In the transfer portal era, the loss of a head coach is even more likely to mean a complete roster rebuild. Whether a player liked the previous head coach or not, it’s the most convenient time to take a look around to see what’s available in the way of cash, playing time, or visibility.

Arizona was a microcosm of the state of the game and the impact a coaching change can have on a program these days. All four Division I programs in the state changed coaches after last season. Each is dealing with the repercussions of those changes not just on the sidelines but on the court. What’s the outlook for the 2025-26 season?

Arizona Wildcats

2024-25 record: 19-14, 10-8 Big 12

Out: Adia Barnes to SMU

In: Becky Burke from Buffalo

Of the four Arizona schools, Arizona is likely to experience the biggest negative impact to its on-court production in the first year after a coaching change simply because it had the most sustained recent success and the most disruption of its roster. Under previous head coach Adia Barnes, it had gone from being an afterthought to playing for a national title. While new head coach Becky Burke is already building a formidable 2026 recruiting class, the expectations for the 2025-26 season definitely need to be managed.

This was probably the most contentious coaching change in the country. Barnes was one of the two most decorated players in program history. She coached the other one. She rebuilt the program, coming in as the lowest paid coach in the Pac-12 and leading her team to the Final Four within five years. 

Under Barnes, Arizona won at least 18 games every year stretching back to 2018-19. She took the program to the last six postseasons, a run that included four NCAA Tournaments and a WNIT title before that tournament was displaced by the WBIT.

Barnes also had conflicts with several players and their parents in recent years. She was never afraid to talk about that, so much of it was very public. Her uneasy relationship with Arizona’s new AD just added to the drama in Tucson.

The roster had already suffered a great deal of attrition before Barnes announced her departure for SMU, but it only got worse. All but one player who was still at Arizona left with her. Montaya Dew stayed behind, but she is dealing with her second knee injury in as many years and likely won’t see the floor before January of 2026. Arizona’s signed recruits also accompanied Barnes to SMU, leaving Arizona with no recruiting class.

Arizona hired Burke from Buffalo. While the young coach has had a great deal of success at every stop, this is her first Power 4 job. That meant she did not have players with Power 4 experience to bring with her. 

Burke brought sixth-year guard Lani Cornfield and recruits Molly Ladwig and Daniah Trammel with her from Buffalo. She got commitments from Mireia Jurado and Miracle Akpotayobo following coaching changes at SMU and Auburn, respectively. Akpotayobo has already left Arizona for what the program calls “personal reasons.” 

Burke also hit the portal and brought in Mickayla Perdue. Perdue had a very successful career at the mid-major and Division II levels before taking advantage of the NCAA’s extension of eligibility for former lower-level players to play a sixth season at Arizona. The 2025 Horizon League Player of the Year was one of the jewels of Burke’s transfer class.

Lani Cornfield, who averaged 5.8 assists per game for Burke’s WNIT championship team last year at Buffalo, brings the knowledge of what the coach wants on the court and off. Memphis transfer Tanyel Welch has a very high motor. Both should be key pieces on Burke’s first Arizona squad.

On the downside, it will be almost an entire roster of players who are moving up a level. While Burke got Kamryn Kitchen from Virginia, Fredriecka Wallace from Kansas, and Achol Magot from Texas Tech, none have extensive DI experience. Both Kitchen and Wallace redshirted in their only year at a DI school. Magot played a total of 34 minutes in two years with the Red Raiders. 

Burke also announced the addition of Blessing "Adde" Adebanjo a few days after classes started. The native of Nigeria played at Yamanashi Gakuin University in Japan last year.

With players still coming and going in late August, Arizona is very much a program in flux. Burke has said that she is a defensive-minded coach who wants to play in transition, but defense can be one of the most difficult things to get a college player to buy into.

Perdue is an example of some of the challenges that Burke’s first Wildcat team may face. At Arizona’s local media day on Sept. 30, Perdue admitted that defense is the part of her game that she will need to address.

“I'm a score-first player offensively,” Perdue said. “Defensively, I'm coming from a zone to a man, so I'm still getting to know that.”

Arizona has the advantage of a very soft nonconference schedule that will be played entirely at home in an arena that is regularly in the top 10 for attendance. It’s going to be a tough ask when it comes time to visit TCU and Baylor in Big 12 play, but there’s every reason to believe they will enter the conference season with a good record and some confidence.

Burke is also a very exacting coach who makes her expectations crystal clear and enforces discipline. Those things play in her favor.

“I think we’re going to be a lot more competitive than people think,” Burke said. “And then I think it’s going to give [fans] something super, super exciting to look forward to in the coming years.”

Arizona State Sun Devils

2024-25 record: 10-22, 3-15 Big 12

Out: Natasha Adair to Syracuse (associate head coach)

In: Molly Miller from Grand Canyon

Molly Miller had been one of the hottest names on the coaching market for a few years. She had a great deal of regular season success at Grand Canyon, the youngest of the DI schools and the only private one in the state of Arizona. She also had a great deal of financial support relative to her conference.

It has been an open secret that GCU outspent its WAC peers in recent years. While it had an up-and-down trajectory in the first seven years after its move to DI, the program was consistently good under Miller. It only turned that into one NCAA Tournament appearance in her five years, but it was more than enough to get her a look by several high major programs.

