Excitement Brewing as UVA Women's Basketball Begins Preseason Preparations

The Virginia women's basketball team held its first official preseason practice on Wednesday, formally beginning preparations for what should be an exciting season in year 2 of the Coach Mox era.

In their first season under head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, the Cavaliers increased their win total from the previous season by ten games and went undefeated in non-conference play for the first time since 1991. Virginia experienced immense roster hardship at the end of the season, though, with the Cavaliers finishing the year with just seven healthy players due to an amalgam of injuries and other personnel limitations.

"I don't think people realize how much we went through as a team last year," said graduate forward London Clarkson. "And I feel like we really built on that adversity and just learning as well. For the newcomers, they're seeing everything we went through last year and being able to push through."

This season, Virginia has a solid mix of returning players and newcomers, giving Coach Mox and her staff a full complement of 14 players to work with. That depth will be pivotal for the Cavaliers to withstand injuries and, more importantly, to effectively execute Coach Mox's fast-paced style of play.

"We're deeper, I mean first of all, we have more kids," said Coach Mox before practice on Wednesday. "If anybody watched us, they knew by the end of the year, we were down to six, seven healthy bodies. So, now we have 14 on the roster. Everybody's talented, everybody can contribute. Everybody has a unique spot. So, I think the depth is going to translate into more wins because we can play at the pace I want to play at and we can flourish in my style of play because we have the bodies to do it."

That talented and deep roster includes eight returners and six newcomers. Of the returning players, which includes Sam Brunelle, Camryn Taylor, Mir McLean, London Clarkson, and Kaydan Lawson, six are seniors or graduate students who bring a ton of college basketball experience to the table.

Additionally the Cavaliers added three transfers - guards Paris Clark and Jillian Brown and 6'7" center Taylor Lauterbach - who were each top 100 prospects coming out of high school. Virginia's incoming freshmen class includes a pair of top-50 in-state recruits in Olivia McGhee and Kymora Johnson, who was a McDonald's All-American, and 6'3" forward Edessa Noyan, who has represented her home country of Sweden on an international stage multiple times.

With the amount of depth and talent on the roster, the biggest priority for the Cavaliers during the preseason is to determine who plays well together and which lineup combinations will produce the best results on the floor.

"I change the lineups every day," said Coach Mox. "Every day, there's teams for the day and then we switch the lineups. We just mix groups together cause I just want to see what combination of kids work. I want to see who plays well together, who understands. So we're gonna mix it up all the way up until probably before our first scrimmage."

In observing the team's first official practice on Wednesday (the team has held around 15 informal practices this fall), it was evident that there has already been some significant progress made in developing chemistry throughout the roster. Coach Mox has been particularly impressed with the way her program's culture has been sustained by the returners and adopted by the newcomers.

"Everybody knows I think culture wins. I truly believe that," Coach Mox said. "The returning players - the eight that are returning - they defend the culture, they understand the culture. They understand expectations, standards, all that. Our family. And then the six that came in - they came here for that culture. So it's just been a really healthy blend of the two and the two groups have merged together seamlessly."

The Cavaliers will look to deliver tangible proof that culture wins on the court and repeat their non-conference success from last year when the 2023-2024 season begins on Wednesday, November 8th at 7pm against Maryland Eastern Shore at John Paul Jones Arena.

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