West Virginia women’s basketball begins their NCAA Tournament journey this weekend as they face Princeton.
In what is shaping up to be a closely contested 8/9 matchup in the first round of the NCAA Tournament, West Virginia head coach says his team’s full attention is on the Tigers and what they can do, despite No. 1 seed Iowa and Caitlin Clark potentially looming in the second round.
“We will never look past Princeton. That’s all we have talked about as a team, that’s all we’re going to prepare for,” Kellogg said on Tuesday.
Princeton comes to the NCAA Tournament having a lot of recent success in this format. They have made the tournament in five consecutive seasons and have won a game in each of the past two tournaments.
“They were there and they won a game together a year ago, we have not done that yet,” Kellogg said. “There is experience there. They won two games in the last two years, we have not done that here.”
One of the players Kellogg and company are going to have their attention on is Kaitlyn Chen. Chen averaged just under 16 points per game this season, but had strong performances against power five schools including UCLA and Oklahoma, scoring at least 20 points in both games.
Chen was the Ivy League Player of the Year a season ago and she brings a lot to the table on offense for Princeton.
“Kaitlyn Chen their point guard and leads the show for them,” Kellogg said.
On offense, Princeton relies a lot upon their mid-range game, compared to trying to work inside or out.
“Don’t shoot a ton of three’s, but can get going from three and then they kind of kill teams at the mid-range. They’re elite, as good as any team at the mid-range that we’ve seen,” Kellogg said.
Despite Chen’s production on offense and Princeton’s success on that side of the ball, Kellogg pointed to Princeton’s production on defense as a major concern for the Mountaineers. The Tigers are 17th in the country in scoring defense, holding opponents to 56 points per game this year.
“Defensively, they’re giving up like 52 a game in their last five… this team can guard really, really, well, and there’s some versatility to what they do,” Kellogg said.
West Virginia is making their second consecutive NCAA Tournament appearance, and Kellogg has taken the Mountaineers to the tournament in his first year on the job.
“Really excite for our group. Even looking back on the last 11-plus months, to be where we are, really, really, proud of what we’ve accomplished up to date. Would love to do something special over the weekend and the weeks to come if we can,” Kellogg said.
Tip-off Saturday is set for 5:30 p.m. from Iowa City, Iowa, and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
