By Bill Nestor
West Virginia University’s women’s basketball team had an unbelievable season that was just a couple of plays away from moving into the “epic” category. The Mountaineers rolled through the regular season, breaking records and turning heads while garnering an eight seed for the NCAA Tournament.
WVU head coach Mark Kellogg had a remarkable first year at the helm of the program. Kellogg seemed to push all of the right buttons at the correct time with his players and they responded throughout the year with inspired play.
When a coach gets his players to play as hard as his did this regular season, fans always want to know what he used to motivate his troops. They caught a glimpse of Kellogg’s tactics on Selection Sunday during the team’s watch party. He said that if they meet up with Iowa in the second round of the tournament, they were looking to send Caitlyn Clark packing. Clark is the NCAA Division I all-time leading scorer and is considered by many to be one of the best players in women’s college hoops history.
After the Mountaineers upended Princeton in the opening round of the tourney, Kellogg backed off his comments. No coach wants to provide blackboard material for the upcoming opposition. Kellogg said that someone else at the watch party used the “packing” term at the party first and then blamed social media for the confusion.
Kellogg wanted to keep his comments in-house and when they got out, he had to defuse the issue. He did not want the bomb going off on his team after he inadvertently tripped the verbal wire.
Unfortunately, the damage had already been done and West Virginia was forced to head into a hornets nest for its second round lock-up.
The biggest issue the NCAA has with its women’s tourney is that there is a lack of neutral courts throughout and Iowa was allowed to host the matchup at Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City.
The vast majority of the 14,324 fans in attendance were rooting for the home team, providing a huge advantage. WVU started slow, shooting only 27 percent from the field in the second quarter, and had a hangover effect early in the third segment. The halftime break gave way to a 12 to two run from Iowa to provide a 12-point Hawkeye lead five minutes into the second half. The Mountaineers trailed by double-digits heading into the final frame, but a frantic comeback bid led to a 10 to nothing run and a tie game.
Fouls, however, mounted up on the Mountaineers. They would lose their top player J. J. Quinerly and Jordan Harrison to fouls, which resulted in a severe loss of momentum. Iowa made 14 of 17 free throws in the fourth quarter alone to gain the win. The hawkeyes would only manage one field goal in the entire fourth period of play. Iowa show 30 foul shots in the affair while WVU just attempted five free throws.
Clark led all scorers with 32 points, 11 of those coming from the charity stripe. Quinery paced the Mountaineers with 15 points and a game high three steals.
West Virginia ended the campaign with a 25 and eight record. Kellogg has established himself as one of the top coaches in the Big 12 Conference. Now, Mountaineer fans are just waiting for the next chapter in hopes of even bigger and brighter days ahead for the program.
That will be it for now! Until next week . . . take care and God Bless!