GLEN ALLEN, Va. – Women’s basketball was exceptionally prosperous at UMass during the 2021-22 and 2022-23 campaigns under head coach Tory Verdi. Across those two seasons, the Minutewomen compiled an incredible 53-14 record and finished 25-6 in Atlantic 10 conference play. They claimed their first and only conference tournament title in 2022, followed by a loss to Saint Louis in the final one year later. That loss brings us full circle to the current state of the UMass women’s basketball program.
After achieving great success with star players Sam Breen, Destiney Philoxy and Sydney Taylor, teams came calling for Verdi. He took the head coaching job with the Atlantic Coast Conference’s Pittsburgh Panthers, where he has amassed a 21-43 record thus far. Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford opted to keep the ensuing hiring process in-house, elevating Mike Leflar from his previous assistant coach and associate head coach titles.
Within two years of a thorough reset, it’s become abundantly clear that Leflar is rebuilding the foundations of the program the right way. In year one, the Minutewomen finished one of their worst seasons in school history at 5-27. Camaraderie was severely lacking, leading four of the team’s top six scorers to transfer elsewhere. Stefanie Kulesza was the only starter to stick around.
Fast forward one year later, and Leflar’s group has done a complete 180 both on and off the court. All season long, he has stressed the importance of togetherness and unity, which is backed up by the team’s return to a winning record. There was a true sense of family among the squad this time around, and that comes from the top. That is exactly how you bring success back to a program that endured a brief identity crisis.
Kulesza will be the biggest loss heading into the 2025-26 season. She is the epitome of what it means to be a Minutewoman. She saw every possible side of the program across her four and a half seasons at the school and still stuck around through it all, a rarity in today’s transfer portal age.
“That first year and a half, [Kulesza] just talked about being on the team, and these are her words not mine,” Leflar said. “Now, she is the team.”
It’s always possible that key contributors will transfer out in the upcoming offseason, but UMass has once again become a place players want to be, not a place they’re rushing to escape. The most important player to retain is point guard Yahmani McKayle. It can be easy to forget which players are true freshmen when they’re playing at such a high level. The 5-foot-6-inch Queens, New York native wasted zero time becoming the team’s playmaker in her first collegiate season.
Leflar did a phenomenal job bringing in talent that was being wasted at other schools. Megan Olbrys, who led the team in scoring, started just one game and played 130 minutes in her previous season at Villanova. Allie Palmieri played 38 minutes in the 2022-23 season with Seton Hall before transferring in and redshirting last year. She was the Minutewomen’s highest-volume 3-point shooter this season, with 20 more makes than anyone else on the roster. Leflar knows talent, regardless of play time.
UMass picked up two guards in its newest freshman recruiting class, adding Anya George and Aiyanna Perkins to the squad. George is a 5-foot-8 combo guard that excels at fearlessly driving to the rim. She can also shoot the 3-ball, which will provide a much-needed spark in long-range shooting, an area the team was unable to rely on this season. George hails from Chester, Pennsylvania and has earned multiple accolades while playing for Paul VI High School in New Jersey.
Perkins has a similar profile as a 5-foot-7 two-way guard, but her game contains a different type of scoring touch. The Phoenix, Arizona native reached the 1,000-point milestone in her sophomore year at Bella Vista College Prep. Perkins loves to score in the mid-range and has a plethora of moves in her arsenal. She likes to use ball fakes to get defenders off balance and steps through defenders to get buckets at ease. Leflar has also tabbed her as a defensive-minded player.
Along with McKayle, fellow freshmen Kasey Bretones and Jess Ross are prepared to return to the team next season, likely in a bigger role. Both played sparingly throughout the season, but they showed well when they got opportunities. Ross played 108 minutes across 19 games and provided some sharp moments, especially on the defensive end with her 6-foot-3-inch frame. Bretones earned minutes in the latter half of the season, playing 80 total and shooting 4-for-9 from beyond the arc. Another freshman, Taylor Derkack, hopes to make her debut next year.
The second round loss to the Billikens also marks the final A-10 game for UMass. The school announced plans to join the Mid-American Conference for all competing sports beginning in the 2025-26 school year. In the case of women’s basketball, the Minutewomen are moving to a less competitive conference than the one they currently reside in. This gives them an even better chance to prolong their future seasons and make the NCAA tournament for the fourth time in history.
According to Bart Torvik’s NCAAW T-Rank, which uses advanced metrics to rank all 362 Division I teams, the A-10’s average ranking across all 15 teams is currently around 160. In the MAC, that same average ranking sits much lower across the 12 teams in the conference, at 197. Ball State is the top team in the MAC at No. 75, while three A-10 teams are in the top 60. UMass finished the season above the median, ranked as the No. 143 team. The Minutewomen made March Madness in 1996, 1998 and 2022, but have yet to win a game in The Big Dance.
Reasons for an improved future are scattered all over for Leflar’s team. If he secures a couple of proven scorers in the transfer portal, there is nothing stopping UMass from competing among the top teams in its brand-new conference. The team could definitely use some depth inside the paint, along with an improvement in the sharpshooting department. If those spots of need are addressed, the rebuilding timeline will be a lot shorter than initially expected. The Minutewomen’s head coach will be entering his third season at the helm, and he wants to carry many aspects of this season into the next one.
“I think our team embracing [adaptability], that’s going to be UMass basketball on the defensive side moving forward,” Leflar said of what he hopes continues in 2025-26. “Just being able to play off of [McKayle] and play a little faster and space the floor a little more on offense … Our competitiveness, how much we stuck together this year. We played in a lot of close games and I was just really proud of our fight throughout the entire year, and I hope those are constants as well.”
Cameron Pellegrino can be reached at [email protected] and followed on X @cam_pellegrino.
