Virginia Women's Basketball: Breaking Down UVA's Offseason Roster Changes

Matt Newton | Jul 20, 2024

Atlantic Coast Conference

Though her team is returning several key contributors from a season ago, Amaka Agugua-Hamilton entered the offseason with some serious work to do to reinforce her Virginia women's basketball roster. With a total of seven players departing from the program at the end of the season, Coach Mox turned to both the transfer portal and the high school recruiting trail to fill out her roster.

Some of the departures were expected, like Camryn Taylor, Sam Brunelle, and London Clarkson, who each exhausted their collegiate eligibility. The others came with varying levels of surprise, as Mir McLean, Kaydan Lawson, Alexia Smith, and Cady Pauley each entered the transfer portal.

UVA only had one player signed to its 2024 recruiting class at the end of the season, as four-star forward Breona Hurd (Waynesville, MO) represented the lone expected addition to next year's Cavalier roster just a few months ago.

Now, after a recruiting spree over the last several weeks, Coach Mox and her staff have increased that number to seven total newcomers to the 2024-2025 roster to replace the seven departed scholarship players.

Virginia picked up transfer commitments from North Carolina's RyLee Grays, Maryland's Hawa Doumbouya, Long Beach State's Casey Valenti-Paea, and Miami's Latasha Lattimore and then added two high school school commitments from class of 2025 recruits who then reclassified to the class of 2024 - Kamryn Kitchen (Charlotte, NC) and Payton Dunbar (Narrows, VA), who signed with the Cavaliers on Thursday.

See below for a full breakdown of Virginia's offseason roster changes:

Departures
Camryn Taylor (14.8 ppg) - graduated
London Clarkson (6.4 ppg) - graduated
Sam Brunelle (6.2 ppg) - graduated
Mir McLean (12.2 ppg in 2022-2023) - transferred to Maryland
Alexia Smith (4.1 ppg) - transferred to Oklahoma State
Cady Pauley (2.9 ppg) - transferred to Missouri State
Kaydan Lawson (2.1 ppg) - transferred to Seton Hall

Returners
Kymora Johnson (15.3 ppg)
Paris Clark (9.9 ppg)
Jillian Brown (5.7 ppg)
Olivia McGhee (5.5 ppg)
Yonta Vaughn (5.0 ppg)
Edessa Noyan (2.9 ppg)
Taylor Lauterbach (1.2 ppg)

Additions
Casey Valenti-Paea (9.4 ppg) - transfer from Long Beach State
Latasha Lattimore (5.6 ppg) - transfer from Miami
Hawa Doumbouya (2.1 ppg) - transfer from Maryland
RyLee Grays (1.4 ppg) - transfer from North Carolina
Breona Hurd (incoming freshman)
Kamryn Kitchen (incoming freshman)
Payton Dunbar (incoming freshman)