Arizona Women's Basketball Coach Becky Burke Looking to Turn Program Around

Becky Burke will be looking to get the Arizona women’s basketball program back on track despite a complete roster overhaul from last season.

Burke was named the 10th head coach in the history of Arizona Women’s Basketball back on April 9.

“I didn’t just want a job. I wanted the job,” she said at her introductory press conference. “Being a head coach at the University of Arizona is the job.”

Burke began her coaching career at Embry-Riddle where she led them to a 35-18 record across two seasons. She followed with a 48-14 record across the next two years at Charleston before another two seasons at USC Upstate. They went 8-15 in the 2020-21 shortened season before she helped turn the program around the following year to a 22-8 overall record.

Prior to coming to Arizona, Burke spent the past three seasons at Buffalo.

In her first season coaching the Bulls, they ranked in the top half of the Mid-American Conference in field goal percentage (.438), three-point field goal percentage (.343), scoring defense (65.1), three-point field goal defense (.315) and assists per game (13.8).

In Burke’s second season with Buffalo, she led them to a 19-14 record, a trip to the MAC Championship game and an appearance in the WNIT.

She now comes to Tucson after leading Buffalo to a program-record 30 wins in her third season with the program last year which finished with a WNIT championship.

“I am in the top one percent of competitive people on the planet,” Burke said. “No one will ever outwork me … and no one’s ever going to outwork us.”

Burke has gotten to work in the transfer portal since she was hired at Arizona, completely turning over the roster and coaching staff heading into her first season in Tucson. The only player retained from last year’s roster is redshirt junior Montaya Dew.

“I don’t see any reason why we can’t reclaim our spot among the nation’s elite,” Burke said in April. “That’s where we belong. That’s why I’m here. And that’s what I promise you every day that I will work to achieve.”

The majority of the transfers who committed to Arizona under Burke are either following her from Buffalo or coming from mid-major schools, so it’ll likely be an uphill battle for the Wildcats in year one under Burke, but you have to start somewhere. Burke will look to take the first step in turning the women’s basketball program back around in Tucson.

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