E
veryone called her Buzz, and Sophie Burrows wasn’t sure why. She’d just returned for her second season with the Diamond Valley Eagles, a team in Australia’s NBL1, arriving late after playing with the Melbourne Boomers of the Women’s National Basketball League.
Most of the faces around her were familiar, but her head coach, Dee Butler, wasn’t one of them. Butler had just taken over the Eagles — and she hadn’t come alone. Among the new arrivals was a player named Sophie Byrnes.
Although Burrows had already played for Diamond Valley, the older Byrnes’ seniority took priority. So while Byrnes remained Sophie, Burrows became Buzz.
“First of all, I didn’t even have a say in this decision,” Burrows recalled thinking. “Second of all, why does she get to keep her name?”
Burrows reluctantly got used to Buzz. Now, she’s evolved far beyond the nickname after starting her collegiate career at Syracuse. In her first two years at SU, Burrows learned from former guards Dyaisha Fair and Georgia Woolley. With Woolley — the Orange’s No. 1 option in 2024 — graduated, Burrows is positioned to become the Orange’s next cornerstone this season.
“Sophie is really doing a tremendous job of being that player that was here last year and owning her right to be on the court with anybody,” SU head coach Felisha Legette-Jack said at Media Day on Oct. 17.
Reaching this point took a leap of faith. Three years earlier, Burrows had agonized over whether to chase a professional career with the Boomers or take a chance thousands of miles away.
When weighing her options, she considered the journeys of fellow Australians Alanna Smith, who went from Stanford to the Minnesota Lynx, and Ezi Magbegor, who moved straight to the Seattle Storm. But Burrows couldn’t decide on her own. She needed something to tip the scales.
Then the phone rang. When Burrows answered, a familiar voice came through — one she’d heard just a month earlier when she visited Syracuse. It was Legette-Jack calling to congratulate Burrows on her choice to play pro.
Burrows was confused, having not yet made a decision. She admitted she was leaning toward staying in Australia, but speaking with Legette-Jack made her reconsider. Within minutes, Burrows told Legette-Jack she’d join the Orange.
“I could always go back to playing pro in Australia, but I couldn’t just come back to playing college basketball,” Burrows said. “I wasn’t willing to give up that opportunity.”
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Burrows, who has diabetes, could be at a slight disadvantage, but no one close to her saw it that way. Burrows’ father, Mark Burrows, said her diabetes diagnosis helped her mature. Diamond Valley team manager Barb Evans said Burrows always managed it herself.
She’d been set back throughout her life. She was the youngest of three sisters. She had a Dec. 31 birthday, which meant being at the tail end of every age group. Her floor presence was so timid some compared it to a mouse. But Burrows was never fazed.
Once she left Australia, she’d already built an extensive resume. She was a member of Australia’s 2022 U18 FIBA Women’s Asian Championship team in Bengaluru, India. Her final stop before Syracuse was the 2023 FIBA U19 Women’s Basketball World Cup in Madrid, Spain.
“It just made me realize that’s really what I wanted to do,” Burrows said. “I wanted to (eventually) go pro and keep playing basketball.”
Burrows’ travels forced her to miss SU’s first six weeks of practice before the 2023-24 season. When she arrived in Syracuse, all but one of her teammates had left for a two-week break: Woolley.
A reserved newcomer, Burrows relied on Woolley for direction, from exploring campus to getting a feel for Syracuse. Woolley, who’d navigated the transition from Australia two years earlier at Buffalo under Legette-Jack, became Burrows’ guide to her new life.
When basketball resumed, Burrows continued to follow the lead of Woolley. Shifting from Australia’s slower tempo, Woolley helped Burrows realize it wasn’t a physical adjustment — she needed to think faster.
“It’s a big move. It’s a lot of change,” Burrows said. “It was really nice to have someone help me through that and really understand where I was coming from.”
When Syracuse’s season began, Burrows also looked to Fair. Fair — who scored the third-most points in NCAA women’s basketball history — was a once-in-a-lifetime guard, Burrows said. She asked for the ball, and for the right reasons.
