MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Two things, above all else, have hampered Marya Hudgins throughout four seasons of college basketball.
A series of injuries limited Hudgins to playing 97 of a possible 134 games up to this point, including separate setbacks at BYU that forced the 6-foot redshirt senior to be sidelined for half of the Cougars’ 68 contests over the last two seasons.
The other can best be explained by Hudgins, a native of Aurora, Colo., who bounced around various states throughout her childhood and has continued that trend in college, which she began playing two seasons at Santa Clara, before playing the next two at BYU and opting to transfer to West Virginia in April.
“My biggest goal going into my fifth year is I’ve never been in the [NCAA] tournament and I want to win,” Hudgins said. “I love winning and that’s something I’ve always been a part of. I’m not one to try to go somewhere to try and be the main player. That’s never been me. I’m going to go somewhere and try to fit in and do whatever I can to help this team win.”
In high school, Hudgins accomplished the rare feat of winning two state championships in two states. The first came in Georgia as a freshman at Holy Innocents’ Episcopal School. Three years later, Hudgins concluded her prep career with a 5A state championship at Grandview High School in Colorado, a place she was teammates with Lauren Betts, a 6-foot-7 center who led UCLA to the 2026 National Championship and soon after was the fourth overall pick in the WNBA Draft.
Now as one of 10 new players on the Mountaineers’ roster of 12, Hudgins is hopeful she can reverse past misfortune that’s kept her out of the lineup altogether too often and from playing in the most desired postseason event in college basketball despite being part of a 25-9 Broncos’ team in 2023-24 and a 26-12 Cougars’ squad last season.
“It’s a fun challenge just being able to learn so many new player’s games and how we can all fit together in a new system,” Hudgins said. “It’s just nice kind of all being in it together.”
When able to stay on the hardwood, Hudgins has been a high impact player. She averaged 7.5 points and 4.8 rebounds across 31 games at Santa Clara as a true freshman, missing only the team’s final game of that season as a result of X-rays that showed a fractured fibula, an injury Hudgins played through for much of the season, but one she went on record as saying caused her to cry on the weight room floor while teammates lifted weights.
In her second and final season at Santa Clara, Hudgins posted similar statistics of 7.7 points and 5.4 rebounds while playing in all but two of the Broncos’ 34 games.
Hudgins then opted to try her hand at a higher level and started each of her first seven games at BYU in 2024-25 before being shutdown for the season due to a knee injury.
She bounced back in the most recent campaign to start each of the Cougars’ first 27 games and averaged a career-high 9.1 points with 4.6 rebounds and 1.3 steals, all while accomplishing the second-best single-season free throw percentage in program history by making 54-of-60 attempts from the charity stripe. Unfortunately for Hudgins, her season came to an end in mid-February with another injury that cost her the final 11 games.
“Injuries are always hard and it’s unfortunately something I’ve had to deal with every season,” Hudgins said, “so I’m just trying to make the most out of this season, stay as healthy as I can and be able to provide in whatever way I can for this team.”
With a surplus of experience and a strong familiarity with Big 12 basketball, Hudgins should be in the mix to provide plenty for West Virginia.
Last season, Hudgins got a first-hand look at the system she’s now part of when the Cougars were outscored by 19 points over the final three quarters of a 91-77 home loss to West Virginia. As has often been the case for the Mountaineers in three seasons with head coach Mark Kellogg, much of their success resulted from defense leading to offense, with 25 turnovers forced leading to a 29-11 advantage in points off turnovers.
Hudgins, who had 10 points in seven rebounds in that game, was also responsible for six turnovers.
“I make a lot of jokes with coach Kellogg of [how] I hated playing against your guys’ press — hated it,” Hudgins said. “Now being on that side of havoc, I’m like, ‘this is such a sigh of relief.’ I don’t have to deal with it besides in practice of course. It’s been really fun.”
For her college career, Hudgins averages 7.8 points, five rebounds and one steal and has proven to be an exceptional free-throw shooter by making 117-of-142 foul shots.
At West Virginia, she joins a program that’s won at least 25 games in all three seasons under Kellogg and one fresh off a Big 12 Tournament Championship as well as its third straight appearance in the second round of the NCAA Tournament.
“Prior to getting here, it was definitely a thought on my mind just knowing that I wanted to take this challenge and leap to really grow my game,” Hudgins said. “I’ve never been known as a main guarder or defender, so I knew that it would really challenge and elevate my game. I’ve really just been trying to embrace what we’ve been taught and I know throughout each month, I’m just going to get better.”