Amaka Agugua-Hamilton led the Cavaliers to the Sweet 16 in her fourth and final season leading the program. Thien-An Truong / Getty Images
April 4, 2026Updated 3:11 pm EDT
In one of the more stunning turns of the coaching carousel, Virginia announced Saturday that women’s basketball coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton will not be returning to the program despite just guiding the Cavaliers to the Sweet 16.
The Cavaliers confirmed the news via a short, vague statement on their athletics website.
“Virginia Athletics announced today (April 4) Amaka Agugua-Hamilton will not return as head coach of the women’s basketball program. Agugua-Hamilton finished her four-year tenure at UVA with a 70-58 record, including a 29-42 mark in ACC play. A national search will begin immediately.”
Agugua-Hamilton came to Virginia ahead of the 2022-23 season and just led the Cavaliers to their most wins in a season in more than a decade, since 2011-12. The Cavaliers (22-12) were the Cinderellas of this year’s NCAA Tournament, going from the play-in round as a No. 10 seed to taking down No. 2 Iowa on its home floor in double overtime to earn a Sweet 16 berth. The Sweet 16 berth was Virginia’s first since 2000, with South Carolina coach and Virginia alum Dawn Staley even saying last week that the Cavaliers were back to their “glory days.”
Speaking to reporters Saturday at the Final Four in Phoenix, Staley said she reached out to Virginia athletic director Carla Williams upon hearing the news, “and she just told me that they did part ways. I don’t know why. She said we’ll talk, we’ll talk soon.”
Added Staley, “I reached out to Coach Mox as well just to check on her. … I don’t know what went wrong, but I think she had them on the right track, and I hope we get it together. We’ve got a deeply rich tradition at UVA on this stage, and we hope to get our team back there one day sooner than later.”
Before coming to UVA, Agugua-Hamilton coached at Missouri State, where she made consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances and took the program to the Sweet 16 in the 2021 tournament.
This story will be updated.
Apr 4, 2026
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