WVU women’s basketball and head coach Mark Kellogg are preparing for the postseason after finishing the season with a 23-6 record (13-5 in the Big 12). They will look to enhance their NCAA tournament seed with a few wins in the Big 12 tournament this weekend.
Kellogg began his press conference by talking about how difficult the post-season is and how he is preparing his team. After being the head coach at Stephen F. Austin and leading them to the post-season for six straight seasons, Kellogg knows what it takes mentally and physically to win important games.
“It’s tricky this time of year. You’ve had an opponent to prepare for pretty routinely, and now you don’t know. You get to focus on yourself again here for a couple of days,” Kellogg said.
The Mountaineers are the 4-seed in the Big 12 tournament, meaning they have two bye games. This is not only important for preparation, but also for health. The post-season is a game of attribution in college basketball, especially in a challenging conference such as the Big 12.
“I think when you are asked to win five games in five days or four days, that’s a tall task. Three in three days is maybe a little bit more manageable,” Kellogg said.
Kellogg’s confidence in his team was clear, and if the Mountaineers can pull this off, they could have a home game in the first round of the NCAA tournament. He also made it clear this team is built to win games in the post-season.
“We still know defensively most nights that can keep us in every game, and then offensively if we can keep going.” JJ (Quinerly) is on a little bit of a heater right now,” Kellogg said.
In the last two games of the season, JJ Quinerly has scored 38 and 31 points while shooting a combined 68.7% from the field. She will be the player to watch entering the Mountaineers’ first-round game.
WVU will need to wait to see their opponent for this game, but it is set to take place on March 7 at noon ET.
