After a very historic season in the first year under head coach Mark Kellogg, the WVU women’s basketball team added some key pieces during the offseason in hopes to improve on their greatness.
Last season, the Mountaineers went 25-8 with a 12-6 conference record. Finishing as the sixth seed in the Big 12 tournament, they were able to win one game but would fall in the second to Kansas State.
The next stop for the team was Iowa City for a matchup with Princeton and potentially Iowa after being selected as an eight seed in the NCAA tournament. The team would beat Princeton and be tied with Iowa with five minutes to go, but ultimately lose in heartbreaking fashion in the second round to Caitlin Clark.
It was the 12th time the program reached the second round of the NCAA tournament and the first since 2021. The program has only ever made the Sweet Sixteen one time in 1992. Coach Kellogg is attempting to change that this upcoming season.
The first step in continuing last year’s greatness is to bring the girls who made it happen back. Kellogg certainly accomplished that.
All-American Honorable Mention and Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year JJ Quinerly will be back for her senior season with the goal to be WVU’s all-time leader in steals; something she has set out for since she arrived on campus in 2021.
Quinerly’s sidekick Jordan Harrison will also be returning to WVU for her Junior season. The point guard led the Big 12 in assists for a large portion of the season and really started to find a role in scoring the basketball by the end of the year too. Together, Quinerly and Harrison could make up the best backcourt in the conference next season.
Along with the Mountaineers’ two star guards, Kellogg was also able to bring back a lot of key forwards for next season including starters, Kylee Blacksten and Kyah Watson. Coming back from the bench were two key size pieces for the team, Danelle Arigbabu and Tirzah Moore.
Coming back to play in Morgantown as well are senior guards Ashala Moseberry and Zya Nugent. Moseberry was ineligible to play due to transfer waivers and Nugent was out with a neck injury after coming to the team from Stephen F. Austin with coach Kellogg.
The first of the transfers brought in for next season includes Sydney Shaw who played two seasons at Auburn where she averaged 7.1 points, 2.6 rebounds and 1.6 assists per game. The point guard brings another level of defensive ability to add to the already star studded backcourt.
Célia Rivière, a junior, is a transfer from Northwest Florida State and was a second-team NJCAA All-American last season. In her sophomore season. Rivière averaged 12.5 points, 6.8 rebounds and 3.0 assists. The 6-foot-3 forward brings a much needed rebounding ability to a very undersized team.
While transfers are the fastest way to build a program, Kellogg also spent some time investing in the future and getting a pair of four-star recruits to come into the program as freshmen.
Destiny Agubata, a guard, and Jordan Thomas, a forward, are the 96 and 81 ranked recruits in the nation.
The basketball season is a long way away from where it stands in the summer time right now. But Kellogg has stated his goal is to continue to grow the basketball program in Morgantown and hopefully get to pack the Coliseum for an NCAA tournament game.
So far this offseason, it seems fair to say that Kellogg and his staff have made a ‘splash’ in their chase towards greater success.
