© Virginia Athletics
Closing the Book on the 2023-2024 Virginia Women's Basketball Season
Every coach, be it the men’s game or the women’s game, will tell you that they want their teams peaking and ready to play in March. By that measure, coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton had pulled all the levers and punched all the buttons as the Virginia Cavaliers headed into the ACC tournament.
The first six games of the ACC slate had been cruel to Virginia as the Cavaliers started out 0-6 in conference play. The women had had to play NC State twice in the opening 12 days. The same NC State that is in the Final Four as I write this. The average fan could have been forgiven for thinking that this season would be a reprise of last, when you may remember, the Cavaliers went 4-14 after having gone undefeated in non-conference play.
The Hoos, though, quickly righted the ship, notching wins over #15 Florida State and #20 North Carolina on back-to-back weekends. Overall, Virginia played the hardest schedule in the ACC and had four victories over AP Top 25 teams, one of only two schools in the ACC to reach that level. On the final day of the regular season, Virginia knocked off #5 Virginia Tech. Despite a 39-point night from Georgia Amoore. Virginia set a program record attendance of 11,975 in that game, all of whom got to see face-of-the-franchise freshman star, Kymora Johnson, score 21 points and dish out eight assists.
Two years in the making, the renaissance of the women’s basketball program under Coach Mox seemed complete.
And then Virginia lost on the opening day of the ACC tournament. To Wake Forest. For the third straight year.
Personnel Churn
The offseason was relatively benign in Charlottesville, especially given that we are living in the NIL era of free transfers. McKenna Dale graduated and Taylor Valladay was the one transfer away. The end of the 2022-23 season had ended with a thud as over the last three games of the season, Virginia had only seven, six and seven players suited up. Coach Mox was going to ensure that never happened again. In addition to early recruits Johnson and Olivia McGhee, Mox landed transfers Paris Clark (Arizona,) Jillian Brown (Northwestern) and Taylor Lauterbach (Kansas State.) Early in the summer, Edessa Noyan decommitted from the University of San Francisco and pledged to Virginia. That was six new bodies for a coach who uses her bench, frequently playing 11-12 players per game.
We didn’t know it at the time, but Mir McLean, the best player on the team, would miss the entire season. Standing just 5’ 11”, McLean is the best rebounder in the ACC for her size. She’s also a double-digit scorer who doesn’t need plays to be called for her. McLean was a huge loss.
The Positives
Even without McLean, Virginia was a force on the offensive glass. Virginia was in the top 5 nationally in terms of offensive rebounding throughout the out-of-conference slate and then when the competition picked up, stayed in the top 20. It was a team effort for the most part as the wings and guards crashed the glass, which is a departure for viewers used to seeing the Virginia men play.
The women, again unlike the men, could actually shoot free throws, converting on a program record 77% from the charity stripe. Virginia had six players – Camryn Taylor, Jillian Brown, Cady Pauley, Olivia McGhee, Sam Brunelle, Kymora Johnson – who shot over 80%.
At times, the Cavaliers' ball movement was really special as the team averaged 15.7 assists per game. Only Notre Dame and Virginia Tech had more assists, but both the Irish and the Hokies scored nearly 7 more points per game, so of course they would have more assists. Against Syracuse, Virginia had assists on 27 of 30 made baskets (in a loss), while against Miami it was 22 assists on 28 buckets. Those are elite, nay astounding, numbers and it indicates that there are multiple ball-handlers on this team.
But the biggest strength of the team was the fight in these women. The Cavaliers never rolled over, never gave up. It was a trait evident even during the Tina Thompson years but the senior leadership of Cam Taylor, Sam Brunelle and London Clarkson seems to have been instilled into the younger generation. Because of the pod system used by the ACC this year, Virginia played double games against NC State, Virginia Tech, UNC and Duke. No one else had as difficult a schedule. Going forward, the ACC is adding Stanford, Cal and SMU next season. Any pod system is going to have to be easier next year.
Progress Made
Through the out-of-conference slate, Virginia was a pretty poor team from deep, shooting just around 25% from three. And that includes a 15/35 night against Tulane at the Cayman Islands Classic. But once conference play rolled around, Virginia was actually pretty good, shooting 34.2% from deep. By way of comparison, Virginia Tech led the ACC with a 34.9% rate. That’s just depth across the board as not a single Hoo had a conversion rate over 40%. The women set a program record with 218 made triples.
The other area where UVa made some progress was in running the break. It took the team a looong time to learn how to space themselves accordingly, but this is how great teams run.
Virginia is not there yet, and much of next season’s success will depend on how much they can improve from their new, hopefully permanent baseline. In other words, backsliding could make for a long season next year.
To Be Determined
Cavalier Nation is still learning just how effective a coach Agugua-Hamilton is. She’s had some discipline issues over the past two years. A couple of players have been suspended for individual games, Taylor Valladay decamped last year in a huff to Penn State, and London Clarkson and Kaydan Lawson were no longer on the team when the women played in the WBIT this year. Most of these issues were with players who were holdovers from the Thompson regime, but it may still indicate a certain heavy-handedness on the part of Agugua-Hamilton. Yonta Vaughn missed the last eight games of the season, ostensibly due to her being in concussion protocols. But worryingly, she wasn’t even sitting courtside for six of those. Not being with your team usually indicates disciplinary issues.
Looking Ahead
Players graduating (at least at Virginia) and moving on is in the very DNA of collegiate sports and the women’s turnaround was spearheaded by the departing Sam Brunelle, Cam Taylor and London Clarkson. Throw in Taylor Lauterbach, who has the option of returning for another year, and that could be four of Virginia’s five bigs moving on this season. Edessa Noyan would be the only returning post player, and while she has a nifty offensive game, she is still very much of a work in progress on the defensive side. Incoming top-100 recruit Breona Hurd is listed as a forward, and she reportedly will be able to replace Brunelle’s threat from distance, but there is a serious need for Coach Mox to hit the transfer portal with the same success as she did last year to reinforce the front court.
If there is one as-yet largely untapped avenue for improvement next year, it would be Virginia rolling out more full-court pressure. Alexia Smith, Paris Clark, Mir McLean and Olivia McGhee are dangerous defenders in the press, and with Kymora Johnson, Yonta Vaughn and Jillian Brown also on the roster, there is plenty of depth to not have to worry about fouls or getting winded.
Virginia also has a generational player in Kymora Johnson. She was second-team All-ACC and in any other, non-Hannah Hidalgo kind of year, would have been the ACC Freshman of the Year. She is one of just six Power Five guards to average 15 points and 5 assists. It’s pretty exclusive company when you join Caitlin Clark, Georgia Amoore and Hidalgo in that sextet. And if that company wasn’t elite enough, she is only the second Virginia freshman to score 35 points or more (against Florida State) in a game. The other freshman? Dawn Staley. Johnson has the swagger and confidence to lead this program for the next three years.
Last year, the team declined to play in the NIT because Coach Mox only had seven players. This year the team played in the inaugural WBIT and it was the appropriate progression for an up-and-coming program. But next year, it’s NCAA or bust, baby!