BYU Women’s Basketball had won five of their last six games heading into Selection Sunday. The Cougars were 22-11 and had just posted the best Big 12 finish in program history. When the bracket was revealed, their name was not in it. BYU was the last team left out of the NCAA Tournament field.
So they took the No. 1 overall seed in the WBIT and kept playing. Four more wins. All the way to the championship game. The final record was 26-12, the second-most wins in program history and the most ever by a first-year head coach in Provo.
That first-year head coach was Lee Cummard.
Who Lee Cummard Is
Cummard played for Dave Rose before beginning his coaching career on Rose’s staff. He later crossed over to the women’s program under Jeff Judkins, which gave him roots in two of the most influential coaching trees in BYU basketball history. When he took over the women’s program, he inherited a team that had the talent to compete in the Big 12. What he built in year one was the defensive identity to prove it.
The Defensive Transformation
The most important thing Cummard did in his first season had nothing to do with the scoreboard. It happened on the defensive end, where he engineered one of the biggest single-season improvements in the country.
In 2024-25, BYU ranked 141st nationally in opponent field goal percentage, allowing 39.9%. In Cummard’s first season, that number fell to 36.9%, ranking 22nd in the country.
The perimeter defense improved even more dramatically. BYU ranked 322nd in the country in three-point defense in 2024-25. A season later, they ranked 25th, a jump of nearly 300 spots in a single year. That kind of improvement does not happen by accident. It reflects a coaching staff that identified a specific problem, built a system around solving it, and executed that system from day one.
The offense was already capable. What Cummard added was the defensive foundation that good teams need when the margin for error disappears in close games.
The Roster That Stayed
Most programs that break through lose a significant portion of the group that made it happen. BYU is in a different position. The Cougars return 72% of their scoring, 83% of their assists, 79% of their three-point production, and 76% of their steals from a team that won 26 games. In a transfer portal era where continuity is rare, that kind of retention is genuinely unusual.
Understanding what is coming back, and what is new, is the full picture of why expectations are rising in Provo.
Who is Gone
BYU lost one rotation player to the portal and one to graduation. Marya Hudgins, who averaged 9.1 points and 4.6 rebounds in 26.8 minutes per game, entered the portal and will play for West Virginia next season. Lara Rohkohl, the team’s only true rim protector, graduated. She blocked 61 shots last season, accounting for 35% of the team’s total blocks, and grabbed 6.9 rebounds per game while shooting a team-high 62.6% from the field. Replacing that interior presence is the program’s most significant challenge heading into 2026-27.
Who is Back
Delaney Gibb is the headliner and the reason the ceiling is so high for next season. The 5-foot-11 junior from Canada earned First Team All-Big 12 honors despite missing eight games to injury. Over BYU’s final 11 games, she averaged 21.9 points on 41.0% from the field and 38.1% from three. When healthy, Gibb is one of the best players in the Big 12. A full season of her at that level changes the conversation around this program entirely.
Olivia Hamlin was the definition of reliable in year one. She played all 38 games, finished second on the team in scoring at 12.9 points per night, and reached double figures in 29 of them. When Gibb went down, Hamlin took over and went 8-1 as a starter, averaging 15.2 points over her final five starts of that stretch. She earned All-Big 12 Honorable Mention and a spot on the All-Freshman team.
Sydney Benally started all 38 games as a freshman point guard and set the BYU freshman record with 148 assists in a single season. Brinley Cannon also started all 38 games and made one of the cleanest individual improvements on the roster, growing her three-point percentage from 27.7% to 35.9%. Her career night was a six-triple, 21-point performance against in-state rival Utah.
Bolanle Yussuf may be the most intriguing name on the entire returning roster. In just 13.8 minutes per game as a freshman, she shot 51.9%, blocked 33 shots, and posted the sixth-best rebounding and shot-blocking marks in program history for a freshman. With Rohkohl’s graduation leaving the frontcourt open, the interior role is hers to step into. What she does with it will shape how opposing defenses approach BYU all season.
Kambree Barber Taylor and Mariam Traore also return to Provo and round out the rotation heading into year two.
The X-Factor
Kailey Woolston returns after an 18-month mission. The last time she played, she was one of the best shooters in the country.
As a freshman in 2023-24, Woolston ranked second in all of Division I shooting 46.6% from three-point range. A shooter of that caliber coming back to a roster that already returns four starters is not a depth addition. It is a genuine weapon that changes how defenses have to prepare for BYU. When a team already has Delaney Gibb to account for and Woolston available off the bench or in a starting role, the spacing problems for opponents become significantly more difficult to solve.
Who is Coming In
Cummard’s first full recruiting class reflects where college basketball is heading. BYU added international size, perimeter shooting, and long-term upside, with a particular focus on Australia.
Prasayus Notoa and Vahayliah Seumanutafa both arrive from Brisbane. Notoa earned a silver medal with Australia at the 2025 FIBA U19 World Cup, where she shot 54.8% from the field and 46.7% from three while posting an 11-point, 13-rebound, 6-assist game against Argentina. Seumanutafa averaged 25.2 points at the 2024 Basketball Queensland State Championships and played alongside Notoa for the U19 Australian World Cup squad.
Liza Astakhova transfers in from North Carolina to provide additional depth, and Stella Sakalas joins the freshman class from Western Springs, Illinois, where she was ranked the No. 3 player in the state by Prep Girls Hoops and described by Cummard as an elite three-level scorer.
What Comes Next
A year ago, BYU was the team that should have been in the NCAA Tournament and was not. They responded by going on a WBIT run that proved the program belonged. Now the goal in Provo has shifted.
Four starters are back. The program’s leading scorer returns healthy. The freshman class that helped fuel last season has a full year of Big 12 experience. And one of the nation’s best shooters is coming back after a season away. The infrastructure Cummard built in year one is intact, and the defensive identity that made the breakthrough possible is now a known quantity to the rest of the conference.
Last season proved BYU could compete with the Big 12’s best. The expectation heading into 2026-27 is to turn that breakthrough into a Selection Sunday celebration.
All statistics sourced from ShotTracker. BYU Women’s Basketball is a ShotTracker partner program. Want to see how ShotTracker tracks team and player development across a full season? Learn more at shottracker.com.
