Photo by: WVU Athletic Communications
Kellogg’s Mountaineers Seeking Greatness in 2024-25
September 27, 2024 11:31 AM | Women's Basketball
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – One of the most difficult things to do in sports is taking something bad and turning it into something good.
Probably the next hardest thing to do is to taking something good and making it better, and that is what is confronting Mark Kellogg as he begins his second season at West Virginia.
Last March, a couple of unfavorable calls kept his underdog Mountaineers from turning March Madness into complete madness in Iowa City, Iowa. The No. 2-ranked Hawkeyes escaped with a 64-54 victory at sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Area, and the tough lesson Kellogg's team learned from that defeat is its much better to take your chances at home than it is on the road when it comes to NCAA Tournament play.
With most of the key pieces from his 25-8 team returning, including All-America candidate JJ Quinerly, the things occupying Kellogg's mind this offseason are much different than what he was thinking about 12 months ago when he was still figuring out the best way to get to the WVU Coliseum after moving his family from Nacogdoches, Texas, to Morgantown.
Specifically, what he's thinking about is how he can turn something really good into something great.
"We went back and studied some of the top offenses in the country and what made them so elite," Kellogg said earlier this week as preseason work is now underway. "A couple of things that we found that were interesting … of the top 15 offenses in the country in women's basketball, 8½ 3s was the average made per game, and we were about at 7.1, so you are talking about 4½ points per game.
"We averaged about four more possessions than those top 15 teams, so we didn't shoot it as well, didn't make quite as many 3s, and we know we had a rebounding issue that we needed to get cleaned up, and so those were kind of things that we focused on," Kellogg noted. "Some of it might be personnel and some of it may be how we play. Maybe we want more possessions or maybe it's the quality of shot and we need to get those better shots to shoot at a higher percentage. It could be that we just need to be a little more efficient, but we were like top five or top six defensively and 40th or 45th in offense."
Kellogg's staff also looked up all the national championship teams over the course of time, and they discovered one key similarity in nearly all of them.
"If I remember correctly, every one of them had a top-30 offense and a top-30 defense," Kellogg said. "Maybe there was one team in there that didn't have both, but for the most part, they were elite offensively and defensively. We were just a little behind on the offensive end, but certainly there on the defensive end."
The net of their offseason research confirmed what Kellogg already knew – play defense the way they played defense last year but figure out a way to score a few more points.
"We don't want to lose all that defensive identity, but we do have to get a little bit better offensively," he explained. "We probably need to play at a little bit faster clip offensively, but I think we can do that because we have a little bit more depth."
Several key pieces were added during the offseason, but the one who could make the biggest impact is Auburn transfer Sydney Shaw, a 5-foot-9 shooting guard from Miami. Shaw has been West Virginia's most consistent outside shooter from the moment she arrived on campus and is a strong contender to step in and replace Lauren Fields in the starting lineup.
Shaw can give the Mountaineers sorely needed 3-point shooting they were lacking at times last year, but it remains to be seen if she can match what Fields provided on the defensive end of the floor.
A big reason why Caitlin Clark was 8 of 22 overall and only 5 of 14 from 3-point range last March in Iowa City was because Fields was chasing her all over the court.
Kellogg and his staff also addressed some of their rebounding and interior defensive concerns by adding top-100 recruit Jordan Thomas from Carrollton, Texas, Northwest Florida transfer Célia Rivière and Turkish national player Feryal Defne Atli.
They join returning bigs Kylee Blacksten, Danelle Arigbabu and Tirzah Moore.
Sydney Woodley, a 5-foot-8 guard who transferred from Long Beach State, made 104 steals last year and should fit in nicely in a Mountaineer backcourt that includes Quinerly and Jordan Harrison.
Quinerly, Harrison and Woodley give West Virginia three of the biggest thieves in women's college basketball.
