Amaka “Mox” Agugua-Hamilton was introduced as Missouri State’s eighth women’s basketball coach on April 17, 2019, and immediately led the Lady Bears to two of the best seasons in the program’s storied history.
Under Agugua-Hamilton, the Lady Bears were 74-15 overall and 46-6 in Missouri Valley Conference play with two MVC regular season titles, one NCAA Sweet Sixteen trip, and a combined 64 appearances in the USA Today Coaches and Associated Press polls. Individually, Coach Mox twice won MVC Coach of the Year honors, was the Women’s Basketball Coaches Association Spalding Maggie Dixon Rookie Coach of the Year in 2020, and one of 10 finalists for WBCA National Coach of the Year in 2021.
The Lady Bears went 26-4 overall in Agugua-Hamilton’s first season, setting a school record for regular-season victories and making Coach Mox one of 33 rookie head coaches in Division I history with at least 26 victories. She was the second first-year head coach in MVC history to be named Valley Coach of the Year, and the first to win an outright regular season title in their debut season.
Missouri State ended the shortened 2019-20 season ranked 19th by the coaches, 23rd by the AP, and eighth in the NCAA RPI, the highest finish ever for an MVC team in that metric. The Lady Bears spent nine weeks rated fourth or better in the RPI throughout the season, ascending to the No. 1 spot for seven consecutive days in January, and went 15-0 at JQH Arena for the school’s first perfect home season since 2003-04. Brice Calip, Jasmine Franklin and Alexa Willard earned first-team all-MVC recognition, while Calip added MVC Defensive Player of the Year honors. The Lady Bears ranked in the top 22 nationally in scoring offense, 3-point percentage, rebound margin, free throws, free throw percentage and won-lost percentage.
The Lady Bears built on that immense success in 2020-21, finish with a 23-3 record and advancing to the Sweet Sixteen for a second consecutive NCAA Tournament. MSU extended its ranking streak in the Coaches Poll to 35 consecutive appearances and finished 14th, the school’s highest ranking since 2001. Missouri State matched the program’s best-ever NCAA Tournament seed with a No. 5, defeating UC Davis and Wright State in the Big Dance before falling to No. 1 overall seed Stanford in the Sweet 16 to end a 19-game win streak.
Calip and Franklin repeated as first-team all-conference selections, while Calip was the league’s Player of the Year and Franklin earned Defensive Player of the Year honors. The Lady Bears set a school record for rebound margin on the season at plus-10.8 and allowed 57.2 points per game, the second-best figure in program history. Missouri State also posted the first perfect conference (16-0) and road (11-0) records in school history.
In Agugua-Hamilton’s final season at the helm of the Lady Bears, she led MSU to a third consecutive 20-win season, going 25-8 on the year and guiding the squad to the program’s 17
th appearance in the NCAA Tournament. The Lady Bears defeated Florida State in the First Four round of the NCAA Tournament before eventually falling to Ohio State in the first round. Agugua-Hamilton helped lead the Lady Bears to a 36-2 home record in three seasons, while winning their home games by an average score of 73.4-54.0 and owning a plus-11.4 rebound margin in front of the home crowd.
In 2021-22, with a victory against Valparaiso, Agugua-Hamilton became just the fourth head coach in Division I history to reach 60 victories in less than 70 games to begin their careers at the Division I level (Leon Barmore – Louisiana Tech, 64 games), (Pokey Chatman – LSU, 65 games), (Kurt Budke – Louisiana Tech, 65 games) and (Amaka Agugua-Hamilton – Missouri State, 69 games).
Calip and Abi Jackson received first-team all-conference honors, as Calip was named the MVC’s Defensive Player of the Year for the second time in her career and became just the fifth player in league history to win the award multiple times. Jackson was also named the MVC Most Improved Player and earned a spot on the MVC All-Tournament Team.
The first African-American female head coach for any sport at Missouri State, Agugua-Hamilton is a 20-year veteran of Division I women’s basketball, including four seasons as a player at Hofstra and four coaching stops prior to Missouri State, most recently on the staff Michigan State for the past six seasons, the last four as Associate Head Coach.
