MARK KELLOGG

By GREG CAREY

For the Sunday News-Register

MORGANTOWN – West Virginia women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg learned a lot about his team from a November win against nationally-ranked Duke at The Greenbrier, a game in which the Mountaineers had six players disqualified and only five available for the entirety of the second half.

As the season wore on, many discovered what Kellogg came to understand relatively early — the Mountaineers wouldn’t be taking a step back in his third season as head coach, which included a Big 12 Conference Tournament Championship, 28 victories and multiple home games in the NCAA Tournament for the first time in school history.

For that, Kellogg is the recipient of the Mickey Furfari Award presented to the College Coach of the Year in West Virginia as voted on by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association. He will be presented the Furfari Award at the 79th Victory Awards, Sunday May 3 at Charleston Town Center.

“The enjoyment came from the whole dynamic — the team and staff, being around great people,” Kellogg said. “Such a joy to coach that team. I got more from that team than any other team from a fulfillment perspective and watching them grow.”

WVU had reasonable expectations, but plenty of question marks ahead of a season it was projected to finish fifth among 16 teams in the Big 12.

The Mountaineers were moving forward without one of the most accomplished players in program history in guard JJ Quinerly, and within the first month, they regularly had three new players in the starting five.

The team’s top two returning players were pivotal to the success as guard Jordan Harrison took another step in her stellar career and was named Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year, while Sydney Shaw’s perimeter shooting and consistent scoring was quite beneficial.

Add in the effectiveness of additions Gia Cooke, the team’s leading scorer, and low post presence Kierra ‘Meme’ Wheeler, who was second in scoring and added a dimension hardly seen over Kellogg’s previous two seasons in Morgantown, and it helped amount to a that was quite competitive in all but one of 35 contests.

“It was the best offensive team we’ve had since I’ve been here and that’s where we thought we needed to get better,” Kellogg said. “The offense definitely got better as the year went on and there was more role definition. We also shot better on threes and shot a little bit better at the free-throw line. We had a couple concerns on defense, but the philosophy and how we can play can translate. We made progress, but I would say there was a little more made offensively.”

After entering league play with a 10-2 mark, the Mountaineers won 14 of 18 league games to earn the No. 2 seed in the conference tournament.

Three victories in three days in Kansas City enabled the Mountaineers to win the Big 12 Championship for the first time in nine years and second time in program history, a feat accomplished with a 62-53 victory over top seed TCU, which had won both regular season meetings, include one at the buzzer in Morgantown.

“Last summer, I thought we had some really good pieces, and you saw it kind of grow. You have a new team and as things progress you see the belief start to happen,” Kellogg said. “The Greenbrier probably started a little bit of a springboard. Some of the games we lost even, like Ohio State and the TCU game here, there was still more belief that came from it that we could do it. We knew the January schedule was brutal from a travel perspective and if we could get through that, we could make a run.”

The Big 12 Championship led to WVU achieving one of its primary goals and hosting in the NCAA Tournament as a No. 4 seed.

The Mountaineers defeated Miami (Ohio) 82-54 in an opening-round matchup, before missing out on a Sweet 16 berth with a 74-73 season-ending loss to Kentucky to finish 28-7.

Both games at Hope Coliseum were played before sellout crowds.

“Like I told the team, look up when you go out for warmups. Be proud of what you’ve done and see how many people are excited about what you’re doing, and then try not to look up there again and just play your game,” Kellogg said. “That’s what you’ve dreamed of. Maybe there is momentum now and people can rally around it.”