COLUMN: At first glance, Mark Kellogg has WVU in prime position in post-J.J. Quinerly era

Dominion Post

a day ago

MORGANTOWN — The doors opened to the WVU women's basketball practice facility on Thursday morning.
On the inside was a shiny new car of sorts.
We've all been there at one time or another. Our eyes can't escape the smooth paint job, the glossy look and the fancy features.
Our hearts want to believe the rest of that car is in pristine condition, too, but we have no idea what it looks like under the hood or if that car will even make it 10 miles down the road before breaking down.
In a sense, that's what was on display in that practice facility.
If first impressions mean anything in college basketball, WVU head coach Mark Kellogg just may have a Sweet 16-caliber team on his hands.
It's an athletic bunch that gets up and down the floor in a hurry. It just may be Kellogg's best rebounding team at WVU. It also appears the Mountaineers will be able to match up better physically with upper-tier teams, a question in the past.
'This is definitely going to be the deepest team we've had,' Kellogg said. 'I think we could go 10 or 11 deep.'
Carter McCray, a 6-foot-1 transfer forward who played last season at Wisconsin after she was the Horizon League's Freshman of the Year in 2024 at Northern Kentucky, doesn't take much time to catch your eye.
'I feel like I'm a really tough player,' McCray said. 'Rebounding is my forte, that's what they have me here for. I just go after it every day in practice and go after as many rebounds as I can.'
Gia Cooke, a 5-10 guard, took a big step forward in her game last season at Houston and it appears she's on track to do the same at WVU this season.
She was once a highly-recruited 4-star prospect out of Bishop McNamara (Forestville, Md.), who first committed to Texas A&M, before changing her mind and staying home to play at Maryland.
'They are living up to what we thought,' Kellogg said about his newcomers of five transfers and one freshman. 'We haven't had any negative surprises, like we missed in a certain area with a portal kid. They've been what we thought they were.'
WVU sophomore center Jordan Thomas showed flashes of star power as a freshman.
A season later, she appears set to meet some higher expectations.
'In time, we will be able to finish and we can throw the ball to some bodies inside,' Kellogg said. 'We should be able to finish around the rim at a higher clip. I anticipate that happening.'
Add in what you already knew about this team — the leadership of Jordan Harrison, the shooting of Sydney Shaw — and WVU has one impressive paint job, complete with the sharp racing pinstripes and the glossy finish.
It simply becomes a question of whether or not this team can make it 10 miles down the road without breaking down.
'I feel really good with where we're at,' said Shaw, who averaged 11.4 points per game and led WVU with 67 3-pointers last season. 'I think we're meshing well on and off the court. That's really showing, so we can speed things up on the court. I think we're in a good space right now.'
If it works out, it would equate to the highest stamp of approval possible for Kellogg's ability to sustain a major program.
To be sure, his mark has been left on this program since he took over the Mountaineers in 2023, but it's a heck of a lot easier to leave that mark when you inherit a player like J.J. Quinerly.
She's in the WNBA now, meaning Kellogg doesn't have that safety pin of sorts. He doesn't have that player to lean on and say, 'Hey, just go take over this game.'
And if this WVU team ends up being just as highly-ranked in the top 25 polls, contending for another Big 12 title and pushing for a Sweet 16, well, simply put, Kellogg would be the man.
'You replace points. You replace certain things,' Kellogg said. 'It happens every year that you lose players. Yes, J.J. was an extremely talented kid, but it was some of her intangibles that you miss.
'Her on-ball defense, the calmness that late in a game we could get the ball to her and she would go make a play. Those are the things you have to talk through and try to overcome.'
Some programs lose a generational talent and are never heard from again. Then there's UConn, which loses generational talent every two or three seasons, only to have the next one step right in.
Going only on first impressions here, Kellogg is likely somewhere in the middle, but he just may be leaning closer to the latter.