfield. She had a career-high 22 points vs. UNC.
For the season, the Cincinnati product is averaging 13.2 points while shooting 57.1% from the field.
