Virginia fires women's basketball coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton after making 1st Sweet 16 since 2000

Virginia fired Amaka Agugua-Hamilton as head coach of the women's basketball program on Saturday.

NCAA Virginia TCU Basketball

Agugua-Hamilton led the Cavaliers to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2000. She went 70-58, including a 29-42 mark in ACC play.

Virginia became the first double-digit seed to reach the regional semifinals since 2022 and pulled off the upset of the tournament,knocking off No. 2 seed Iowaon the road in double overtime in the second round.

They became the first First Four team to advance this farbefore falling to TCU.

"I thought we had some really good moments in that game," Agugua-Hamilton said after that loss. "But the third quarter got away from us. ... We came up short, but that doesn't take away from our season or the growth we've had with our program."

Advertisement

South Carolina coach Dawn Staley, who starred at Virginia as a player, said she had just heard about the coaching change.

"I did reach out to our athletic director at Virginia and she just told me they did part ways. I don't know why. We'll talk," Staley said. "I did reach out to coach Mox to check on her. I didn't have time to have a conversation with her. I don't know what went wrong. She had them on the right track."

Staley said she hopes Virginia gets it together.

"We got a deeply rich tradition at UVA on this stage and we hope to get our team back there one day sooner than later," Staley said of her alma mater.

AP March Madness bracket:https://apnews.com/hub/ncaa-womens-bracketand coverage:https://apnews.com/hub/march-madness

byMario Satorik

in

April 04, 2026

Virginia fires women's basketball coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton after making 1st Sweet 16 since 2000

Virginia fired Amaka Agugua-Hamilton as head coach of the women's basketball program on Saturday. NCAA V...

Read More

Chappell Roan's 'Pink Pony Club' cuts out in Artemis II wakeup call

Chappell Roan's music has reached new highs.

While the "Hot To Go!" singer may not have flown to space likeKaty Perrydid last year, her hit track "Pink Pony Club" has made its way onto theArtemis II mission around the moonas an alarm sound to the crew on Saturday, April 4.

DuringNASA's Saturday livestream of the lunar mission, flight controllers used Roan's 2023 pop anthem to wake up the astronauts aboard the Orion spacecraft. However, to their disappointment, the track was cut just a minute in.

"We were all eagerly awaiting the chorus," Commander Reid Wiseman said, prompting laughter heard in the livestream.

The Capsule Communicator is heard replying and promising to "try again next time" before wishing the team a good morning and giving the rundown for the day.

Wiseman is one of four astronauts who left Earth's orbit April 2 on a historic mission to see parts of the moon that nobody has ever seen before. During a roughly six-hour window on April 6, the team will see the far side of the moon not viewable from Earth. The sun, moon and the Orion spacecraft will be aligned, allowing them to view about 20% of the far side of the moon, lit by the sun, according to NASA.

Advertisement

The crew also consists of Victor Glover, and Christina Koch, and Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen, who lifted off from a launch pad at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 6:35 p.m. EDT on April 1.

Artemis II tracker. Follow moon mission in real time

NASA spaceplay comes afterChappell Roanfaced backlash

Chappell Roan's cultural impact around the world, and in space, remains intact after she faced scrutiny for an incident involving a bodyguard and soccer starJorginho Frello.

On March 21, Frello accused Roan's security of making his 11-year-old daughter cry when she encountered the singer at a hotel in Brazil. Bodyguard Pascal Duvier later clarified that he was not part of Roan's team and said he takes "full responsibility" for what occurred in a March 25Instagram post.

The Grammy-winning musician, who was in the country to perform at Lollapalooza Brazil, posted a video on March 22 of her explaining that the guard was "not my personal security" and that she "didn't even see a woman and a child."

"I did not ask the security guard to go up and talk to this mother and child," she said. "They did not come up to me. They weren't doing anything. It's unfair for security to just assume someone doesn't have good intentions, when they have no reason to believe, because there's no action even taken."

Contributing: Brendan Morrow, USA TODAY

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY:Chappell Roan's 'Pink Pony Club' wakes up Artemis II crew: Watch

byMario Satorik

in

April 04, 2026

Chappell Roan's 'Pink Pony Club' cuts out in Artemis II wakeup call

Chappell Roan's music has reached new highs. While the "Hot To Go!" singer may not h...

Read More

Freeman, Pages lead another offensive barrage by the Dodgers in a 10-5 win over Washington

WASHINGTON (AP) — Freddie Freeman hit two-run doubles in the first and second innings and Andy Pages added a three-run homer in the fifth to help the Los Angeles Dodgers to a 10-5 rout of the Washington Nationals on Saturday.

Dodgers Nationals Baseball

Pages went 3 for 5 to raise his average to .500 (15 for 30) on the young season. The Dodgers have scored 23 runs on 32 hits in the first two games of this series despite losing Mookie Bettsin the first inningSaturday because of lower back pain.

Tyler Glasnow (1-0) allowed two runs and four hits in six innings. He struck out nine with two walks.

Jake Irvin (1-1) allowed six runs and eight hits in four innings.

CJ Abrams homered for the Nationals.

Miguel Rojas, who replaced Betts at shortstop before the bottom of the first, hit a sacrifice fly in the second to make it 3-0. Then Freeman hit his second double of the game.

The Dodgers used the Automated Ball-Strike System to score another run in the third. Alex Call successfully challenged a called third strike with two outs, then hit an RBI single.

Advertisement

Luis García Jr. got Washington on the board with an RBI triple in the third, and Curtis Mead doubled home a run in the fourth, but Pages connected off reliever Brad Lord to make it 9-2.

Kyle Tucker hit an RBI single in the seventh for the final Los Angeles run.

Will Smith had three hits for the Dodgers and Shohei Ohtani had two.

Garcia finished a homer shy of the cycle for Washington, and Abrams hit a two-run shot in the eighth.

Up next

The Dodgers try for a sweep Sunday, sending Roki Sasaki (0-0) to the mound against Foster Griffin (1-0).

AP MLB:https://apnews.com/hub/mlb

byMario Satorik

in

April 04, 2026

Freeman, Pages lead another offensive barrage by the Dodgers in a 10-5 win over Washington

WASHINGTON (AP) — Freddie Freeman hit two-run doubles in the first and second innings and Andy Pages added a three-run h...

Read More