Becky Burke, Wildcats truly can begin building with ‘Year Zero’ behind them | Michael Lev

“Year Zero.”

That was the label the Wildcats’ former football coach placed on his first season, when he took on a reclamation project in the aftermath of the pandemic. The idea being: That first season, “Year Zero,” is when the foundation could be laid, regardless of results; the second year, aka “Year One,” is when the real building could commence.

Becky Burke and the UA women’s basketball program are basically in the same spot. Burke had to replace the entire roster entering her first season and had fewer players to choose from than most of her colleagues because of the timing of her hiring. She did the best she could with what she had. Arizona’s record wasn’t great — 12-18, 3-15 in the Big 12. I would argue it was all but irrelevant.

Year Zero isn’t about wins and losses. It’s about establishing a culture.

“I have said that a few times, yes. I have said ‘Year Zero,’” Burke said earlier this week.

“To me, it does give a little bit of (a) cop-out/excuse (vibe), and I don't love that. But when you go through what we went through last year and you step into what we stepped into, it truly was a Year Zero.

“This is Year One with the staff that needs to be here, the players that need to be here. Everything has been so easy through seven weeks (of offseason training) compared to what it was last year. You just have to go through it to figure out the bumps and the bruises and what needs to happen and what changes need to be made in order to get it right. That's what we had to do last year.”

‘Blue-collar team’

The number zero implies nothingness. But it’d be a mistake to think that nothing of consequence happened for the UA women’s basketball team in 2025-26.

As mentioned, Burke was able to implement her culture. Even with only two players and a midyear enrollee returning, the Wildcats acquired an identity that has carried over into a new year and a mostly new group.

“Anybody we talk to — any fans, any donors, anybody that we run into in town or anybody in this building — just appreciated how hard we played,” Burke said. “There is a standard here at Arizona in the way that we practice, in the way that we play.

“Everybody in the building and everybody on our staff and probably on our team knew that our talent was never better than anybody else's last year — even a few times in our nonconference (games). Our talent was not better than other people's talent. But our ability to play harder was better almost every night.”

Playing hard, regardless of the scoreboard, was a hallmark of Fisch’s first team in 2021. It suggested he was on the right track despite a 1-11 record. Proof of concept came the following season, when the football team improved to 5-7 and finished the campaign with a win over ASU.

Fisch also promoted a year-by-year, program-building pattern that his team actually exceeded: Lose big, lose small, win small, win big. The Wildcats won big in Fisch’s third season, ending it with a seven-game winning streak to finish 10-3.

Burke isn’t the type to take satisfaction from moral victories. But she was spot-on in pointing out that her 2025-26 team was competitive in several games it had no business being competitive in on paper.

Six of Arizona’s losses in conference play, including in the Big 12 Tournament, were by single digits.

“We are a blue-collar team that plays our butts off,” Burke said. “Now we've added that talent (so) you'll see those close games turn into wins. That's always what happens.

“There are games that we put ourselves in a position to be in. ... We just had a little bit of a ceiling last season. We're excited to close that gap a little bit.”

Aiming high

Burke believes this team’s ceiling is significantly higher. She believes her freshman class is the best in the conference. She believes this is the deepest team she’s ever coached.

While acknowledging that every coach in the country is in a good mood in August — no one has lost a game yet — Burke is aiming for the stars.

“We’re looking forward to hopefully having one of the biggest turnarounds in Division I this year,” she said. “That’s my plan for this group, and I feel like that’s something that could very well happen.”

Almost everywhere she has coached, Burke’s teams have taken a leap in her second season. Embry-Riddle went from 14-12 to 21-6. USC Upstate went from 8-15 to 22-8. Buffalo went from 12-16 to 19-14. The lone exception was Charleston, which went from 25-7 to 23-7.

UA predecessor Adia Barnes’ breakthrough came in her third season. The bottoming-out happened in her second. The Wildcats went 6-24 in 2017-18. They were 24-13 the following season.

Program-building was a different beast as recently as the late 2010s. The transfer portal didn’t exist. Wholesale roster turnover was rare.

Burke had a second chance to remake her team in as many offseasons — while also having more time to construct a recruiting class and to be, in her words, “selective and picky” in assembling the overall group.

‘Not for everybody’

The two holdovers from last season, Sumayah Sugapong and Molly Ladwig, also addressed the media Tuesday. They wore red T-shirts that read: “NOT FOR EVERYBODY.”

From the start, Burke has been forthright about her program and its principles.

“This program is not for softies that don't want to be coached, that don't want to be told the truth, that don't want to work hard,” she said.

Sugapong and Ladwig know what to expect now because they’ve experienced it already.

Either player could have transferred out. They decided that Burke was their best bet to prosper. The feeling was mutual.

“I know Coach Burke,” Sugapong said. “I know her system. I wanted to be part of something.”

Ladwig said simply: “I’m not one to shy away from hard things.”

Even with more talent and a staff boosted by the addition of former Kent State head coach Todd Starkey, it’s going to be hard for Arizona to take the big leap Burke believes is within its grasp.

As she noted, though, the Wildcats are in a “much better place than we were last year.”

Year Zero is behind them now. Let the building begin.