UVA’s Coach Mox living a dream, ready to mix it up in ACC women’s hoops

By Scott Ratcliffe

When University of Virginia first-year coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton took the stage at the ACC’s women’s basketball Tip Off event in Charlotte on Tuesday to talk about her new team, she described her current state of affairs as the conference’s newest coach as “a dream come true.”

“I grew up in Northern Virginia, so ACC country,” she said. “So for me to be able to be a part of a program like UVA, to me it’s one of the best athletic and academic institutions in the country, and icing on the cake is I’m home.”

Agugua-Hamilton, affectionately known by many as “Coach Mox,” spent the previous three seasons at Missouri State, accumulating a record of 74-15 (46-6 in Missouri Valley Conference games with two regular-season MVC titles). She led the Lady Bears to back-to-back trips to the NCAA Tournament over her final two seasons, and it could have very well been three-for-three, had the 2019-20 campaign not been cut short due to Covid-19 (her team was 26-4 that year).

“We were fortunate to have a lot of success there,” said Agugua-Hamilton, “and then I was fortunate to have a lot of opportunities, which I don’t take for granted. But it was a no-brainer when it came to UVA, because I knew the history.

“When I was growing up, it was in the forefront of the country. It was Final Fours, it was Elite Eights, Dawn Staley, Wendy Palmer, all those great names, and many more. So that was my idea of UVA women’s basketball.”

Despite all the years of prior success, the Cavaliers haven’t been to the postseason since 2018, haven’t been to the Sweet 16 or beyond since 2000.

After sitting out the 2020 season due to the pandemic, UVA finished 5-22 (2-14 in the ACC), winning just 3 of 14 at home last year. The Wahoos were 30-63 in Tina Thompson’s four seasons at the helm.

Following the team’s first-round loss to Wake Forest in March’s ACC Tournament, Thompson was let go the following day. Less than three weeks later, Coach Mox was hired on March 21.

Cavalier fans have been desperate for success, and Agugua-Hamilton, a graduate of Oakton HS in Herndon, is determined to get the program turned around, but she knows it’s a process that won’t just happen overnight. Virginia’s players have been spotted wearing shirts in practice that read, “Grind now, shine later,” and that overall theme of putting in the time and the blood, sweat and tears to achieve has already made a big impact on the program.

“We talk about ‘grind now, shine later’ because we just want to focus on the work,” explained Coach Mox. “We don’t want to focus on are we going to win a championship are we going to do this? Of course we have goals, and we want to celebrate small victories along the way, but just focus on the things we can control. Let’s get better today. Let’s get better in this practice, in this moment. Let’s grow, and the results will take care of themselves.”

Three of Coach Mox’s main goals for the Cavaliers are for them to be among the top rebounding teams nationally, to play with tempo offensively, and to be “very disruptive” on defense.

“We just have to be able to buy in and stay together, especially when we hit adversity, and get over the hump,” she said. “I just think I was blessed in this situation to have the players and the talent I need that translates into my system and what I’m trying to instill. So it’s been a great transition. I’m really proud of where they’re at.”

Only seven players from last year’s roster are back, but the Hoos return five of their top six scorers — senior forward Camryn Taylor (team-high 12.8 points per game in 2021-22), junior wing Mir McLean (11.4 ppg), senior guard Taylor Valladay (9.5 ppg), senior forward London Clarkson (5.2 ppg) and senior guard Carole Miller (5.1 ppg). Amandine Toi, the team’s second-leading scorer (11.9 ppg), graduated in the spring.

“Obviously we’re seniors this year, so it’s just something that we’ve been waiting for, just that winning mentality,” Taylor said Tuesday. “Everybody’s coming in just excited and buying in, and just eager to learn and to grow, honestly. There’s always so much room to grow for us. That’s probably the biggest thing I’m excited about.”

Also returning are junior guard Kaydan Lawson and graduate guard McKenna Dale, to go with a pair of first-year guards in Cady Pauley and Yonta Vaughn, who both signed in April.

The Cavaliers also will be bringing in a pair of transfers in Minnesota junior guard Alexia Smith and graduate forward Sam Brunelle from Notre Dame, who remains one of the most popular area high-school players in recent memory.

“It’s been truly awesome, especially coming back to Virginia and just being back in my hometown,” said Brunelle, who grew up one county away (Greene) and starred at William Monroe HS. “There’s definitely a different energy in Virginia for women’s basketball.

“I grew up being a ball girl for UVA women’s basketball games and growing up and watching Chelsea Shine and that era of players, and I was like, ‘Ooh, I want to be them someday.’ Those are the people I looked up to.

“So being able to re-establish UVA basketball and get it back to where it should be, it’s exciting. It’s great to walk around campus and hear how people are excited about games and be there for us.”

Brunelle (6-foot-2) averaged 6.8 points and 2.5 rebounds in 32 games with the Fighting Irish last season, and should provide a boost on the interior.

“Honestly, our team is full of leaders,” Brunelle said, “and that’s really exciting to be surrounded by girls who want to work hard, who want to learn from each other, and take criticism well, because that’s going to help us be a very successful team.”

Smith (5-foot-8) averaged 3.4 points, 2.0 rebounds and 1.6 assists in 33 games last season for the Golden Gophers.

The future is already looking pretty bright in terms of recruiting as well, with more impressive local talent on the way. Virginia’s Gatorade Player of the Year Kymora Johnson, the state’s top prospect who’s just a stone’s throw away at St. Anne’s-Belfield, and Olivia McGhee, from nearby Louisa County, have both committed to the Cavaliers for next season. Both are considered top-50 prospects nationally. In addition, three-star forward Breona Hurd has already committed to UVA for the Class of 2024.

“We have all the resources we need,” said Agugua-Hamilton. “We have great players. There’s talent there. There’s going to be more talent coming. I’m just excited. I’m excited to bridge the gap with the alums again, bring them back.

“We’ve already started doing that. Just to make them proud and get this program back to where it needs to be.”

To get Virginia back to where things were during the days of legendary coach Debbie Ryan — who led UVA to three Final Four appearances and three ACC titles in four years (1990, ‘92 and ‘93) from 1978-2011 — it will take time and a lot of work from all involved, but everything certainly seems to be headed in the right direction.

“At the end of the day, I’ve been so blessed with these players,” Coach Mox said. “They have been great to coach. They come in every day, work hard. What we do, every drill, every shot — it could be a shooting drill, whatever it is, there’s a winner and a loser to everything we do. There’s a competitive side to everything we do.

“Changing that mentality to a winning mentality also goes in with the grinding part of it. So now you see people that are getting upset — even if it’s a little shooting drill, if we lose that, they’re like, oh, they’re mad at themselves or whatever, and you just see that mentality changing, and it’s changed honestly. It’s changed already.

“Cam just alluded to it, there’s a winning expectation, and there’s a winning mindset. All of that is based on the work that we’ve been putting in.”

The Cavaliers host an exhibition at John Paul Jones Arena on Thursday, Nov. 3 against Pitt Johnstown before officially tipping off Coach Mox’s tenure on Nov. 7 at JPJ with the regular-season opener against George Washington (5 p.m. ACCNX).