Hoos Grateful for Ohanian's Support

By Jeff White (jwhite@virginia.edu)
VirginiaSports.com

CHARLOTTESVILLE, Va. — A festive crowd of 5,203 flocked to John Paul Jones Arena for a women’s basketball matinee Sunday, and among those cheering on the home team was University of Virginia alumnus Alexis Ohanian. Sitting courtside in a UVA jersey, the Reddit co-founder savored the atmosphere as his alma mater battled No. 14 Duke in an ACC game.

“You’re feeling the energy. Loud, excited arena,” Ohanian said at a postgame media gathering on the court at JPJ.

A 2005 graduate of the McIntire School of Commerce, Ohanian envisioned such moments when, in the fall, he made the largest gift in the history of Cavalier women’s basketball.

“UVA women’s basketball has such an amazing legacy, and it’s just awesome to be able to honor that and see a bunch of Hoos get really excited for these ladies,” Ohanian said. “So the sky’s the limit, and the reason I know that is because this legacy of greatness is already here. We’ve already got the banners to prove it and we’re just bringing some of the hype back.”

For more than three quarters Sunday, it appeared the Cavaliers might secure the biggest win of their third season under head coach Amaka Agugua-Hamilton. UVA led by nine at the half and by four after three quarters. After Duke tied the game at 46-46 early in the final period, Virginia answered with four straight points.

From there, though, the Blue Devils seized control, thanks in part to a full-court press that rattled the Wahoos, who turned the ball over six times in the fourth quarter. An 11-0 run put Duke up 57-50 with 2:29 to play. That seemed to be a commanding lead, but Virginia rallied behind Kymora Johnson.

First, the sophomore guard hit a 3-pointer. Then, after a Duke miss, Johnson tossed a long pass to junior guard Paris Clark, whose layup made it 57-55 with 1:24 left. Finally, Johnson forced a jump ball that gave possession back to the Hoos with 51.2 seconds to play.

After a UVA timeout, the ball came to sophomore forward Edessa Noyan, whose 3-point attempt was off the mark. The Blue Devils made a trey on their next possession and escaped with a 60-55 win.

“Obviously, hard pill to swallow,” Agugua-Hamilton said. “I thought we competed. We fought. Really proud of our fight. If that’s the No. 14 team in the country, we’re not far away from that.”

Ohanian spoke to the Cavaliers after the game. His message?

“It’s a bad feeling to lose, but this is where the growth comes from,” Ohanian said, “and it’s OK that it feels bad. It probably should, because that means you’re a competitor and you want to win. But I have so much faith in this program, in Coach Mox, in these athletes. I’m so proud of them, and that’s all you can ask for. So this is a resilient team. I’m not worried, and when we’re hanging a banner in the next few years, all [the fans at JPJ] will get to say, ‘Yeah, we were right. We believed.’ ”

Ohanian and his wife, tennis legend Serena Williams, have two daughters, Olympia and Adira. He’s become a passionate supporter of women’s sports, but as a UVA undergraduate he “did not see a women’s basketball game here,” Ohanian said. “That was on me. That was my loss.”

He accepted a friend’s invitation to attend the Cavaliers’ Nov. 4 season opener—a 104-68 win over American at JPJ—and fell hard for the team and the sport. Not long after that, Ohanian met with Agugua-Hamilton and UVA director of athletics Carla Williams to discuss how he could support the program.

“I basically said, ‘Listen, what would it take to make this team be able to bring home a championship in the next few years? I’d love to know,” Ohanian recalled. “[Agugua-Hamilton and Williams] laid it out and I said, ‘All right, let’s do this.’ And so I’m just very proud to be able to do this. It gives me so much joy to see the joy that sports brings to a community.”

Ohanian, who helped launched Angel City FC of the National Women’s Soccer League, said he’s spent the past five years “really focusing on where I wanted to invest my time and money, and women’s sports has become a huge priority. So you put two and two together, what better place to put some dollars to work than at UVA, and specifically around women’s basketball?”

He cited Paul Tudor Jones, for whose father UVA’s basketball arena is named. The younger Jones “obviously brought this all to fruition,” said Ohanian, motioning around JPJ, “and he’s someone who I’ve come to learn a lot from and respect from both as a businessman, but also philanthropically. And so I feel like I’m really carrying a very small torch compared to his. Hopefully, it’s going to keep getting bigger as my career keeps developing and growing. But I would love to see it inspire others. Just as Paul has inspired me, I would love to see this contribution inspire others. Specifically around women’s sports here at the University, we have some amazing programs. I was just in Paris, so I saw the fruits of that at the Olympics in terms of [UVA] swimming. But please, let it galvanize other fortunate UVA alums to give back, and specifically to the women’s programs.”

Between the first and second quarters Sunday, Ohanian joined Williams, UVA president Jim Ryan and former UVA women’s basketball coach Debbie Ryan at midcourt. A video highlighting Ohanian’s contributions to the program played on the Hoo Vision board, and he received a framed basketball jersey.

Ohanian, who’s based in Florida, said he hopes his wife will join him at a Virginia game soon. “I’ve been indoctrinating her into the ways of being a UVA alum, being a Wahoo,” he said, smiling.

“I’m obviously very aware of the legacy that Serena has laid out, and it’s one that inspires athletes, not just from tennis, but all kinds of sports, and obviously not just women, but especially women,” Ohanian said. “And it’s been awesome to hear, too, from some of the players on this [UVA basketball] team, just how motivated they’ve been or inspired they’ve been by Serena. And it’s wild to see that generational effect and that ripple. Serena’s someone who doesn’t really spend any time thinking about that sort of thing, so I think it’s part of my job as a husband and then also as a father to our two girls to make sure that they hear this stuff and they see this stuff and they know this stuff.”

At the postgame press conference, Johnson and forward Latasha Lattimore joined Agugua-Hamilton, and the players were asked about Ohanian’s support of the program.

“It’s a life-changing donation,” Johnson said, “and I think that it fuels us on and off the court. It keeps us going. But also Alexis, just as a person, he’s a great guy. He’s always there. I’m always chatting up with him. So just having that connection is really important for me and my team.”

With the loss to Duke, the Hoos fell to 10-7 overall and 2-3 in ACC play. Next up for UVA is a Thursday night date with Virginia Tech (12-4, 3-2) at Cassell Coliseum.

Before heading to Blacksburg, the Cavaliers will work on shoring up their weaknesses. Duke outrebounded them 44-29, and for the second straight game all of the Hoos’ scoring came from their starters. Johnson and Lattimore finished with 14 points apiece for Virginia, and Olivia McGhee (11) and Noyan (10) also scored in double figures.

The Hoos lost a game they could have won Sunday. Still, Agugua-Hamilton said, she told her players that “we should gain confidence from this game and the way that we competed. It’s not just because it was Duke. It was because we’re growing.

“We’re maturing as a team. We’re getting better. So it’s not about the opponent. It’s about our journey and the evolution of our team. So we’ll break down the film and we’ll learn from our mistakes in this game … but also understand that we’re trending in the right direction.”

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