ACC Tipoff: Full UVA Women’s Basketball Roster a “Blessing” for Tina Thompson

Virginia women’s basketball head coach Tina Thompson says the versatility on this year’s roster is a “luxury” she had not had in her time in Charlottesville.

Matt Newton | Oct 14, 2021

As Tina Thompson enters her fourth season as head coach of the Virginia women’s basketball program, her excitement about having a complete roster for essentially the first time was very visible at the ACC Tipoff in Charlotte.

“We have a full roster, so that is like “woo-hoo!” Thompson exclaimed at ACC Media Day on Wednesday. “That’s a blessing in itself.”

Thompson’s first three seasons at UVA have been nothing short of tumultuous. After taking over for Joanne Boyle in 2018, Thompson’s first teams were severely depleted by injuries and other issues which limited the size of the roster. For most of the 2018-19 and 2019-20 seasons, Thompson used lineups featuring just seven players in the rotation. The Hoos went 12-19 overall and 5-11 in the ACC in Thompson’s first year and then improved to 13-17 and 8-10 in ACC play in 2020.

Any semblance of momentum that Virginia was able to build through those two seasons was completely destroyed by Covid complications in the 2020-2021 season. The Cavaliers played just five games, losing all five, before cancelling the rest of the season “due to health and safety concerns.” Virginia, which was already down a number of players due to injuries, faced substantial issues trying to carry out its regular schedule of practice and competition.

“The decision to end our season mid-stream comes with great difficulty. As difficult as it is to end our season in this manner, it is a necessary one. The health and safety of our student-athletes will always be the number one priority.”

In the extended offseason, Tina Thompson went to work in the transfer portal, securing commitments from five key transfers: junior guard Corina Carter (New Mexico), junior guard Taylor Valladay (Marquette), junior forward Camryn Taylor (Marquette), graduate forward Eleah Parker (Penn), and graduate guard McKenna Dale (Brown).

“We were very intentional about the players that we picked. We needed maturity and we needed specific things based on what we already had,” Thompson said of the incoming transfers. “In getting Eleah Parker, [we got] size and her finesse around the basket; her being a shot blocker and being able to seal up the paint a lot. McKenna Dale being a shooter, like lights-out shooter - we needed that to be able to create space for our forwards like London (Clarkson) and Camryn (Taylor).”

“There were elements that we needed to add, but also as a coach that I just wanted because it allows us to be able to compete at the level necessary to be competitive in the ACC,” Thompson continued.

Beyond the specific needs that were addressed by the additions of these transfers, the bigger impact is felt in terms of the depth on the UVA bench.

“That just gives us versatility, but that allows our players to play in their true positions,” Thompson said. “When we were limited in roster, [Amandine Toi] was playing about four, or for sure a solid three positions. But now, just having true point guards, us having bigs that can play with their backs to the basket and finish and also face up. It gives us a level of versatility that we didn’t have. I could actually look down the bench and see faces and have to make a decision on who I am going to put in based on the moment in the game. And that’s just a luxury we didn’t have.”

Looking for their first NCAA Tournament appearance since 2018, the Hoos will put their new-look roster on display in their first game of the season at James Madison on Tuesday, November 9th.

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