Welcome to Tucson, Head Coach Becky Burke! #BearDown pic.twitter.com/GTIxTvfBSO
— Arizona Basketball (@ArizonaWBB) April 9, 2025
Michael Lev of the Arizona Daily Star first reported Wednesday through a Tweet (X) post that Buffalo coach Becky Burke will be named the new coach at Arizona, and the school confirmed the news via a press release.
Burke, 35, coached the Bulls to the WNIT championship last month and led them to a program-record 30 wins.
“Our model centers around identifying head coaches who prioritize success in coaching, recruiting and the development of high-character student-athletes,” said Arizona athletic director Desireé Reed-Francois in the press release.
“Coach Burke is a proven program builder and rising star in collegiate women’s basketball with a track record of transformational success. She is familiar with the Wildcats and the tight-knit community we have in Tucson. Our search committee did a wonderful job of selecting the right leader.”
She replaces Arizona legend Adia Barnes, who is now at SMU after coaching the program to prominence in her nine years at her alma mater.
A Louisville alum who played for the Cardinals in the 2009 Final Four, Burke will experience her first coaching job at a Power 4 school.
“I would like to thank (Arizona) President (Suresh) Garimella and Desireé for this wonderful opportunity to lead Arizona women’s basketball, a program with such rich tradition,” Burke said. “Wildcats’ fans fully understand the role that elite culture plays in building a program that wins championships. Our staff will be ready to make that a reality as we call Tucson home.”
Burke’s base salary was $250,000 in 2023-24 with bonuses increase the total to more than $300,000. She was signed through the 2027-28 season.
She was 61-37 in her three seasons at Buffalo after three two-year stints at Embry-Riddle at Prescott (35-18 record), Charleston (48-14) and USC Upstate (30-2).3
Her record at Buffalo improved impressively each year — 12-16 in 2022-23 to 19-3 last season to 30-7 this season.
Burke, of Clarks Summit, Pa., started the women’s basketball program at Embry-Riddle at Prescott in 2015 and went on to be the head coach of the Eagles for two seasons.
She earned a spot on the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association 30-Under-30 list in 2019. She was the only head coach to appear on the exclusive list.
Before her head coaching career, Burke served as an assistant coach at Saint Joseph’s College for the 2014-15 season where she was the recruiting coordinator and strength and conditioning coach while also being responsible for player development, scouting, and scheduling. Prior to that, she was the director of basketball operations at Cal State Fullerton in 2013-14.
In four years at Louisville (2008-12), she helped lead her team to three NCAA Tournament appearances including the championship game in 2009 and the Sweet Sixteen in 2011. She led the Cardinals in scoring her sophomore year and in 3-point field goal percentage her junior year. She tied a then school record for 3-pointers in a game (eight) her senior year and ranks fifth all-time in 3-pointers made (249).
She played at Louisville under legendary coach Jeff Walz.
“I think when you play for a coach like Jeff Walz and you play for somebody like (assistant) Steph Norman, you naturally start to think that way and you naturally start to form an appreciation for not only the way that we do things, but why we’re doing them that way,” Burke said in a 2022 interview with WDRB.com.
Burke is a member of the 1,000-point club and was just the second Cardinal to participate in the State Farm College 3-Point Shoot-Out in 2012, finishing as the runner-up.
“Winning in college basketball is not as easy as a lot of people think it is. And Becky’s figured it out,” Walz said in the WDRB.com article. “Her passion for the game, her willingness to learn and then she does a great job of relating to players and in today’s day and age, that’s really important.”
In this day and age of the transfer portal, it’s expected that some of Burke’s former players at Buffalo would follow her to Tucson.
Buffalo’s second-leading scorer (13.6 points a game) and top rebounder (5.5) Kirsten Lewis–Williams is a sophomore.
Burke and her wife Savannah have one son, Banks.
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ALLSPORTSTUCSON.com publisher, writer and editor Javier Morales is a former Arizona Press Club award winner. He is a former Arizona Daily Star beat reporter for the Arizona basketball team, including when the Wildcats won the 1996-97 NCAA title. He has also written articles for CollegeAD.com, Bleacher Report, Lindy’s Sports, TucsonCitizen.com, The Arizona Republic, Sporting News and Baseball America, among many other publications. He has also authored the book “The Highest Form of Living”, which is available at Amazon. He became an educator in 2016 and is presently a special education teacher at Sunnyside High School in the Sunnyside Unified School District.
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