Bigger than Buckets (in-person or virtual)

Join Amaka Agugua-Hamilton (Coach Mox), UVA’s Women’s Head Basketball Coach, as she discusses the team’s culture on and off the court. Learn about her philosophy for persevering through adversity and how she is instilling confidence for life in young women.

Speaker Biography

Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, UVA’s Women’s Head Basketball Coach, Department of Athletics

On March 21, 2022, Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton was announced as the sixth head coach in the history of the Virginia women’s basketball program.

Agugua-Hamilton (Uh-mah-kuh Uh-goo-gwa) comes to Virginia after serving as the head coach at Missouri State for the past three seasons. She is a native of Herndon, Va., where she attended Oakton High School.

During Agugua-Hamilton’s three years heading up the Lady Bears program, Missouri State went 74-15, including a 46-6 record in Missouri Valley Conference play. Her teams won two MVC regular-season titles (2020, 2021) and have played in the past two NCAA Tournaments (2021, 2022), including a Sweet 16 trip in 2020-21. In her inaugural season, Missouri State appeared headed to the NCAA Tournament with a 26-4 record when the postseason was canceled due to the pandemic.

Agugua-Hamilton has twice won MVC Coach of the Year honors, was named the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Spalding Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year in 2020, and was one of 10 finalists for WBCA National Coach of the Year in 2021. This season, Agugua-Hamilton became just the fourth head coach in Division I history, reaching 60 victories in fewer than 70 games to begin their career at the Division I level.

She will be making her USA Basketball coaching debut in the summer of 2022, serving as a court coach for the Women’s U18 National Team Trials at the U.S. Olympic & Paralympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado, aiding the coaching staff in on-court skills, drills, and scrimmages.

Agugua-Hamilton has two previous coaching stops in the Commonwealth. She was an assistant coach at VCU for the 2007-08 and 2008-09 seasons when the Rams went 52-15. She was on the staff at Old Dominion from 2011-12 and 2012-13.

Coach Mox was the first African-American female head coach for any sport at Missouri State, Agugua-Hamilton is a 20-year veteran of Division I women’s basketball, including five seasons as a player at Hofstra and four coaching stops. Before taking over the Missouri State program, she was on the staff at Michigan State from 2013-19, the last four years as associate head coach.

Before Michigan State, Agugua-Hamilton was the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at Old Dominion for two seasons, helping the Monarchs to an eight-win improvement and WNIT berth her second year in 2012-13. She recruited and coached eight All-CAA selections and one WNBA draft pick while at ODU.

Before her time at ODU, Agugua-Hamilton worked at Indiana for two seasons (2009-11) as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator and at Virginia Commonwealth for three years as a graduate assistant (2006-07) and assistant coach (2007-09). During her two years as a full-time assistant, Coach Mox helped VCU to a pair of 26-win seasons and the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance.

Agugua-Hamilton is a 2005 graduate of Hofstra University, where she averaged 10.2 points and 6.0 rebounds over a 95-game career. She is the Pride’s career field goal percentage leader at .551 and graduated with the top three single-season field goal percentage marks in school history. A four-year team captain, she was a second-team All-Colonial Athletic Association pick in 2004 and helped Hofstra to a WNIT berth in 2006, the school’s first-ever postseason appearance.

She earned her bachelor’s degree in business management from Hofstra in 2005 and her master’s degree in sports leadership and administration from VCU in 2007.

Coach Mox and her husband Billy Hamilton have a four-year-old son, Eze.