Arizona Wildcats Women’s Basketball Hires Tennessee Legend as General Manager

The Arizona Wildcats women’s basketball program has undergone a renovation this offseason with the departure of head coach Adia Barnes.

The Wildcats legend, who is the program’s all-time leading scorer, accepted a job at SMU earlier this month. She was in the final year of her contract and opted for a fresh start.

In came Becky Burke, one of Division I’s youngest head coaches who just led the Buffalo Bulls to the Women’s NIT championship before she took over the Wildcats.

This will be Burke’s first power conference job, and these days that means a lot of transfer portal work and name, image and likeness money to deal with. It’s also a lot to manage.

Earlier this week, Arizona women’s basketball hired a general manager for the program. But the Wildcats didn’t just hire anyone — they hired a Tennessee Lady Volunteers legend.

Michelle Marciniak, who played point guard for the Lady Volunteers under the legendary Pat Summitt in the 1990s, accepted the GM post. Her duties, per Arizona’s release, will “…include program operations, staffing, roster management, global recruiting and NIL development.”

She will also serve as an advisor to Burke on program culture, leadership and national brand strategy.

The GM role is relatively new in college sports. In the past few years, it’s primarily aligned to football and men’s basketball. That Arizona is hiring a GM for the women’s team, and hiring someone as respected as Marciniak, shows how serious the Wildcats are about forging a path forward in the post-Barnes era.

Under Summitt, Marciniak led the Lady Vols to two SEC championships, back-to-back Final Fours and the 1996 NCAA national championship, earning most outstanding player honors.

After a six-year professional career in the in the ABL and WNBA, she moved into coaching as an assistant at South Carolina, where among other things she helped sign a Top 10 recruiting class that included Burke.

She then moved into the business world, where she co-founded SHEEX, the world's first performance bedding company, and led the company 17 years as co-CEO.

SHEEX raised more than $25 million in capital, secured 53 patents across 24 countries and became a globally recognized brand.

“I'm truly honored to step into the GM role at Arizona,” Marciniak said in a release. “This opportunity brings together everything I care deeply about — the business of basketball, leadership, and building something meaningful alongside others. I've been shaped by a championship mindset, and I'm committed to contributing in a way that honors the incredible foundation already in place.”