But it left Burrows in another precarious position. She’d averaged double-digit points across almost 30 minutes per game in her final season with Diamond Valley. With the Orange in 2023-24, she uncharacteristically honed her focus on offensive rebounding and rim-to-rim defense, defining an underwhelming freshman year where she averaged 4.6 points per game.
“She went to college, and she didn’t play like Sophie,” Mark said of Burrows’ first year with SU.
“A lot of it was just in my head, a lack of confidence, a lot of overthinking, that kind of stuff,” Burrows added.
Sophie Burrows directs traffic in Syracuse’s 82-57 win over Boston College on March 2. After two years learning from Dyaisha Fair and Georgia Woolley, Burrows is poised to be the centerpiece of the Orange this season. Leonardo Eriman | Photo Editor
That same year in the NCAA Tournament, though, Burrows showed a glimpse of herself. She played just nine minutes in SU’s first-round win over Arizona, but when starting guard Alaina Rice suffered a head injury, Burrows was thrust into the starting lineup against UConn. She responded with a season-high 18 points in 39 minutes during the Orange’s 72-64 loss.
“It’s the big games where she actually plays better,” Mark said. “She likes the pressure. She likes being on the big stage.”
With Fair departing, Syracuse was building around Woolley, and Burrows expected her role to expand. Over the offseason, she returned to Australia to practice with Diamond Valley, also spending hours putting up shots on the basketball hoop outside her home, Mark said.
When she came back to Syracuse, she’d transformed into a reliable scorer, while further developing her off-ball skills to complement Woolley. It didn’t take long for her presence to be felt.
In four of her first six games, Burrows scored double-digit points. But the Orange were 4-5 entering Atlantic Coast Conference play. Syracuse later fell to 8-13 before a February tilt against Virginia Tech.
It was just another game, Burrows’ 52nd to be exact. But it’s when the tide turned on her Syracuse career.
About three minutes in, Burrows made her first bucket. Another followed 33 seconds later. Then another. By halftime, Burrows was sitting at 17 points.
When Legette-Jack looked into Burrows’ eyes during a timeout, Burrows responded by asking what the next play was. Legette-Jack was sure Burrows would drop a “30-piece.” The fire she’d lacked as a freshman had returned.
When the buzzer sounded, Burrows had a career-high 28 points on eight 3s, a statement that signaled what was to come.
“(Sophie’s) gonna be the future of this team,” Legette-Jack said postgame. “She’s so locked in, she’s so special.”
SU’s win over the Hokies may have sparked Burrows’ surge, but the rest of the team couldn’t keep up. The Orange stumbled to a 3-4 finish, culminating in a second-half collapse against Boston College in the ACC Tournament First Round, where they blew a 19-point lead.
Burrows grew accustomed to stepping into new roles. Now, she’s embracing her biggest one yet — this time as SU’s leader.
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She started by focusing on what went wrong in the Orange’s historically bad year. She said it stemmed from the energy and buy-in from others.
Her plans were briefly derailed over the offseason, though. She was sidelined for five months after undergoing shoulder surgery to repair a torn labrum from her freshman year. She said it needed to happen to be fully ready for the 2025-26 campaign.
SU strength coach Matt Wietlispach, SU trainer Karen McKinney and Burrows’ physical therapist Lachlan Fooks spoke via Skype, emphasizing external rotations and Google Sheet workouts Wietlispach had constructed. It required patience she’d never experienced before, Burrows said. She just itched to play again.
Once she returned to Syracuse, she was only about 70% recovered, gradually easing from stationary bike workouts to running on turf and grass. Now, she’s close to full health — back on the court and moving like herself.
“She can pretty much do anything,” Wietlispach said. “She’s gonna be deadly.”
When Burrows visits Butler and Evans in Australia, Buzz sometimes resurfaces. It’s a name she’s learned to appreciate, one that marks her growth, even if she initially shed it.
At Syracuse, though, she doesn’t need a nickname. Her slow start told part of the story, as did her NCAA Tournament breakout and her blazing performance versus VT. She’s hoping the upcoming season will only add to that.
Now, everyone knows who she is. She’s finally just Sophie.
Photograph courtesy of SU Athletics
Published on October 30, 2025 at 12:00 am