Also out on the perimeter is senior Kyah Watson, a Dawn Plitzuweit holdover whose biggest contributions rarely show up in a box score, but a player of whom opposing coaches and opponents are well aware.
Other players now available and hunting for playing time include Moreno Valley, California, resident Destiny Agubata, Stephen F. Austin transfer Zya Nugent and South Plains transfer Ashala Moseberry – all three of whom were on campus last season.
"You're just trying to find how do you get better?" Kellogg admitted. "What is the next step for us? It was such a good year, but it wasn't ultimately what we wanted, and we had a good idea what was coming back, too, which kind of allowed us (to do the offseason research) because we knew what our roster was going to look like. The foreign trip helped us, too, because we got our eyes on the new players and that has helped us dive into the analytics a little bit deeper."
Kellogg continued.
"We're going to have more options this year. Just how we play, we would like to be a little deeper than we were a year ago and rest some of the kids, even if it's just practice reps," he said. "We have a roster of 14, so we've got plenty of subs. That will be a good thing for us, for sure, and we're still working through all the roles, and we don't have to define those yet."
The newly reconfigured Big 12 is adding Colorado, Utah and Arizona, all of whom could be in contention for NCAA Tournament bids next March. Overall, the conference could see as many as half of its 16 members dancing come tournament time.
Of course, one of those is West Virginia, slotted as a four-seed in ESPN's preseason Bracketology.
"If this is going to be the rule that the top four seeds are going to get these home games in the NCAA Tournament, then that needs to be our goal this year," Kellogg said. "I want to be a top-16 team and a top-four seed to host. I think the environment in Morgantown, West Virginia, would be pretty special if we were hosting one of those two first-round games here."
Kellogg said those and other things will be discussed this weekend during their staff retreat.
"We haven't achieved anything to the level that we want to in our program," Kellogg admitted. "I know we want to get to a Sweet 16 and farther. In women's basketball, I don't think we've ever won two consecutive games in an NCAA Tournament.
"They went to one Sweet 16, but it was only one win to get there. That's a goal. We want to go down as the best team to ever play here in women's basketball. If you want to be great, then you better do something special every day."
Probably the next hardest thing to do is to taking something good and making it better, and that is what is confronting Mark Kellogg as he begins his second season at West Virginia.
Last March, a couple of unfavorable calls kept his underdog Mountaineers from turning March Madness into complete madness in Iowa City, Iowa. The No. 2-ranked Hawkeyes escaped with a 64-54 victory at sold-out Carver-Hawkeye Area, and the tough lesson Kellogg's team learned from that defeat is its much better to take your chances at home than it is on the road when it comes to NCAA Tournament play.
With most of the key pieces from his 25-8 team returning, including All-America candidate JJ Quinerly, the things occupying Kellogg's mind this offseason are much different than what he was thinking about 12 months ago when he was still figuring out the best way to get to the WVU Coliseum after moving his family from Nacogdoches, Texas, to Morgantown.Specifically, what he's thinking about is how he can turn something really good into something great.
"We went back and studied some of the top offenses in the country and what made them so elite," Kellogg said earlier this week as preseason work is now underway. "A couple of things that we found that were interesting … of the top 15 offenses in the country in women's basketball, 8½ 3s was the average made per game, and we were about at 7.1, so you are talking about 4½ points per game.
"We averaged about four more possessions than those top 15 teams, so we didn't shoot it as well, didn't make quite as many 3s, and we know we had a rebounding issue that we needed to get cleaned up, and so those were kind of things that we focused on," Kellogg noted. "Some of it might be personnel and some of it may be how we play. Maybe we want more possessions or maybe it's the quality of shot and we need to get those better shots to shoot at a higher percentage. It could be that we just need to be a little more efficient, but we were like top five or top six defensively and 40th or 45th in offense."
Kellogg's staff also looked up all the national championship teams over the course of time, and they discovered one key similarity in nearly all of them.
