It was probably unintended for Mark Kellogg to have his name end up in national outlets on Sunday and Monday, but after a watch party comment, Kellogg was villain to many.
“That got completely misconstrued,” Kellogg said of his comments on Clark.
Kellogg said at the watch party, many were disappointed with the seed WVU got, as Kellogg was expecting the Mountaineers to be a higher seed. It then turned into talking about Princeton and then talking about Iowa and Caitlin Clark.
“She’s the face of college basketball right now — men and women above all else. And so everybody knows Caitlin Clark. Somebody else used the comment we want to advance, we’re going to have to send her packing. Then I used that phrase,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg has heard from many people, including on his own personal Facebook, commenting on posts of him and his wife.
“I had a Facebook post to my wife on Valentine’s Day and an Iowa fan has now commented on something about the biggest mistake of my life was poking the bear,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg said his team’s sole focus is on their first round matchup against Princeton. He said if they are fortunate enough to advance, it would be a really cool opportunity to play against Clark.
“That would be a great experience to play against Caitlin Clark, I guess that would be her final home game,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg said his intentions were to try and fire up his team and nothing else.
“What would you want me to say to my team,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg said there may be a bright side in the fact that more people are talking about his team and WVU ahead of the start of their NCAA Tournament run.
“We’ll put the attention on us, it’s kind of gotten carried away a little bit. At the same time, maybe people are talking about women’s basketball or West Virginia women’s basketball and we’ll roll with it that way,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg and the Mountaineers will likely not be kindly accepted by many of the Iowa faithful this weekend, but they will still get their chance on the court. Tip-off for No. 8 WVU vs No. 9 Princeton in their first round game is set for 5:30 p.m. Saturday.
