“Thank you, thank you. I’m so excited to be here.” With those words Tuesday night at the John Paul Jones Arena, the new Virginia women’s basketball coach, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton is already a step ahead of her predecessor.
Tina Thompson, for all of her pedigree as one of the top two or three players in WNBA history, never seemed all that into it in her four years at Virginia.
It was an odd hire, even at the time. Thompson had been an assistant coach for three years at Texas after her WNBA career came to an end, and that was it, before Carla Williams hired her for the head job at Virginia in 2018.
The Virginia job was, it now feels like ancient history, but it was a plum job once. Debbie Ryan, a 2008 Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame inductee, won 739 games over 34 seasons, and led the Cavaliers to three Final Fours and 24 NCAA Tournament appearances.
Her successor, Joanne Boyle, had a 204-93 record and five NCAA Tournament appearances in nine seasons as a head coach at Richmond and Cal before getting the job after Ryan’s retirement in 2011.
Boyle’s tenure didn’t work out as expected; she had only had one NCAA Tournament appearance, in her last season, in 2017-2018, before retiring with a 129-99 record in seven seasons.
Thompson never got close to even what Virginia Basketball had become under Boyle, much less Ryan, going 12-19 and 13-17 in her first two years, then losing all five games of a COVID-shortened 2020-2021 season, before this season’s 5-22 disaster, which included two rather mysterious forfeits.
You get the sense that Virginia won’t be avoiding any games with Agugua-Hamilton, who was 74-15 in three seasons at Missouri State, after stints as an assistant at ODU, VCU and Michigan State, at the helm.
“I’m a Virginia native, so this is home for me,” said Agugua-Hamilton, who goes by Coach Mox, during a break in the action at the Virginia men’s team’s NIT quarterfinal game.
Her teams at Missouri State had success on both ends of the floor. This season, Missouri State ranked 11th nationally in scoring defense (53.9 ppg.), 19th in field goal defense (35.7 pct.) and 20th in rebounding margin (+7.5), and her first MSU team, in 2019-2020, ranked in the top 22 nationally in scoring offense, three-point percentage, rebound margin, free throws and free throw percentage.
“We need you guys to come out and support our ladies, support our women’s basketball team,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “You’re going to love the product we put out on the floor. Get ready for the energy, up-tempo style of play. We’re going to have a lot of fun. I look forward to interacting with you guys. Go ‘Hoos!”
Story by Chris Graham
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