Missouri State’s Amaka Agugua-Hamilton is uniquely prepared to be a first-year head coach
On Nov. 5, Missouri State head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton notched her first win in impressive fashion, as the Lady Bears never trailed in a 77–69 victory over then-No. 23 Minnesota. That matchup would be a daunting season-opener for most mid-major programs, especially ones with new head coaches. But Missouri State and Agugua-Hamilton had several reasons to be confident.
First, Missouri State returns 12 of 13 players from a 2018–19 team that won the Missouri Valley Conference Tournament and beat DePaul and Iowa State en route to the Sweet Sixteen. That gives the Lady Bears a roster full of players who not only are not intimidated by, but also have beaten, Power 5 programs. Second, it didn’t hurt that Agugua-Hamilton came to Missouri State from Michigan State, a conference rival of Minnesota’s, giving her ample experience to draw on for the scouting report. And third, Agugua-Hamilton got months to prepare for her first game with Missouri State — a luxury compared to the seconds she got to prepare for her first-ever game as a head coach.
“I think my situation is a little different than any other … first-time head coach,” Agugua-Hamilton told Her Hoop Stats, “because I was an interim head coach in the Big Ten. And the way that that happened was in the middle of a game and I just had to assume all roles as a head coach.” It was Jan. 1, 2017, and early in the fourth quarter against Illinois, Michigan State head coach Suzy Merchant fainted on the sideline. Agugua-Hamilton, then the team’s associate head coach, had to take the reins immediately and wound up leading the Spartans for seven more games that season while Merchant recovered. “Doing that without any preparation, getting kind of thrown into the fire, helped me and it prepared me for this job,” Agugua-Hamilton said.
Besides her stint as interim head coach, Agugua-Hamilton had 13 seasons of coaching experience before accepting the job at Missouri State and had felt ready to be a head coach for a while. But she decided to wait to take that next step until after she had her first child, Eze, with husband Billy Hamilton in 2018. After the 2018–19 season, five schools reached out. Missouri State was the fifth, and “I just knew it was the right fit,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “… I think it lines up with everything I want and need to be successful.”
During the interview with Her Hoop Stats, Agugua-Hamilton said several times that she feels “blessed” to be the coach at Missouri State. She described her players as “good people, high-character kids” with a lot of talent. By her own estimation, Agugua-Hamilton’s “high-energy” and “loud” coaching style was a big adjustment for them, but she was excited about how they had embraced her vision for the team both on and off the court. “As a head coach, you have to be comfortable in what you’re teaching, what environment you’re creating, the relationships you’re cultivating,” Agugua-Hamilton explained. “… You can’t be anybody but yourself — at least, that’s my philosophy. So I came in and instilled my program … this is what we’re going to do. This is who we are. This is what Lady Bear basketball is from this point on.” On the court, that means up-tempo basketball that takes advantage of her players’ athleticism and versatility. And off the court, Agugua-Hamilton has emphasized “F.A.B.” — “family, academics, basketball,” in that order of priority — since being introduced as head coach.
To some, it might look like last year’s Sweet Sixteen run is the elephant in the room, setting an unrealistically high bar for future success. However, Agugua-Hamilton said she does not shy away from discussing it. It does not come up often because she wants her team to focus on the current season, but when it does, she frames it as a building block rather than a source of pressure: “We recognize where our talent can take us and we set new goals for ourselves.” Those goals include improving on last season’s 1–7 record in non-conference play, which the Lady Bears have already achieved by starting the season 4–0. (Their fifth game on Nov. 17 was a close loss on the road to then-No. 7 Oregon State, a strong performance that did nothing to temper expectations.)
The fast start has been a product of efficient offense and strong defensive positioning. Through its first four games, Missouri State ranked 17th nationally in field goal percentage (50.0%), 10th in 3-point shooting percentage (46.7%), and 18th in points per scoring attempt (1.19). The Lady Bears also ranked 14th in defensive rebounding rate and 40th in (fewest) fouls committed per game. Those numbers dipped slightly after the loss to Oregon State, and turnovers have been a problem (18.4 per game through five games compared to 14.2 last season), but overall, Missouri State seems to have picked up right where it left off last season.
That’s good news for Agugua-Hamilton, who has set lofty long-term goals for the program that even last year’s team did not achieve. “In my tenure here, my ultimate goal is to make it back to the Final Four, and hopefully surpass that,” she stated. While onlookers may be skeptical that a mid-major can achieve such heights, Agugua-Hamilton disagrees. “There’s so many things that [have] to happen before that … so I’m not really focused on that main goal,” she said. “But I do think it’s a feasible goal. … We’ve been there before, here at Missouri State, and I believe that we can get back.” The Lady Bears have made the Final Four twice in program history, in 1992 and 2001, and 2019 was their fourth Sweet Sixteen berth in 15 NCAA Tournament appearances.
As Agugua-Hamilton has molded Missouri State to fit her vision, she said that there have been stressful moments, but she has felt prepared for everything that has come her way. “There’s been many decisions I’ve had to make,” she reflected. “There’s been some adversity here and there. There’s been way more ups than downs. And I know that the future holds a lot of different emotions and adversity and everything. But so far … there hasn’t been anything that has completely surprised me yet.”
Agugua-Hamilton’s fourth win with the Lady Bears, over Oklahoma on Nov. 14, equaled the number she earned in Merchant’s stead at Michigan State. Her ability to get that win, and likely many more, is a product of the coaching education she received in her 13 previous seasons. Although Agugua-Hamilton could have found success as a head coach sooner, her path now makes her one of the most experienced first-year head coaches in the country. It remains to be seen whether that results in a return trip to the Sweet Sixteen, but the early returns make Agugua-Hamilton’s hire look like a sweet pickup for Missouri State.
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