Photo by: All Pro Photography/Dale Sparks
Mountaineers Playing for NCAA Seeding, Not Their Postseason Lives in Kansas City
March 04, 2024 03:04 PM | Women's Basketball, Blog
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – Mark Kellogg admits he's got a little bit of a different mindset heading into the conference tournament this year.In prior years, while coaching at mid-major Stephen F. Austin, he knew one bad night meant the team's No. 1 preseason goal of reaching the NCAA Tournament was out the window. And looking at some of the latest NCAA NET rankings released earlier today only amplifies Kellogg's point.
South Dakota State is having a fantastic season with a 22-5 record in the Summit League. But the Jackrabbits' NET ranking of 52 means they are not going dancing if they don't win their conference tournament. It's the same deal with seven-time Atlantic Sun champion Florida Gulf Coast, which is 24-4 but shows a NET ranking of 53.
Green Bay is 23-6 with a NET of 54 in the Horizon.
Richmond, Saint Joseph's and VCU are having tremendous seasons in the Atlantic 10, all three winning at least 25 games so far, but each of them will be playing in the WNIT if they don't win the conference tournament.
Toledo is 22-4 in the Mid-American Conference. Stony Brook is 23-3 in the Colonial and Belmont is 22-7 in the Missouri Valley. They will be outside looking in if they don't cut down the nets and hoist a conference championship trophy.
Marshall's Kim Caldwell is having a fantastic first season in Huntington, her team capturing the regular season championship and boasting 21 wins that factor into their NET ranking, which is only 78 in the Sun Belt. The Herd must win to stay in contention for a bid and the pressure to do so will be enormous.
Kellogg felt that pressure to win his conference tournament all eight seasons he coached at Stephen F. Austin.
"The feeling going into the Big 12 now is different than it was at the mid-major level because you absolutely had to win those three games, or it did not matter in any way, shape or form what we had done up to that point," he admitted this morning.
"I think one year we were maybe even like 27 in the NET, which might have been the RPI at the time, and we were not going to get into the NCAA Tournament," he said. "A year ago, I think we were like 61 or close to where West Virginia was, and we had no chance of getting in."
One bad night or even one bad possession can wipe out a year's worth of success.
"That's why I wanted to be here," he noted. "The hard part of being at the mid-major level is you have these crazy good years and maybe there is one (game) when you shoot really bad. We were top five in field goal percentage one year and got to the conference tournament and had a night, and it wasn't in a good way, and you're going to the WNIT and feeling like you didn't accomplish what you wanted by not reaching the NCAA Tournament.
"That was the hardest part for me, honestly, was despite all of the success we had, you got so defined by the conference tournament," he said.
West Virginia's body of work and its NCAA NET ranking of 22 has the Mountaineers comfortably in this year's dance. Last year, it appeared WVU was on the outside looking in, but it ended up making the NCAA Tournament with 19 wins based on the benefit of being in a power conference.
Kellogg admits the goal of winning a conference tournament remains the same, it's just that the pressure to win it to keep your NCAA Tournament hopes alive is no longer his primary stressor. Even bubble power conference teams can play their way in where mid-majors can only play their way out.
"You want to win the conference tournament, and these are big-time games that will help you prepare for the NCAA Tournament and be on a neutral floor," he explained. "I'm still a competitor, and I wanted to win those games just like I want to win these, and maybe more so the pressure on the student-athletes at that level. You have a respect for them and just what those tournaments mean."
The difference now for Kellogg is his 23-6 Mountaineers are playing for a better NCAA Tournament seeding.
Winning a couple of games and advancing in the Big 12 Tournament could push the Mountaineers into a much better seeding and a more favorable early round matchup instead of potentially opening on the home floor of a lower-seeded team.
"Here, you are maybe moving up a line or down a line and matchups for the NCAA Tournament," he said. "And you always want to win a championship and hoist a trophy at the end of it. Other than that Texas game, we were in every game, and we go in this year with confidence."
In most other respects, however, Kellogg admits the differences between coaching West Virginia in a power conference and Stephen F. Austin in a mid-major conference are negligible.
"My life, I still do the same stuff whether I was there or here," he said. "I get up every day and take my kids to school and then I drive to work and drive home. Then, I watch their activities in between. That's pretty much the life of a college basketball coach.
"The amount of pressure really doesn't change that much," he continued. "As a coach, you put enough of that on yourself. I have really enjoyed this team and their even-keel nature has relaxed me a little bit more than maybe some years. We've won before at a pretty high rate, and we're still doing that, so that piece is pretty similar."
Yes, the pressure to perform well will be there for Kellogg when his Mountaineers take the floor on Friday night in Kansas City to face either UCF or Cincinnati, but he knows it's not a do-or-die situation as far as the team's NCAA hopes are concerned.
Their body of work has already taken care of that.
"If you are involved as a basketball coach or a player, this is a great time of year," he admitted. "I'm excited for what we've done. I kind of used the 'close the chapter' analogy the other day, and I did use that with my team, but it's fairly pertinent to where we are, and we really did get to close that chapter. It's been a fun year to see the momentum, the direction and the growth of where we're going. We're not there yet, but we're certainly excited about where we can go.
"And there's still lots of basketball is still in front of us," he concluded.
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