WVU Showing Identity Can Come Amidst Turnover
Trending
MORGANTOWN - When this basketball season started, the key word about West Virginia's women's basketball team was turnover.
Still is, only the meaning has changed.
At the start of the year they were speaking of the turnover in personnel, beginning with the coach, when Dawn Plitzuweit had exited after just one season in favor of former Stephen F. Austin coach Mark Kellogg, who had to turn over the roster to mold a team that fit his style of play.
He came emphasizing a team that would offer 40 minutes of defense each and every game, taking away the emphasis away from the turnover of the roster than had taken place to the turnovers that were occurring on the basketball court.
Game after game they came to play and after beating Iowa State at home on Saturday to bring their record to 17-2 and 6-2 in the Big 12, a record built by being the nation's No. 1 team in steals at 14.9 per game and being first among major colleges in turnovers forced at 24.9.
Even in this Iowa State game when they allowed 78 points in an 84-78 victory, they still had 17 steals and forced 24 turnovers.
That came after they had become the first team in NCAA history to pitch a shutout for a full quarter in consecutive games against Houston and Cincinnati.
It is to such a point that Iowa State coach Bill Fennelly was moved to say:
"I'm just glad we're done with them."
Perhaps most intriguing is that the Mountaineers' JJ Quinerly, who recently joined the 1,000-point club and against Iowa State put up a career-high 31 points is completely wrapped up in being a defender.
"I love defense. Defense can turn into offense," she said. "Those easy points I can get off of a steal, just seeing the ball go in the hoop can get me into a rhythm to hit 3s, jumpers and all that."
At about the time she was making that point, out in Stillwater, Oklahoma, men's coach Josh Eilert was going over why his team lost to Oklahoma State and was talking about how his team had scored only six combined fast break and second-chance points in the defeat.
"Here, they were 8 and 14 (second-chance points and fast-break points). That's 22 … easy points. You know, when you labor to score on the road and you only six easy points to their 22 that's hard to make up for," Eilert said.
His team does not have the personnel to play the kind of defense that his predecessor, Bob Huggins, made famous at WVU while Kellogg molded his team that way as he - yes - turned over his roster.
He was fortunate enough in that turnover that Quinerly did not head for the door and now he is reaping those benefits.
The fans are catching on. At Saturday's game, with WVU's men playing on ESPN+, a crowd of 4,905 turned out, the second-largest crowd of the season.
"I thought the crowd was phenomenal," Kellogg said. "I thought we needed that. That was fun and we heard them. Heard them on defense, heard them when we scored, heard them on the officials, so it's a little bit of everything."
"The crowd was a big part of the game today," Quinerly said. "I love the crowd. They were very loud, hyped up with a lot of energy. It was great out there."