All UVA Basketball coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton can do for her team now is act as lead spokesperson for the program’s effort to talk its way into an NCAA Tournament bid.
“Yeah, I think we have a really good NET, we’ve had some good wins, but we also had a lot of adversity, too. We had people in and out of the lineup, we’ve had injuries, things like that. I’ve talked about that all year,” Agugua-Hamilton said after her team’s 63-50 loss to Clemson on Thursday in the second round of the 2026 ACC Tournament.
ICYMI
“We’re trying to get in rhythm with our full group at this point. We had a couple kids have surgery – Breona Hurd had surgery, Sa’Myah Smith had surgery, and then her mother passed away, and another death in the family. So, there was people in and out of lineups, we’ve had other people with injuries. It’s not an excuse, this is just part of what we’ve been through. I think there’s something coming at the end of that for all of that,” Agugua-Hamilton said.
Virginia (19-11, 11-7 in the ACC regular season) does, as Agugua-Hamilton said, have a good NET ranking – 37.
Also a good number in the Her Hoops Stats ranking: 38.
Sonny Moore: 39.
Bart Torvik’s T-rank has Virginia at 40.
The other metrics that the Selection Committee uses to guide its decisions on at-large teams aren’t so favorable.
To wit:
- Massey: 50
- Wins Above Bubble: 54
- KPI: 57
- RPI: 68
- ELO: 77
The average of the nine: 51.1.
You really want to be inside of 40 there to feel good about your resume.
Bad things on the resume:
- The home loss to UMBC (NET: 189)
- Quad 1 record: 3-6; Quad 2 record: 2-4
- Ended the season on a three-game losing streak
Close calls:
- 78-76 home loss to NC State (Jan. 24)
- 65-58 loss at Duke (Jan. 15)
- 83-82 home loss to Virginia Tech (March 1)
One win in any of those three, or just avoiding the ugly home loss to UMBC, and I think Virginia is good to go.
As it is, Agugua-Hamilton has to use her bully pulpit, such as it is, to advocate for her team.
“Eleven wins in the ACC regular season, first time in 26 years. NCAA Tournament, if that all goes as planned, that will be the first time in, I think, 10 years or so. There’s milestones we hit along the way. Rejuvenated the fan base, we sold out season tickets, or broke the season ticket program record two years in a row,” Agugua-Hamilton said after the ACC Tournament loss.
“They’ve stayed, these two,” the coach continued, alluding to Kymora Johnson and Paris Clark, who joined her in the postgame meeting with reporters, “have stayed, and others in the locker room have stayed through a lot and have really committed to Virginia and put Virginia back on the map. So, there’s a lot of positives in the season. That’s why I’m hopeful that the season is not over and that we will be in the NCAA Tournament, because I think we deserve to. Like I said, our NET is good. We’ve got good players. We’ve just got to come together and play for 40 minutes.
“There’s so many highlights of the season, but to me, it can’t be done yet,” Agugua-Hamilton said.
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Chris Graham