"If I remember correctly, every one of them had a top-30 offense and a top-30 defense," Kellogg said. "Maybe there was one team in there that didn't have both, but for the most part, they were elite offensively and defensively. We were just a little behind on the offensive end, but certainly there on the defensive end."
The net of their offseason research confirmed what Kellogg already knew – play defense the way they played defense last year but figure out a way to score a few more points.
"We don't want to lose all that defensive identity, but we do have to get a little bit better offensively," he explained. "We probably need to play at a little bit faster clip offensively, but I think we can do that because we have a little bit more depth."
Several key pieces were added during the offseason, but the one who could make the biggest impact is Auburn transfer Sydney Shaw, a 5-foot-9 shooting guard from Miami. Shaw has been West Virginia's most consistent outside shooter from the moment she arrived on campus and is a strong contender to step in and replace Lauren Fields in the starting lineup.
Shaw can give the Mountaineers sorely needed 3-point shooting they were lacking at times last year, but it remains to be seen if she can match what Fields provided on the defensive end of the floor.
A big reason why Caitlin Clark was 8 of 22 overall and only 5 of 14 from 3-point range last March in Iowa City was because Fields was chasing her all over the court.
Kellogg and his staff also addressed some of their rebounding and interior defensive concerns by adding top-100 recruit Jordan Thomas from Carrollton, Texas, Northwest Florida transfer Célia Rivière and Turkish national player Feryal Defne Atli.
They join returning bigs Kylee Blacksten, Danelle Arigbabu and Tirzah Moore.
Sydney Woodley, a 5-foot-8 guard who transferred from Long Beach State, made 104 steals last year and should fit in nicely in a Mountaineer backcourt that includes Quinerly and Jordan Harrison.
Quinerly, Harrison and Woodley give West Virginia three of the biggest thieves in women's college basketball.
Also out on the perimeter is senior Kyah Watson, a Dawn Plitzuweit holdover whose biggest contributions rarely show up in a box score, but a player of whom opposing coaches and opponents are well aware.
Other players now available and hunting for playing time include Moreno Valley, California, resident Destiny Agubata, Stephen F. Austin transfer Zya Nugent and South Plains transfer Ashala Moseberry – all three of whom were on campus last season.
"You're just trying to find how do you get better?" Kellogg admitted. "What is the next step for us? It was such a good year, but it wasn't ultimately what we wanted, and we had a good idea what was coming back, too, which kind of allowed us (to do the offseason research) because we knew what our roster was going to look like. The foreign trip helped us, too, because we got our eyes on the new players and that has helped us dive into the analytics a little bit deeper."
Kellogg continued.
"We're going to have more options this year. Just how we play, we would like to be a little deeper than we were a year ago and rest some of the kids, even if it's just practice reps," he said. "We have a roster of 14, so we've got plenty of subs. That will be a good thing for us, for sure, and we're still working through all the roles, and we don't have to define those yet."
The newly reconfigured Big 12 is adding Colorado, Utah and Arizona, all of whom could be in contention for NCAA Tournament bids next March. Overall, the conference could see as many as half of its 16 members dancing come tournament time.
Of course, one of those is West Virginia, slotted as a four-seed in ESPN's preseason Bracketology.
"If this is going to be the rule that the top four seeds are going to get these home games in the NCAA Tournament, then that needs to be our goal this year," Kellogg said. "I want to be a top-16 team and a top-four seed to host. I think the environment in Morgantown, West Virginia, would be pretty special if we were hosting one of those two first-round games here."
Kellogg said those and other things will be discussed this weekend during their staff retreat.
"We haven't achieved anything to the level that we want to in our program," Kellogg admitted. "I know we want to get to a Sweet 16 and farther. In women's basketball, I don't think we've ever won two consecutive games in an NCAA Tournament.
"They went to one Sweet 16, but it was only one win to get there. That's a goal. We want to go down as the best team to ever play here in women's basketball. If you want to be great, then you better do something special every day."
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