Former Virginia, Memphis guards commit to Arizona women’s basketball

Becky Burke gets first power 4 commit in Kamryn Kitchen and solid mid-major producer in Tanyuel Welch

New Arizona women’s basketball head coach Becky Burke has her first power four transfer and first ranked commit in Virginia guard Kamryn Kitchen. Kitchen announced her commitment to Arizona on Wednesday. She joined former Memphis guard Tanyuel Welch in helping to fill out the Wildcats’ future guard rotation.

Kitchen will come in as a redshirt freshman. She was originally a member of the 2025 class but reclassified and went to Virginia last year after her high school staff left following her junior year.

An injury sidelined her from training late in the season, and she became one of six Cavaliers to enter the portal after the season. Due to the redshirt, she has no college stats.

According to Talia Goodman of on3.com, Kitchen entered the portal with a “do not contact” tag, indicating that she either knew where she wanted to go or was going to reach out to coaches on her own. Her entry into the portal was publicly known on Apr. 15, and she announced her commitment to Arizona a day later.

Kitchen was the No. 57 recruit in the 2025 class according to ESPN HoopGurlz. She was a four-star recruit at Independence High School in Charlotte, NC. In her three years at Independence, she averaged 14.5 points, 3.9 rebounds, 3.4 assists, and 2.4 steals per game. She played 81 games.

Welch has college experience and had contact with several schools. Among Power 4 schools, she had spoken to Purdue, Nebraska, Wisconsin, UCF, and Miami. She took a visit to Purdue.

Welch will come in as a redshirt junior. She played her freshman season with the Tigers before sitting out her true sophomore year with an injury. She returned to the court this year and had a huge season from the 3-point line.

Welch hit 38.3 percent of her 2-pointers as a redshirt sophomore. She connected on 45.3 percent of her 3-pointers with 2.1 outside attempts per game. It was a huge step up from her freshman year when she was good for 34.5 percent of her 3s and attempted just 0.9 per game. She averaged 2.6 assists against 2.4 turnovers this year.

Welch appeared in 66 games over two years for the Tigers. She made 25 starts, all during her sophomore season.

She played against several Power 4 teams this year with differing levels of success. She scored 16 points on 7-for-13 shooting against Tennessee in midseason. Three days later, she faced Louisville. While she was 2 for 11 in that game, both of her makes came from outside where she went 2 for 3. Early in the year, she was 1 for 7 against Mississippi State.

Burke now has five active players to work with. Four of them are guards. The fifth is forward Montaya Dew.