ASU had begun its downward trajectory under former coach Charli Turner Thorne. The Sun Devils’ last postseason appearance was in the 2021 WNIT, although they likely would have made the 2020 NCAA Tournament had it not been canceled. 

When Turner-Thorne retired in 2022, former AD Ray Anderson hired Adair after two strong seasons at Delaware. She brought her best player, Tyi Skinner along. She also brought almost no experience with basketball out West. During her three seasons in Tempe, ASU ended either last or next to last in the Pac-12 and Big 12.

Enter Miller, who has reportedly been promised increased financial support by ASU’s leadership. What she won’t have is Skinner, who joined Barnes at SMU.

Skinner’s speed, scoring, and experience would have provided a strong centerpiece for a bridge year. She could have provided the presence that Trinity San Antonio gave Miller at GCU last year when the Lopes finally broke through to the Big Dance.

Miller will have a team built largely from the transfer portal. She brought in players from Penn State, Pittsburgh, Ole Miss, and LSU, as well as several mid-majors.

She will likely lean on guard Gabby Elliott, who has experience fitting into a new system at a Power 4 program quickly. ASU is her fourth school in six years after spending last year at Penn State and making two-year stops at both Clemson and Michigan State. When healthy, she has been a regular starter who is good for double-digit scoring at all three of her previous programs.

Senior Marley Washenitz also brings extensive starting experience from her three years at Pitt. Fifth-year LSU transfer Last-Tear Poa should figure into the mix, as well. She was a spot starter for Kim Mulkey and has played in a high-level environment, but the question will be how she adapts to being on a team that needs more from her.

Like Burke, Miller will be trying to weave in a considerable number of newcomers on the fly. On the positive side, the four returners on the ASU roster and several transfers with Power 4 starting experience give the Sun Devils a leg up. It could allow ASU to retake the position as the superior high major program in the state after Arizona held that place the last several years.

Grand Canyon Lopes

2024-25 record: 32-3, 16-0 WAC

Out: Molly Miller to ASU

In: Winston Gandy from South Carolina (assistant coach)

If you lose the most successful coach in program history, it doesn’t hurt to bring in someone from South Carolina to replace her. Within what seemed like mere hours of Miller leaving for ASU, GCU had announced the hiring of Gamecocks assistant coach Winston Gandy. 

Gandy had been the associate head coach at Duke and Rice before joining Dawn Staley’s staff just in time for her program’s perfect season in 2023-24. His first college job was as the director of recruiting operations for Brenda Frese at Maryland, and he spent time as the coordinator of player development for the Washington Wizards. That’s a lot of cachet for a program that is always looking upwards.

Gandy will not have San Antonio, the 2025 WAC Player of the Year who led GCU to the unofficial state title with wins over Arizona, ASU, and Northern Arizona. He will have a roster littered with former high major players, though. He’s also leading his team into its first year of Mountain West competition.

He brought in Chloe Mann from Cincinnati. The sophomore would have been a key returner for the Bearcats this year. When she opted to leave, she had several high majors after her, including Arizona. Although she lacks the experience of San Antonio, she has the speed and scoring potential to be an important piece in Gandy’s first season.

Fellow guard Karley Johnson transferred from Arkansas after the coaching change in Fayetteville. The move down from the SEC gives the senior a prime opportunity to shine.

Guard Julianna Lamendola comes in from Indiana, where she made 60 appearances and five starts in two years. 

Redshirt sophomore Faith Carson gives the Lopes another Big Ten transfer, this time from Ohio State. Although Carson played very little in her two years as a Buckeye, her 6-foot-4 stature gives Gandy some size in the post that many MWC teams won’t be able to match.

It won’t be easy for any of them. Even before they face the perennial MWC champion UNLV Rebels in conference play, the Lopes have a tough nonconference slate to get through. 

It starts with Gandy’s former boss at South Carolina. It also includes a trip to Eugene to face Oregon before Barnes brings SMU to Phoenix in mid-November. They play a resurgent California program over Thanksgiving.

Northern Arizona

2024-25 record: 27-8, 16-2 Big Sky

Out: Loree Payne to Santa Clara

In: Laura Dinkins from Grand Canyon (associate head coach)

NAU may have had the biggest season of any of the four schools last year. It didn’t make the NCAA Tournament or go 16-0 in its league like GCU, but it not only matched GCU’s win against Arizona. It did it twice.

The Lumberjacks’ 27-win season opened doors for Payne, who quickly walked through it and took NAU’s best player with her. The biggest loss for the Lumberjacks was forward Sophie Glancey, but two more joined her on Santa Clara’s roster. 

In total, eight players left Flagstaff via the portal. Redshirt freshman Faith Curry also entered her name, but new head coach Laura Dinkins was able to keep her in the fold.

Dinkins turned GCU’s strong season into an opportunity of her own, but there’s a lot of work to do to maintain the excellence the ‘Jacks had last year. She brought transfer Naomi White with her from Phoenix, but White redshirted in her only collegiate season. 

Forward Kayla Williams is a player to keep an eye on. She already made the jump to juco to NAIA with success. She ended her career at Texas A&M Texarkana as an NAIA All-American and holder of multiple career and single-season program records. She set career records in both rebounds and made free throws despite playing for the Eagles for just two years.

Like its sister schools in the state, NAU has a lot of questions about how players adapt to significant change as they start the next era.