Lee Cummard Lays Out Vision For BYU Women’s Basketball
Mar 31, 2025, 10:38 PM
Lee Cummard speaks at a press conference introducing him as the new BYU women’s basketball head coach at the Marriott Center Annex in Provo on Monday, March 31, 2025. (Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
(Kristin Murphy, Deseret News)
PROVO, Utah – Lee Cummard has the task of getting BYU women’s basketball back on track.
After three losing seasons, BYU made a change at head coach. They fired Amber Whiting and have turned to Cummard, an assistant with the BYU women’s basketball program since 2019.
Lee Cummard is the eighth coach in BYU women’s basketball history
His connections to BYU, however, span two decades. On May 1, it will be the 20th anniversary of when he stepped foot on campus to join Dave Rose’s program as a heralded player out of Mesa, Arizona.
Like Cummard, Dave Rose was elevated from assistant coach to head coach of the men’s basketball program after Steve Cleveland took the Fresno State job. In year one under Rose, BYU had low expectations, being picked last in the Mountain West Conference. They quickly turned it around, winning 20 games in Rose’s first season.
We got our guy🤝
— BYU Women's Hoops (@byuwbb) March 31, 2025
Then, with Cummard as a leader on the floor, BYU reached three straight NCAA Tournaments. The men’s program has never looked back since.
Could BYU women’s basketball experience a quick turnaround right away with Cummard?
Could there be a quick turnaround in year one?
“We feel really confident in our ability in the core that’s with us currently, and some of the pieces that are coming in to kind of mold out our roster,” Cummard said to KSL Sports.
Unlike two decades ago, BYU is now navigating a power league and not a mid-major conference like the Mountain West. That makes it more difficult, but there’s a long way to go until the rosters come together for the 2025-26 season.
“The Big 12 is going to look completely different next year as you go roster by roster. Some of the schools are decimated through graduation … really experienced college players that are going to go chase pro endeavors or a new career in life. Then some have been hit pretty hard in the portal. So the landscape of the Big 12 is evolving really quickly.
“We feel fortunate to have what we have coming back, some key pieces that were really productive for us last season, and feel like we have some great additions already, and we’re going to do our part to try to add a couple more in the portal.”
Cummard inherits a BYU women’s basketball program with eight players on the 2025-26 season roster, including star guard Delaney Gibb.
Gibb was in attendance at Cummard’s press conference at the Marriott Center Annex on Monday.
How will Cummard keep BYU star Delaney Gibb?
When asked about the strategy to keep her at BYU, Cummard said at his press conference, “We’ve had some great conversations with Delaney.”
He added, “Everybody on the team currently wants to be here. And we’re excited about that.”
BYU head coach Lee Cummard, when asked about retaining Delaney Gibb:
"Everyone on the team currently wants to be here."
BYU currently has eight players on the 2025-26 roster.
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) March 31, 2025
BYU has signed two more players from the high school ranks, including Fousseyni Traore’s younger sister, 6-foot-3 Mariam Traore, and Bigfork, Montana, forward Braeden Gunlock.
The Cougars also have a commitment from Top-100 point guard Sydney Benally out of Albuquerque, New Mexico. In early March, Benally told On3 that she remains committed to BYU after the program fired Amber Whiting. Benally has yet to sign officially with BYU. The signing period begins on April 16.
That would give Lee Cummard 11 players for the 2026 roster, with four spots remaining as revenue sharing creates a new 15-player roster limit.
Earlier in the day, when word became official that Cummard was the new head coach, he was picking up recruits at the Airport for visits. The work is well underway to get off to a strong start under his watch.
Work in the Transfer Portal
BYU will look to the Transfer Portal to help fill some of those spots. Cummard doesn’t envision his program being built around Transfer Portal acquisitions in the long term.
“We know that there’s some work to be done in the portal, and we don’t want to build a team through the portal,” Cummard said. “In the portal, we want to focus on high-character kids who are experienced and want to do it the right way. But going forward, we want to be able to develop the ‘Cougar Way.’ But we’re close [building out this year’s roster].”
The leaders of BYU basketball. Kevin Young and Lee Cummard. pic.twitter.com/ootKGZOZjq
— Mitch Harper (@Mitch_Harper) March 31, 2025
A big question is the on-court product. How is it going to differ from what BYU has produced recently?
“Excellence will be the expectation. BYU is a fantastic university that has all the support in the world needed to succeed and to fly, and we intend to just do that. I addressed a little bit about the work ethic and doing it with the right people and doing it the right way. I fully intend for that to be the case. I’m solely focused on driving what this is going to look like for the group who is going to be a part of this.
“I’m going to be really stingy about the culture or the BYU way of doing things. The girls know that and are excited for that. I would imagine it looks a lot like how I played: scrappy, tough, work ethic’s there. Tom (Holmoe) talked about competitiveness. We’re going to have all that, and you’re going to be able to see that when we’re on the court, and a lot of three pointers.”
Lee Cummard: “I love BYU”
Cummard’s entire coaching career has come through BYU. But it hasn’t always been easy.
He was once a graduate assistant for his former coach, Dave Rose. Then in 2018, he was promoted to assistant coach for the men’s basketball program.
After one season as a full-time assistant, Rose retired, and Cummard was left to look for another job.
He was able to land with Jeff Judkins on the women’s basketball staff as an assistant. Cummard pursued the head coach position after BYU and Judkins parted ways. Instead, BYU went with Whiting while Cummard was retained as the Associate Head Coach.
Now he has the breakthrough opportunity to guide the program—an opportunity he’s wanted for years.
“I feel extremely grateful, super excited, and lucky,” Cummard said. “This business, there’s no rhyme or reason to some of the things that happen. So I feel lucky. Really. I love BYU. I think that comes through pretty clearly, and I just want the athletes to have a complete college experience, and with that includes a lot of winning and being a great teammate.”
Mitch Harper is a BYU Insider for KSLsports.com and hosts the Cougar Tracks Podcast (SUBSCRIBE) and Cougar Sports Saturday (12–3 p.m.) on KSL Newsradio. Follow Mitch’s coverage of BYU in the Big 12 Conference on X: @Mitch_Harper.
