Virginia women's basketball hires Richmond's Aaron Roussell as head coach

Virginia didn’t have to look far for its next women’s basketball coach. Aaron Roussell will be the next head coach at Virginia, the school announced Tuesday afternoon . For the last seven years, Roussell has been the head coach at Richmond, turning the Spiders into a mid-major power.

Now, Roussell will test out his winning formula in the ACC. He inherits a program that just went to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000, but one that lost its last head coach to murky circumstances. Virginia announced on Saturday morning that it had fired Amaka Agugua-Hamilton, and a USA TODAY Sports report later revealed that she was subject to an internal investigation and there were allegations of staff mistreatment.

Powered by Kymora Johnson — who is now in the transfer portal — Virginia became the first team since the Women’s NCAA Tournament expanded to 68 teams in 2022 to advance to the second weekend of March Madness after starting in the First Four. The Cavaliers defeated Arizona State, Georgia and Iowa before falling to TCU in the Sweet 16. Agugua-Hamilton went 70-58 overall and 29-42 in ACC play.

This season marked Virginia’s first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018, when it made the second round in Joanne Boyle’s final season at the helm. While Virginia had largely struggled through the tenure of Tina Thompson and Agugua-Hamilton’s early years, Roussell was building Richmond into one of the best mid-major programs in the country. The Spiders — steered on the court by likely future WNBA draft pick Maggie Doogan — won at least 20 games in each of the past four seasons and went to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.