UVA Hires Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton as New Basketball Head Coach

Just 18 days after announcing the release of Tina Thompson as the Virginia Cavaliers’ head coach of the women’s basketball program, Athletic Director Carla Williams made her choice for Thompson’s replacement.

Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton will be the sixth coach in program history and looks to replicate the success Debbie Ryan had through the 80s and 90s.

Coach Mox (TM pending) comes to Charlottesville after spending the last three years leading the Missouri State women’s program where she went 74-15 overall and an impressive 46-6 in Missouri Valley Conference play. Missouri State appeared in both the 2021 and 2022 NCAA Tournaments including making the Sweet 16 in 2021. They were likely going to be in the 2020 tournament after posting a 26-4 record before COVID-19 canceled the tournament.

A native of Herndon and a graduate of Oakton High School, Coach Mox would go on to play at Hofstra where she was a four-year team captain and helped lead Hofstra to their first postseason appearance in the Women’s NIT in her 5th year.

After her playing career ended, she began her coaching career by spending time at VCU, Indiana, Old Dominion, before she would spend 6 years coaching at Michigan State as an assistant and associate head coach. She would even notch her first 4 victories as a head coach while MSU’s Suzy Merchant took a leave of absence during the 2016-17 season.

Coach Mox will have her hands full turning around a program that won just 5 games this past year, and only two ACC wins. The program hasn’t been to the NCAA Tournament since Joanne Boyle’s final season in 2018, which was also the last time UVA had a winning record.