MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — 32 weeks after leaving Iowa City with a loss to end Mark Kellogg’s first season as WVU head coach, the Mountaineers hope to start cashing in on an offseason of anticipation Tuesday when they host Towson to open the regular season.
Coming off a 25-8 season with advancement into the second round of the NCAA Tournament, Kellogg welcomes back four starters and expectations to match the wealth of experience on their roster. During the offseason, Kellogg added six new players to the roster and the Mountaineers enjoyed a trip to Europe in August.
“It is a long preseason in basketball. I think maybe we got a little comfortable. And so, we needed to get a little uncomfortable again and have that reminder. I think we were able to kind of reset a little bit. Once we reset, I think we have been really, really good since then,” Kellogg said.
“I am in the feeling right now where it seems like it kind of took a while to get here. Now I am kind of in the, hey, hang on, slow down, give me another couple days to get us right. I think it is a little bit of everything. It seems like it took a while but we worked really hard. We had the foreign trip, the whole preseason, all the practices. This group is ready and we return a lot. I am excited to see the new kids when the lights come on.”
In Kellogg’s first season, WVU raced out to a 13-0 start, making into the first week of January before suffering a loss. Kellogg doesn’t necessarily expect his team to be in midseason form for the opener on November 5.
“We’re not going to look like what we were at the end of the year. Sometimes that is hard for fans, that’s the last memory you have what we were doing at the end of the year and you forget that this is all new again. It is just that identity that we come and play hard, we compete, we share the basketball, we move it, we’ll be excited. I think as a coach, you are always prepared that the first quarter may not look as ascetically pleasing as you want to just because they are so excited.
“To the general person, if you just came and watched us play, I don’t know that you would think this looks entirety different. There’s some tweaks to the offense, we play a little bit different and we have liked those up to date.”
With six new players and two returning redshirt players available, Kellogg will have a much deeper bench to navigate the 29-game regular season. Auburn transfer guard Sydney Shaw is perhaps the most high-profile newcomer on the roster. She made 43 starts and played in 63 games at Auburn.
“Being here does force you to be a smart basketball player and not just rely on athleticism or instincts. I think my understanding for the game has grown a lot since I have been here,” Shaw said.
“We’re right there. I think that it has to do a lot with the coaching. You look at these great teams and they have great coaches. Great players want to play for great coaches.”
“She wasn’t the most efficient player at Auburn,” Kellogg said. “But we knew she had the skill set to be. It was just showing her what shots to take and instilling confidence in her to take those when she is open. I think she is feeling that right now that she has the freedom to take the right shot. And she knows what those right shots are, for the most part.”
“She puts in the work to come in every day,” said WVU fifth year forward Kylee Blacksten. “She shoots extra and she is always willing to listen and learn from the program. I think she is going to do amazing things here.”
Shaw is a native of Miami, Florida.
“It is a big difference. I have never been this far north. The people are different. The food is different. I look outside and it is very different. When I first moved in here, I think there was a groundhog outside my door and I was like, what is going on? It is cool. You give me a ball and a court and I am happy.”
Shaw will join returning starters JJ Quinerly and Jordan Harrison in the backcourt. With added depth in the frontcourt, the 6-foot-3 Blacksten should be able to move further away from the basket to her natural position.
“When I grew up, I was more of a guard than anything else,” Blacksten said. “So when I got here, it was learning how to play more of the five and the post play. Being able to stretch the floor a little bit more, I am super-excited to see what can happen from it.”
“It depends on how we want to play and who we are playing against,” Kellogg said. “Probably some so Kylee can play the five. She is not going to be the big, banger type of five. That’s not what we are going to ask her to do. But she can stretch the floor and space it, which gives those guards more room at the rim.”