Virginia fires coach Agugua-Hamilton after 1st Sweet 16 since 2000

Virginia Amaka Agugua-Hamilton fired as head coach of the ladies’s basketball program Saturday.

Aguagua-Hamilton led the Cavaliers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000. She went 70-58, together with a 29-42 mark in ACC play.

Virginia grew to become the primary double-digit seed to succeed in the regional semifinals since 2022 and pulled off the upset of the event, knocking off No. 2 seed Iowa on the street in double additional time within the second spherical.

It grew to become the primary First Four staff to advance this far, earlier than falling to TCU.

“I thought we had some really good moments in that game,” Agugua-Hamilton mentioned after that loss. “But the third quarter got away from us. … We came up short, but that doesn’t take away from our season or the growth we’ve had with our program.”

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who starred in Virginia as a participant, mentioned she had simply heard in regards to the teaching change.

“I did reach out to our athletic director at Virginia and she just told me they did part ways. I don’t know why. We’ll talk,” Staley mentioned. “I did reach out to Coach Mox to check on her. I didn’t have time to have a conversation with her. I don’t know what went wrong. She had them on the right track.”

Staley mentioned she hopes Virginia will get it collectively.

“We got a deeply rich tradition at UVA on this stage, and we hope to get our team back there one day sooner than later,” Staley mentioned of her alma mater.