ATLANTIC COAST CONFERENCE WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP

March 1, 2023

Amaka Agugua-Hamilton

Camryn Taylor

Alexia Smith

Virginia Cavaliers

Postgame Press Conference

Wake Forest 68, Virginia 57

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: I'm disappointed. Obviously I don't think we fought like how we've been fighting all season. We've had a lot of adversity this year, had to overcome a lot. Only had seven available players today. And I don't believe in making excuses, so I think we should still be able to fight and play Virginia women's basketball. I don't think we did that today.

It's been a long season. I think our players need a break, mentally and physically. Coaches and coaching staff need a break. But to end the season 15-15 after just winning five games last season is definitely a success. But we'll be way better next year.

Q. Coach, the strategy on Spear, five or six different players on her, was that kind of going in with the man-to-man defense like that?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: Yeah, obviously she still scored a lot of points, so we didn't really execute the game plan, but yeah, that was the strategy. She's a prolific scorer. That kid can really get it going. Led the ACC last year in scoring and this year was top in the ACC as well. We wanted to make sure we cut the head off the snake, but then contain everybody else. We allowed too many points and didn't really execute our offense the way we should and the looks we needed to get. So that was the difference.

Q. Coach, you mentioned the big turnaround, 5 to 15 wins. Just curious, what was the toughest part of the season, and do you feel like you've accomplished what you wanted to do in year one here?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: I mean, we started to. Changing the culture is a big deal for me, and I think we changed it some, but it's not there, and it could take a couple years to get to the place I want it to be.

I'm proud that our players are in to keep fighting and persevere through adversity, because we could have quit a long time ago. We played a game this year -- like last game actually before this with six players. There's a lot of times that you could fold. I think they're learning that skill set.

Yeah, it was a rough year, and changing the mentality to a winning mentality and to never giving up and just showing up and being consistent is what I wanted to do. We got there at times, but we're not there yet, but we'll get there.

Q. Coach, obviously with yesterday Niele Ivey becoming the first Black woman to get ACC Coach of the Year, a season that started with the death of Charlene Curtis, but I wonder with the influx of -- I guess not on the rise because they've always been there, but seeing more Black women in these powerful possessions, what does it mean to you to be part of that legacy in the ACC?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: Yeah, first of all, congrats to her, she's a friend of nine, Niele. That's a huge accomplishment and she'll always be remembered for that, so that's awesome.

Second of all, it's just about opening doors and allowing others to continue to believe. When you see people that look like you, representation obviously matters in positions that you aspire to be, it just allows people to dream a little bit, allows people to believe, allows people to get opportunities.

The more successful we are in these positions, then the next up-and-coming coaches or whatever it is will get opportunities.

It's really important. It's something that I try to instill in our players, and that is being resilient, and it's also believing in yourself, having confidence. Because at the end of the day, women are at the bottom of the totem pole in this world and Black women are way further than that. You've got to be able to walk with that confidence and be empowered no matter what gets thrown in your direction.

If they can look at me every single day and see that I'm giving 100 percent and I'm trying to position them to be successful and to believe in themselves, then my job is working, I guess.

Q. What is one area that you think this team developed very well throughout the season from day one until now?

AMAKA AGUGUA-HAMILTON: I mean, I think at times, defense got better. At sometimes, offense got better. At times, certain players were very consistent. I think it was just kind of an up-and-down season.

Some of that is attributed to we had injuries, we had people in and out of the lineup. We have our freshman point guard, backup point guard that's home right now with a concussion, so that changed what we can do.

It's just hard. We'd find some consistency and then we might have somebody go out with injury and then we've got to regroup again.

I think just weathering the storm honestly. There's a lot of teams that would have folded, canceled games, things like that, and we were not going to do that throughout the course of the season, so that's probably what I would say.

CAMRYN TAYLOR: I agree with Coach. I think we've improved in a lot of areas. I think it's just more putting it together. Some nights we're good in the paint, some nights we're good outside, and some nights defensively where everything has come together, help side defense, things like that. I think we've just got to put it together for 40 minutes and be consistent with it every time.

Yeah, I feel like we had a lot of highlights this season. And I don't like moral wins, but we had a couple moral wins, too, and just potentially kind of see what we can do as a team moving forward, so yeah.

ALEXIA SMITH: Just same thing that Cam said. I feel like we had some spots where we was coming together like offensive and defensive-wise. Like she said, putting 40 minutes together of doing both of those things.

Q. Coach talked about wanting to see a little bit more effort but that you didn't come back several times today. Did you feel like you were one play away?

CAMRYN TAYLOR: Yeah, obviously that's obviously the mentality you want to have, but I think sometimes we have to learn how to not get in that hole in the first place. I feel like a lot of times this season we put ourselves in that situation and then we were like, okay, let's fight, let's fight, instead of starting from the beginning. And then we started punching in the beginning and then it kind of falls apart a little bit at the end. We just kind of have to find that middle ground of being consistent throughout the whole game.

ALEXIA SMITH: Well, our back was against the wall and we came out and started fighting, and it just wasn't enough. We've got to, like Cam said, not get ourselves in a predicament to where we have to fight and keep fighting and continuing to give effort all the time. We should start from the jump, continue to give effort and be fighting, regardless.