No. 22 West Virginia women’s basketball and Mark Kellogg picked up win No. 20 on Tuesday night against Texas Tech.
With the win, this iteration of West Virginia women’s basketball is the fastest program to reach 20 wins in a season and Kellogg is the first head coach to reach 20 wins in their first year with WVU.
“I’m not trying to toot my own horn but if you look back at my career, we’ve had some success and we’ve set all sorts of records and I think at every place I’ve been, we have the record for the most wins in schools history,” Kellogg said.
“Now, doing it in year one and you’re the third coach in three years, there’s unknown to that, had no idea. I thought we had a chance to be pretty good. I keep reminding people this was an NCAA Tournament team a year ago, four of those starters are back.”
Part of the reason for WVU’s strong start to the season is the ability to not get too high or not get too low for WVU. Kellogg said he’s had to fight his team at times to try and get more intensity out of them.
“This team has taught me a lot. There’s times early on I wanted more from them, because we’re such flat liners and even keel. And I’d fight them in practice and think we practice terrible and then go out and play really well,” Kellogg said. “Without them saying, coach relax, they’re basically saying, coach, relax, we got you.”
Part of the teaching is that Kellogg has not been to a lot of venues or played all of the teams in the Big 12. For example, this past Saturday was his first trip on the road to BYU. Not having ever been there or played there, there was no prior experience for him to judge the trip off of, helping him not worry about things that are uncontrollable.
“The time spent on some of those things that you can’t control anyway, I’m just not spending time on. My focus is just my group and how we get better,” Kellogg said.
History was set Tuesday night, but there is also plenty of history to still possible be made. WVU is 9-2 in Big 12 play, and are tied for second in the conference. They have the fewest losses (two) out of any team in the Big 12, and they still have over a month left in their season.
With that though, Kellogg said his bunch doesn’t have any pressure to them. Because of their ‘cool’ nature as he calls it, they’re not pressing or trying to be someone they’re not. They’re in just the position and acting the way they always have.
“They’re just so even keeled, nothing gets them too high, nothing gets them too low. They just kind of stay the course and I have seen nothing of it,” Kellogg said of possible pressure creeping in.
“This group is special. This is as fun as I’ve had coaching. I’ve won a lot of games, so it’s not just because we’re 20-2 right now, it’s just because of the character and kids we have,” Kellogg said. “It’s an unselfish group. They’re easy and low maintenance in such a great way.”
