Coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton has reiterated one message all throughout the 2025-26 campaign — urgency.
Urgency, as Agugua-Hamilton puts it, is all about energy. Energy could be defined as maybe a synergistic offense or a gritty, tenacious defense that includes diving for loose balls and forcing opponents into uncomfortable situations. Agugua-Hamilton believes that her Cavaliers are near-unstoppable when playing in this fashion.
She repeated the message once more after Virginia received its first NCAA Tournament bid since 2018.
“Anytime that we were together, and anytime we were on the same page and played with urgency, we were great,” Agugua-Hamilton said Sunday. “We won games, we closed out games, and when we weren't [urgent], we had to learn lessons that we can't show up to games that way.”
The Cavaliers are well aware of their strengths and weaknesses by this point in the season. This is a team with elite interior defense, a veteran supporting cast with lots of length and a genuine megastar in junior guard Kymora Johnson. On the other hand, this is a team prone to elongated shooting slumps and poor perimeter defense.
Virginia is also hungry, long-starved for postseason success.
“I truly love these women to my right and left, and I want to continue this season and continue being a part of this family in this group,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “Whenever we are urgent, whenever we compete and whenever we stay together, we're really, really good.”
However, a postseason run is never easy — especially with Virginia’s side of the bracket in the Sacramento 4 Regional.
The Cavaliers face Arizona State Thursday for the chance to earn a No. 10 seed and play No. 7 Georgia Saturday. Should Virginia advance, No. 2 Iowa most likely awaits in their home stadium in Iowa City, Iowa. The Cavaliers also have No. 1 seed South Carolina in their Sacramento 4 Regional field.
To keep its season alive, Virginia must first dispatch the Sun Devils. The Cavalier Daily spoke with sports editor Alan Deutschendorf of The State Press, who explained Arizona State’s season to date.
“They're a gritty team, they're a very defensive team,” Deutschendorf said. “I would say they have a couple players that stand out, but really they're a dig deep, dig dirty and grind kind of team.”
The Sun Devils got out to a blazing 15-0 start this year before finishing 9-10 in their remaining matchups. In the arduous Big 12 conference, every win is difficult to earn. Deutschendorf pointed out cold shooting streaks and costly turnovers as a few weaknesses for Arizona State — a similar situation to Virginia.
Another similarity is that the Sun Devils are rather green in the NCAA Tournament, as they are making their first appearance since 2019. Where the teams differ, though, is that the Sun Devils are led by new Coach Molly Miller and a transfer-built roster. Miller is considered a rising star in the coaching profession.
“[Miller is] gonna be hyped up,” Deutschendorf said. “She's gonna be showing out. She's the story of ASU women's basketball this season … Her success, her turnaround, just everything she's done to this program.”
Miller took a Sun Devils team that went 10-22 last season and vaulted them to the NCAA Tournament in just one year — primarily through a cast of talented transfers.
Arizona State is led by graduate guard Gabby Elliott, who was named Third Team All-Big 12 and averaged a team-best 16 points per game. Virginia might remember Elliott from her two ACC seasons at Clemson in 2021 and 2022, but her journey has taken her all over the country. After time with the Tigers, Elliott spent two years at Michigan State and a year at Penn State before heading to Arizona State for her sixth year of collegiate basketball.
Alongside Elliott, the Sun Devils have a pair of double-digit scorers in junior forward McKinna Brackens and sophomore forward Heloisa Carrera, both of whom check in at over six-feet tall.
Thursday’s contest could be an aggressive, hyper-physical basketball game — which both coaches are aware of. For Agugua-Hamilton and Virginia, the key is to find consistency and make some magic happen.
“In March Madness, you see half court shots, you see full court shots, you see all kinds of magic happen because people are playing outside of their mind,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “Just because you're talented, just telling our team [they can win] doesn't mean that we're going to go win games. Hard work beats talent when talent doesn't work hard.”
Arizona State will be a challenging opponent. But if Virginia can win its first NCAA Tournament game in eight years, who knows what the future holds for Agugua-Hamilton and company.
“You have to be extremely urgent,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “You cannot come out flat, you cannot start slow. There should be nothing but energy. Energy exuding from your team and from your body … Everybody in the field is good. That's why you're in it, right?”
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