Women's basketball head coach
Rebecca Tillett announced the addition of
Madeline Sulka as an assistant coach in October 2026. Sulka joins the Billikens with extensive coaching and player development experience at the professional and collegiate levels, including stops in the NBA, WNBA and NBA G League.
"Madeline is exactly the servant leader we were looking for to finalize our coaching staff," Tillett said. "She brings knowledge from the WNBA, NBA, and G-League. She has worked with some of the top players and coaches in our game. She will make an immediate impact in player development, practice execution, scouting, video and analytics. We have players who want to continue their careers at the highest levels of basketball. Madeline's insight is of high interest. She cares deeply about player and staff relationships and knows what it takes to collaborate while helping individuals and the collective unit rise."
Sulka most recently served as the head coach of the girls national team at Bella Vista College Prep during the 2025-26 season. In her first season, she guided the program to a state runner-up finish, with all six seniors committing to play collegiately.
Prior to Bella Vista, Sulka served as an advanced scout for the Los Angeles Sparks during the 2025 WNBA season, handling in-person and film scouting responsibilities while preparing reports for the coaching staff.
Sulka spent the 2023-24 season as an assistant coach with the College Park Skyhawks, the NBA G League affiliate of the Atlanta Hawks, becoming the first woman to serve as an assistant coach in franchise history. She helped oversee a defense that led the G League in points allowed per game and ranked second in defensive rating. Her responsibilities included game preparation, scouting reports, film breakdowns and player development.
Before joining the Skyhawks, Sulka held multiple positions with the Phoenix Suns, serving as an analytics quality control assistant during the 2021-22 season before being promoted to assistant video coordinator in 2022-23. She became the first woman to hold a position on the Suns coaching staff, assisting with scouting, film preparation, defensive analytics and individual player workouts.
Sulka also spent three seasons with the Phoenix Mercury from 2021-23 as the team's head video coordinator. In that role, she oversaw film operations for the coaching staff, players and front office while assisting with practices, player development and offseason training programs. She worked with several WNBA standouts, including Diana Taurasi, Skylar Diggins, Tina Charles and Kia Nurse.
Her collegiate coaching experience began at Arizona State, where she served as a graduate assistant for the women's basketball program from 2018-21. During her time with the Sun Devils, she assisted with video coordination, basketball operations, recruiting and summer camps.
Sulka also served as an intern to the Los Angeles Sparks head coach in 2017, participating in coaches meetings, assisting with practices and scouting opponents.
In addition to her team coaching experience, Sulka has worked as an individual player development coach since 2024, conducting workouts and film sessions with NBA players Bruce Brown and Torrey Craig, along with collegiate and international players.
"I would like to thank Chris May and Rebecca for the opportunity to contribute to such an already special program," Sulka said. "I am so grateful to be welcomed by such a genuine, selfless and hardworking staff, team and university. I cannot wait to show everyone what we know we can accomplish as a group. It's time to get to work! Let's go, Billikens!"
Sulka earned her bachelor's degree in psychology with a minor in coaching studies from Concordia University Irvine in 2018, where she was a student-athlete. She went on to earn a master's degree in psychology from Arizona State in 2021.
