Arizona head coach Becky Burke has been recruiting Makayla Presser-Palmer since she was the head coach at Buffalo. The four-star shooting guard closed the deal on Saturday morning by announcing her commitment to the Wildcats.
Presser-Palmer comes from Burke’s home state of Pennsylvania. Burke posted videos from that state earlier this week. On Thursday, she followed that up with a “BDB” post on X that included four star emojis.
Presser-Palmer is rated a four-star recruit by both Rivals and ESPN. She is ranked No. 55 in the Class of 2026 by ESPN. That service gives her a score of 93. Rivals has her as the No. 80 overall player, the No. 25 shooting guard, and the No. 4 player in Pennsylvania in its internal rankings. Its industry ranking has her as the 70th-ranked player overall, the 24th-ranked shooting guard, and the fourth-ranked player in her state. She is not ranked or rated by Prospects Nation or 247sports.
While the recruiting sites all list her as a shooting guard, Presser-Palmer is listed as a small forward and power forward on her HUDL profile. She is listed as 5-foot-11 or 6-foot depending on the source.
The guard plays for Northwestern High School in Albion, Penn. where she averages a double-double over her three-year career. Presser-Palmer has been good for 23.9 points, 11.8 rebounds, 2.6 assists, 3.3 steals, and 1.5 blocks per game in 76 contests. She commits just 1.4 turnovers and 1.9 fouls per game.
She shoots 50 percent overall from the floor but just 27 percent from the 3-point line. She also hits 75 percent of her free throws.
Presser-Palmer took her official visit to Arizona in July. She followed that up with a visit to Wake Forest last week. She also took an official visit to Providence and an unofficial visit to Richmond. In addition to Arizona, Wake Forest, Providence, Richmond, and Buffalo, she had offers from West Virginia, Princeton, Penn, and several others.
The guard gives Arizona four known commits for the class of 2026. Three of the four are rated as four-star recruits by at least one service. The other is rated a three-star by at least one.
The first in the fold was New Jersey forward Priyanka Ponnam. Next was Australian center Callie Hinder, who currently plays in the Phoenix area. The third to commit was Florida guard Jasleen Green.
The Wildcats may be adding more. They hosted four-star point guard Natalya Hodge last week.
The program also expects to host two-sport athlete Cydnee Bryant, the sister of former Arizona men’s basketball star Carter Bryant. Cydnee has taken visits to Oregon, Rutgers, Kansas, and Utah so far. In October, four-star guard Whitley Rogers is also due to take an official to Tucson.