Minnesota Guard Alexia Smith Transfers to UVA Women's Basketball

Coach Mox continues her hot streak of recruiting with a second major conference commitment from the transfer portal

Coach Mox is on a roll. 

Minnesota sophomore guard Alexia Smith announced her decision to transfer to the Virginia women's basketball program in a social media post on Wednesday night. 

A 5'8" guard from Columbus, Ohio, Smith appeared in 33 games last season, including one start, and averaged 3.4 points, 2.0 rebounds, and 1.3 assists in just over 16 minutes played per game. As a freshman in 2020-2021, Smith played in 19 games with 12 starts and averaged 4.8 points, 2.7 rebounds, and 1.6 assists. 

Smith was a former ESPN five-star prospect coming out of high school. She was rated the No. 46 overall player in the class of 2020 and the No. 15-ranked guard in the nation. Smith won two state championships in her high school career. 

Smith is the second major conference player to transfer into the UVA women's basketball program since Amaka Agugua-Hamilton was officially hired as Virginia's head coach last month. On April 9th, Coach Mox landed a key commitment from Notre Dame transfer Samantha Brunelle, the former No. 1 overall high school recruit in the class of 2019 and a Virginia native.

A few days later, Coach Mox picked up her first high school commitment from Cady Pauley, who averaged 33 points per game last season and scored over 3,000 points in her high school career in Missouri. 

On Monday, Virginia signed another incoming freshman in Yonta Vaughn, the No. 15-ranked point guard in the class of 2022 out of Bishop McNamara High School in Maryland. 

With the commitment of Alexia Smith, Coach Mox has now brought in four talented players in the last month to supplement the UVA roster in her first season leading the Cavaliers. Virginia also returns multiple starters from last year's team, including UConn transfer Mir McLean, who was the No. 25-ranked high school recruit in her class and a McDonald's All-American in 2020. 

There's only so much that can be accomplished outside of winning games when basketball season comes back around, but so far, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton is proving that she was a great choice to lead the Virginia women's basketball program. 


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Matt Newton
MATT NEWTON

Matt launched Virginia Cavaliers On SI in August of 2021 and has since served as the site's publisher and managing editor, covering all 23 NCAA Division I sports teams at the University of Virginia. He is from Downingtown, Pennsylvania and graduated from UVA in May of 2021.