Arizona women’s basketball has gone through a whirlwind of changes in the past 14 months. For the second straight year, almost the entire roster has turned over and the coaching staff underwent major changes.
Head coach Becky Burke has her staff in place with James Ewing and Julie Hairgrove returning, Todd Starkey and Devan Newman joining the ranks, and even new people running operations and strength and conditioning. The players have all arrived with Karolina Ułan completing the team with her arrival late last week.
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Burke and Newman were eager to talk about the new squad and their expectations for 2026-27.
On NCAA Tournament expansion
The NCAA Tournament is Burke’s goal this year. While she expects her team to be better, she also knows there are more spots available now. The expansion of both the men’s and women’s tournaments to 76 teams means eight more squads can call themselves “tournament teams” next season. She sees that as a good thing for women’s basketball, in general.
“If that’s not giving us one or two more out of the Big 12, I’d be surprised,” Burke said. “But it’s a good thing, I think. Expansion is good. I think more teams getting an opportunity to compete on that stage at that level is definitely a really good thing. And women’s basketball is growing right now. That’s what we want. We want to grow our sport, give it more visibility, and I think by adding a few more teams you’re doing that.”
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On youth
Burke is very impressed by what she has seen in the early going. The team started workouts last week, and she’s already seeing a difference between this squad and her first group. She also sees where some of the challenges may lie.
“Definitely a different feel for the better,” Burke said. “And just in terms of their connectivity and just how they’re wired. Really competitive group, but they’re young…everybody is like really excited about how good and ranked and all these things that this class is, but I think everybody needs to remember that they are–like literally, we just had one turn 18 the other day. So it is a group that is, yes, talented, yes, highly regarded, all these things, but they’re still so young. We have a lot of teaching, we have a lot of mentoring, we have a lot growing up to do, but when you watch, and when you get an opportunity to come out for the first time to watch practice, you’re going to see, it’s just the talent level is really different, which is a good thing.”
Arizona has two seniors and a graduate student, but the only one who has been a regular starter at this level is Sumayah Sugapong, and she’s only done it for one season. There is no junior class, although Breanna Williams is a redshirt sophomore who spent three years at Maryland. Eight of the 12 players are freshmen or true sophomores.
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On leadership
Arizona brought in nine new players this offseason. Of the three returners, only two saw time on the court last year. Those two–senior Sumayah Sugapong and sophomore Molly Ladwig–are helping the newcomers.
“[Sugapong] was one of the best players in the Big 12 the last month of the season,” Burke said. “I genuinely believe that, and to see her confidence just skyrocket through the last month of last year’s season, I think she’s picked up right where she left off. If you look at my career, and you can ask [associate coach] James [Ewing], and he’ll tell you, anybody that makes it to year two with me just makes the biggest jump. They know what to expect, they’re comfortable, they know my expectations, my standards, all these things. I mean, I came in from the jump, like, she’s ready. She’s ready to have a great year, and I’m really excited for her. She’s been leading, and she’s been educating good new players about me and our program, and the expectations, and how tough the Big 12 is, and all of those things. So, I’ve been really proud of her.”
While they’ve been in the program the same number of years, Ladwig is still just a sophomore. That doesn’t stop her from stepping into a leadership role.
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“Molly and Sumayah have done a great job from a leadership standpoint of mentoring, guiding, leading, being a voice,” Burke said. “It’s been fun to see.”
On athleticism and ‘post by committee’
One place the team is not more athletic this season is in the post. Burke pointed to Blessing ‘Adde’ Adebanjo and Daniah Trammell as athletic posts who left last year. Their replacements don’t have the same kind of athleticism, and Burke doesn’t expect any single post to take over, but she does think the group has things the team lacked last season.
“We’re way more athletic at the guard position,” Burke said. “We’re a little bit bigger at the guard position. I wouldn’t say we’re more athletic in the post. I think we were probably a little bit more athletic in the post last year with Adde and Daniah and those guys. But I would say, as a group, collectively, the four or five of them that we’re going to be playing in the post, their athletic gap is not huge. It’s probably pretty small, but we’re way more skilled, higher IQ, and better basketball players. So, I think that will make up for it. And I think we’re going to do it, actually, by committee this year in the post. I think it’s going to be a group of just solid as a group of posts. What are we getting out of the group this year again? I don’t think we’re going to have a 20 (points) and 10 (rebounds) kid, but I think as a group, collectively, they’re going to get it done.”
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On adding new wrinkles this season
Burke said that she had to adapt a lot last year based on who she had.
“It was a constant year of changing, adapting, trying new things till something stuck,” she said. “It was a challenge, but I do think we squeezed every drop out of that group.”
Recruiting the right players should help in that regard.
“When we recruit, we’re going to recruit to a certain style and a certain kid that can play the way we want to play,” Newman said. “But at the same time, coming into a program…you’re given a certain group of kids, you might not be able to put in what you want, like you might not be able to go press that year. You might have to be a sprint back, get into your defense, make a play in the half court, but then you go recruit to those kids, okay? So now this year we’re about to go put in our 1-2-2 and we’re gonna get after some people in the full court.”
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On the goals for this season
Burke has big goals this year. She didn’t mention just “the postseason.” She didn’t mention the WBIT. She only talked about the NCAA Tournament.
“I want to have the biggest turnaround in terms of wins, losses in Division I this year,” Burke said. “I want to play in the NCAA Tournament. I think we’re a team that can realistically be an NCAA tournament team this year out of the Big 12. And, like I said, we have a long way to go. I’m not going to sit here and promise anybody a Big 12 championship in the next few months, but what we’ve seen in three days of practice, I think, is a much, much, much better product, much improved, much more aligned team, connected team, competitive team, and talented team, but that’s about this much of it, right? So we have a long way to go. We understand that we have a lot of work to do they have what it takes to potentially be an NCAA tournament to team this year? I believe that, yeah.”
