Virginia women's basketball hires Richmond's Aaron Roussell as head coach
Virginia women's basketball hires Richmond's Aaron Roussell as head coach
Mitchell Northam, USA TODAY Tue, April 7, 2026 at 10:02 PM UTC
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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 evening. 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.
“Aaron is a proven winner who embodies the university’s values of integrity, leadership, academic excellence and student-athlete development," Virginia athletic director Carla Williams said in a statement.
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.
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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 has largely struggled since then, 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 have gone to three consecutive NCAA Tournaments.
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Richmond won a March Madness game last season, defeating Georgia Tech in the first round. This season, the Spiders were the only mid-major team to earn an at-large bid into the field of 68. Roussell went 148-72 at Richmond, winning two Atlantic 10 titles and twice earning conference coach of the year honors.
A graduate of Iowa, Roussell got his start in coaching in the midwest as an assistant at Division II Minnesota State before becoming the head coach at Division III University of Chicago. Roussell led the Maroons to three conference championships and four NCAA Tournament appearances in eight seasons.
He then made the jump to Division I in 2012 by taking over at Bucknell. Under Roussell’s guidance, the Bison won three Patriot League titles and went to a pair of NCAA Tournaments. He was twice named Patriot League Coach of the Year.
Roussell is one victory shy of 300 for his career as a Division I head coach, but also won 161 games at Chicago.
Virginia moved quickly on this search after firing Agugua-Hamilton on Saturday. Three people directly connected to the search told USA Today Sports that the Cavaliers had a conversation with Fairfield coach Carly Thibault-DuDonis, expressed interest in Kentucky’s Kenny Brooks and also internally considered Navy's Tim Taylor — who is a Charlottesville native and coached under Hall of Famer Debbie Ryan. Ultimately, athletic director Carla Williams, with the help of Parker Executive Search, narrowed their focus to Roussell who has won a whole lot of games just 70 miles southeast of Virginia’s campus. Despite bankrolling Agugua-Hamilton’s roster, the people familiar with the search said that Reddit founder and Virginia alum Alexis Ohanian was not directly involved with the search.
Roussell will be the fifth head coach in the history of the program and the first man to be the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Virginia. The Cavaliers have a proud history in the sport, as Ryan led the Cavaliers to a trio of Final Four appearances in the early 1990s with teams powered by Dawn Staley and Tammi Reiss.
“My family and I are beyond excited to lead the UVA Women’s Basketball program into a bright and prosperous future,” Roussell said. “We are well aware of the rich history and tradition of this program, and we look forward to putting the UVA program into the nation’s elite on a consistent basis.”
Virginia also owns 11 ACC titles, but hasn’t won one since 2000. It will be Roussell’s job to get them back to that championship status.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Virginia women's basketball hires Aaron Roussell as head coach
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