Playing career plagued by injury led MSU's Amaka Agugua to bench
Amaka "Mox" Agugua remembers the days when she could soar.
There were instances early in her basketball playing days in Virginia where Agugua can remember throwing down dunks, hanging on eight-foot rims with two hands and doing other athletic things on the court that impressed her peers.
It was those skills that fueled professional basketball aspirations for Agugua.
Injuries eventually took their toll and altered Agugua's basketball path. Six knee surgeries, a partially torn rotator cuff and stress fractures in her foot were among the various ailments that kept Agugua off the court and took away some of that athleticism.
And it was after blowing out her knee during her senior season at Hofstra University that Agugua began being exposed to the other side of basketball.
Then Hofstra coach Felisha Legette-Jack made Agugua into an undergraduate coach. She was given a clipboard to chart things in games and started looking at basketball from a coaching perspective.
"I just saw how my teammates responded to me," Agugua said. "Even if I just told them something small like a post move and they actually did it, it kind of brought some gratitude that I actually helped them. That kind of inspired me. I was like, 'OK, this is maybe a path I would like to take."
That experience has been a key part of a journey that has led the 33-year old Agugua to East Lansing, where she has been elevated to interim coach for the Michigan State women's basketball program until coach Suzy Merchant returns from her health issues.
Agugua, who will handle coaching duties for a second straight contest and third game overall when MSU faces Purdue on Sunday, has learned plenty since joining Merchant's staff in 2013. And those lessons Agugua believes have prepared her well to lead the Spartans.
"She's given me a lot of leeway in practices and games to voice my opinion and talk to the kids and talk to her," Agugua said. "She's really prepared me for this moment that I'm in now by giving me the associate head coach title. The administration believing in me - that helped too. Just the responsibilities and duties she allocated towards me just to help prepare me (has been great) because she always said you're going to be a great head coach. I think she just wanted to do her part in helping me get there."
Merchant elevated her to the program's associate head coach in 2015. Agugua, who has previous coaching stops at Virginia Commonwealth, Indiana and Old Dominion, was grateful for that opportunity and has tried to step up even more and make the most of the promotion.
And Agugua finds herself doing the same again as she's filling in for Merchant, who will be a bridesmaid in her wedding and has become more than just a co-worker.
"Things have changed a lot for me," said Agugua of the last few days. "I've always, with Suzy, been involved in the planning for games and for practices so that part isn't as drastic of a change besides the fact that she's not here. Being that main voice in practice rather than the complementary voice has been a change, but it's not been a change that has thrown me off.
"It's something that I've definitely embraced and they kids have embraced. It's something different. Coach Merchant has been here every day for the last 10 years basically so it's definitely something that the kids need to get adjusted to."
Contact Brian Calloway at bcalloway@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @brian_calloway.
SUNDAY'S GAME
Purdue (12-8, 3-3 Big Ten) at MSU (13-6, 3-3)
When: 5 p.m.
Where: Breslin Center (East Lansing)
TV: Big Ten Network