Tammi Reiss is UVa women’s hoops royalty.  She’s a three-time All American, and alongside Dawn Staley, she lead Virginia to three consecutive Final Fours.  She retired as Virginia’s second leading all-time scorer and all time three-point shooter.  For fans with zero inside knowledge of Athletic Director Carla Williams’ coaching search, Reiss immediately became a hot prospect.

There was only one catch.  Reiss remains committed to Rhode Island and she was unequivocal about staying:  “I’m pretty much decided that I’m probably going to be here — 99 percent.  I’ve made the decision early on to bow out at my alma mater.”

“We haven’t done anything here yet. I haven’t reached our goal. We haven’t. We want to bring championships to Kingston.  I don’t like leaving business unfinished.”

Full credit to Reiss for her loyalty to her school and for being so direct.  Sport would probably be a better world if more coaches felt, and acted like, Reiss.  But Virginia still needed a coach.

The next day Williams announced the arrival of Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton to be the new head coach.  She brings a killer nickname and as bright a coach-on-the-rise resume as you could want following a three-year stint at Missouri State.  She’s a Virginia native – Oakton High School in Herndon – and she was, get this, a four-year captain at Hofstra.  Seems like she was born to coach.  Her initial coaching stops were at both VCU and Old Dominion.

Before taking the head coaching job at Missouri State, she was an associate head coach for a solid Michigan State program that won a Big 10 title, went to the NCAAs four times, had four top-35 recruiting classes (one year ranked #7,) and she even notched her first four career victories as an interim head coach.

In her three years at Missouri State, her teams went 26 – 4, 23 – 3 and a trip to the Sweet 16, and this year, 25 – 8 with a second consecutive invite to March Madness.  She knocked out Florida State in the first round.

Agugua-Hamilton’s teams were tough at home going 36 – 2.  She’s had nine victories against Power 5 opponents in three years, which may very well be more than Tina Thompson amassed in the same time frame.  The team has been consistently in the polls  — 35 consecutive weeks at one point – and her players garnered several all-conference honors.

Agugua-Hamilton’s hiring was celebrated by Dawn Staley, Debbi Ryan, among others, but my favorite endorsement came from the aforementioned Tammi Reiss:

“I am thrilled to welcome Amaka to our Wahoo family. She is a proven winner! She is a tremendous coach, mentor and leader of young women. There is no doubt in my mind that she will restore the UVA Women’s Basketball program back to national prominence.”

At her introductory press conference, Coach Mox announced that she’s bringing her entire staff with her from Missouri State, so the transition should be a little easier on her.  She also let slip that her offense runs a continuity offense modeled after, among others, Tony Bennett’s blocker-mover.  She claims to prefer a fast tempo, so we’ll have to wait to see if there are other differences between the programs.

But from this oh-too-early vantage point, it seems like Carla Williams got it right.