During an impressive six-year stint at Michigan State, Coach Mox helped the Spartans to four seasons with at least 21 wins, four NCAA Tournaments, one WNIT bid, and the 2014 Big Ten regular season title. She was integral in signing four consecutive top-35 recruiting classes, most recently the seventh-ranked group in the nation, and recruited and coached 26 all-conference players and a pair of top-10 WNBA draft choices. She also earned four victories as interim head coach in 2017, and aided the Spartans to an overall 125-72 record and 58-44 Big Ten mark in six years.
A native of Herndon, Va., Agugua-Hamilton is a 2005 graduate of Hofstra University, where she averaged 10.2 points and 6.0 rebounds over a 95-game career. She is the Pride’s career field goal percentage leader at .551, and graduated with the top three single-season field goal percentage marks in school history. A four-year team captain, she was a second-team all-Colonial Athletic Association pick in 2004, and helped Hofstra to a WNIT berth in 2006, the school’s first ever postseason appearance.
Prior to Michigan State, Agugua-Hamilton was the top assistant and recruiting coordinator at Old Dominion for two seasons, helping the Monarchs to an eight-win improvement and WNIT berth her second year in 2012-13. She recruited and coached eight all-CAA selections and one WNBA draft pick while at ODU.
Before her time at ODU, Agugua-Hamilton worked at Indiana for two seasons (2009-11) as an assistant coach and recruiting coordinator, and at Virginia Commonwealth for three years, as a graduate assistant (2006-07) and assistant coach (2007-09). Coach Mox helped VCU to a pair of 26-win seasons and the school’s first NCAA Tournament appearance during her two years as a full-time assistant. She earned her bachelor’s degree in business management from Hofstra in 2005 and received her master’s degree in sports leadership and administration from VCU in 2007.
Agugua-Hamilton married Billy Hamilton in 2017. The couple has a son, Eze, born in April 2018.
| Coach Mox's Year-by-Year Record |
| Head Coaching Record: 74-15, 46-6 MVC | Two MVC Regular Season Titles | Two NCAA Tournament |
| Year |
School |
Position |
Record |
Postseason |
| 2001-02 |
Hofstra |
Player - Injured |
9-19 |
- |
| 2002-03 |
Hofstra |
Player |
8-21 |
- |
| 2003-04 |
Hofstra |
Player |
14-14 |
- |
| 2004-05 |
Hofstra |
Player - Injured |
13-16 |
- |
| 2005-06 |
Hofstra |
Player |
19-12 |
WNIT Second Round |
| 2006-07 |
Virginia Commonwealth |
Graduate Assistant |
17-13 |
- |
| 2007-08 |
Virginia Commonwealth |
Assistant Coach |
26-8 |
WNIT Second Round |
| 2008-09 |
Virginia Commonwealth |
Assistant Coach |
26-7 |
NCAA First Round |
| 2009-10 |
Indiana |
Assistant Coach |
14-16 |
- |
| 2010-11 |
Indiana |
Assistant Coach |
9-20 |
- |
| 2011-12 |
Old Dominion |
Assistant Coach |
11-20 |
- |
| 2012-13 |
Old Dominion |
Assistant Coach |
19-12 |
WNIT First Round |
| 2013-14 |
Michigan State |
Assistant Coach |
25-10 |
NCAA Second Round |
| 2014-15 |
Michigan State |
Assistant Coach |
17-14 |
- |
| 2015-16 |
Michigan State |
Associate Head Coach |
25-9 |
NCAA Second Round |
| 2016-17 |
Michigan State |
Associate Head Coach |
19-14 |
NCAA First Round |
| 2017-18 |
Michigan State |
Associate Head Coach |
18-15 |
WNIT Third Round |
| 2018-19 |
Michigan State |
Associate Head Coach |
21-12 |
NCAA Second Round |
| 2019-20 |
Missouri State |
Head Coach |
26-4 |
MVC Regular Season Champions |
| 2020-21 |
Missouri State |
Head Coach |
23-3 |
NCAA Sweet Sixteen |
| 2021-22 |
Missouri State |
Head Coach |
25-8 |
NCAA First Round |
