CHARLOTTESVILLE, VA (CVILLE RIGHT NOW) – Last weekend, after Virginia’s run in the NCAA women’s basketball tournament ended with a Sweet 16 loss to TCU, Cavaliers coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton declared, “This is just the beginning for us in rebuilding this program.”

Saturday, UVA announced Agugua-Hamilton’s time leading that rebuild is over.

A week after her team played in the Sweet 16, Agugua-Hamilton is out as Virginia’s women’s basketball coach. The school announced the change Saturday afternoon.

Agugua-Hamilton went 70-58 in four seasons at UVA, including a 29-42 mark in ACC games.

Virginia’s most famous women’s basketball alum is Dawn Staley, who has coached South Carolina to its sixth straight Final Four this season. She was asked about the Cavaliers moving on from Agugua-Hamilton during her Saturday press conference in Phoenix.

“I just heard about that. I did reach out to our athletic director at Virginia. She just told me that they did part ways,” Staley said. “I don’t know why. She said, We’ll talk soon. I think I reached out to Coach Mox as well just to check on her. Really haven’t had time to have a conversation with her. I don’t know what went wrong, but I think she had them on the right track.”

Staley indicated she’s rooting for Virginia to get its women’s program rolling again, the way it did when she was the Cavaliers point guard from 1988-92. Staley led her teams to three Final Fours.

“I hope we get it together,” Staley said. “We have a deeply rich tradition at UVA on this stage. We hope to get our team back there one day sooner than later.”

Virginia hired Agugua-Hamilton in March 2022 following an impressive three-year stint at Missouri State. She led that school to two NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 2021 Sweet 16.

The Cavaliers went 15-15 in her first season in Charlottesville in 2022-23, winning just four ACC games and exiting the conference tournament in the first round.

Agugua-Hamilton’s second UVA team finished 16-16, improving to seven conference wins, including a memorable 80-75 upset of rival Virginia Tech, ranked No. 5 in the nation at the time, in the regular-season finale at John Paul Jones Arena. The ‘Hoos went 1-1 in the WNIT that season.

But when her 2024-25 team posted a 17-15 record, albeit with an 8-10 mark in league play, speculation began to swirl about Agugua-Hamilton’s future. The Cavaliers’ program appeared stuck in a rut.

Agugua-Hamilton needed a break-through in 2025-26 season at appeared she might have it. UVA went 22-12, finished 11-7 in the ACC, then became the first women’s program to ever advance from the First Four to the Sweet 16.

Led by local star Kymora Johnson, Virginia beat Arizona State in the First Four, then downed Georgia and Iowa. The run ended in Sacramento, Calif. with a 79-69 loss to 3-seed TCU.

“I think we’ve laid the foundation,” Agugua-Hamilton said after that loss. “We’ve built the culture. We’ve built the program at this point. Now it’s just continuing to get better and take the next steps. I know we’ll be back. A lot of people didn’t think we’d be here. We knew we’d be here. And I know we’ll be back.”

It turns out, she won’t be.