How Dawn Staley Helped Kymora Johnson Choose Virginia Over South Carolina / sportsearchers.com

Kymora Johnson faced one of the harder phone calls of her college career after deciding to withdraw from the transfer portal and stay at Virginia — because the next call she had to make was to Dawn Staley. Just five minutes after telling new Virginia coach Aaron Roussell she’d remain a Cavalier, Staley called her directly.

What Staley said next surprised her. Rather than continuing to recruit her, Staley told Johnson, “You know Mo, we really want you here. But I think you should stay at Virginia, and I think you know that.” Johnson described the emotional weight of that moment: “That really made me feel some type of way. Because it’s Dawn Staley telling me that she wants me to stay at the school that I’m trying to leave, so that was really special. I think that spoke highly of her and what she thought of this place, obviously. It just validated my decision. I definitely shed a tear. I couldn’t believe it. I was in shock, because it was hard.”

Johnson’s journey to that decision started after a historic Virginia season unraveled abruptly. The Cavaliers made a stunning run from the First Four to the Sweet 16 — the program’s first trip to the second weekend of March Madness in 26 years — behind Johnson’s averages of 19.5 points and 5.9 assists per game. But a week after that Sweet 16 loss, head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton was fired amid an internal investigation into allegations of staff mistreatment. Two days later, Johnson entered the transfer portal.

Johnson explained her reasoning for testing the market: “For me, going into the portal was mainly just because there was no coach at Virginia. I wasn’t really sure what the future held for Virginia or for myself, so I wanted to exhaust all options and I think I did that. In hindsight, I think it was going to be either South Carolina or Virginia, but I just wanted to reach out and get everyone’s perspective and hear what they had to say.”

Enter Roussell, who left a family vacation in Jamaica early to fly back and meet Johnson face-to-face before she visited South Carolina. He described his pitch as low-pressure: “He just sat down and showed me his vision and didn’t put too much on my shoulders. I really respected and appreciated that,” Johnson said. Roussell’s own account matched that approach: “I just tried to get to know her. We really just sat there, we watched some film, broke down our ideas for player development of what she could be. If you wanted to stay here, what would you need from this? How can we make you better?”

Still, Johnson followed through on her South Carolina visit, drawn by Staley’s legacy and a clear path to a starring role on a roster that had just lost Raven Johnson and Ta’Niya Latson to the WNBA draft. She described the experience as impressive but ultimately not enough to change her mind: “It was everything you would expect of a high-caliber program. I had a great time down there and it was really hard to come back and make that decision, but I knew I had to. I wanted to come back home and really take my time to think about it.”

Ultimately, the pull of home won out. Johnson explained her thinking on the transfer portal broadly and her own path within it: “I have mixed feelings about the portal, because I know some people just get in for the money. I heard from everyone. Virginia is home for me and I’ve had a great experience here, off the court, on the court, so there wasn’t really anything wrong with Virginia. Even deciding to stay at Virginia, I know that I’ll have a connection with (Staley) for a while, so that was really inspiring, and I’m really grateful for that.” She also credited Roussell’s development-focused approach as a real factor: “The biggest thing that stuck out to me when I spoke to him was the player development. He literally breaks everything down to the fine details… I think he just wants me to be free, have fun, and I think he’s really excited to see me play in space.”

The retention was celebrated well beyond Charlottesville. ACC senior vice president of women’s basketball Jackie Carson said plainly, “Oh, we cheered for that. Those are the things that hurt me, when we lose great talent to other conferences. Being able to retain a player like Kymora not only speaks for what ACC women’s basketball looks like, it also speaks volumes to Aaron and his staff.” North Carolina coach Courtney Banghart echoed similar sentiment: “I can’t imagine her leaving there. I think she had every choice in the country, but that’s where your home is, where your legacy is… Her legacy at the University of Virginia will be something that’s very unique and she’s earned it.”

With Johnson’s decision finalized, Roussell also retained several other key returners and added multiple transfers and international signees to bolster the roster ahead of Virginia’s season opener on November 2. For Johnson, the choice to stay ultimately came down to something deeper than basketball: “I can’t even truly put it into words. It’s actually home. I can literally walk to the house that I grew up in from the grounds. It’s different. It means so much, having my family in the stands and the community behind me that watched me grow up.”