MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — West Virginia didn’t ace the non-conference portion of its schedule.
But the Mountaineers also earned far better than a failing grade from head coach Mark Kellogg for their work over the first 12 games of the 2025-26 campaign, which saw WVU compile a 10-2 record.
“Pleased with where we are. Room for growth for sure,” Kellogg said. “A lot of areas to improve. But so far, maybe a B, B+ if we’re giving ourselves a grade up to date.”
Ahead of Sunday’s 2 p.m. Big 12 opener against Houston at Hope Coliseum, WVU has won four straight. That stretch includes consecutive victories by a total of 50 points against power conference competition in Georgia Tech and Texas A&M, the latter of which came last Sunday in the team’s lone road game thus far. In the 18-point triumph in College Station, West Virginia limited the Aggies to 15 field goals and 45 points — the second-lowest point total it’s held an opponent to this season.
“We had several opportunities to distance and blow that thing open and we never did, because offensively, we never found that rhythm,” Kellogg said. “A little bit disappointed from that end, but that’s a big, athletic, really good defensive team. They’re not as good offensively as they are defensively, so we did what we needed to do on that end.”
With a week between the victory over the Aggies and matchup with the Cougars, Kellogg and the coaching staff took a more extensive look and what largely has and has not worked this point.
The head coach referenced opponents’ assist rate as a weakness through the first six games that WVU has since improved on, while noting his team’s ability to get to the free-throw line has been among its strongest traits. The Mountaineers lead the nation with 329 free-throw attempts and are fourth with 19.2 free throws made on average. At a shade under 70 percent from the charity stripe as a team, the Mountaineers are 181st nationally.
“The percentage isn’t anywhere close to where it needs to be. Putting pressure on the rim is what we do,” Kellogg said. “We can do it off the dribble. This team has the ability to throw it in there a little bit more. We offensive rebound at a little bit higher clip, although we weren’t bad offensive rebounding last year. We just were not very good at defensive rebounding. We’ve kind of squashed that a little bit where we’re now solid in both those areas, if not even a little bit better rebounding wise.
“We’ll continue to keep an eye on it. Some games, we’ll get there more. Others maybe not so much, but we do have the ability to put pressure on the rim.”
Three-point shooting remains a work in progress and an area in need of improvement. The Mountaineers have made 79 triples on 32.1 percent shooting, both totals Kellogg would like to see increase.
In Kellogg’s first two seasons as head coach, WVU compiled nearly identical marks from long range, making 230-of-715 tries in 2023-24 and 230 of 713 last season.
The Mountaineers are making treys slightly less often this year with 6.58 per game as opposed to the 6.97 from each of the two previous seasons.
“We haven’t taken the steps we need to take. It’s about the same as where it’s been and maybe even a hair below it,” Kellogg said. “We’re right at about seven made threes a game. The elite offenses are still probably around 8.5 and up. Percentage isn’t high enough for us, nor is volume of makes.”
Now come 18 consecutive regular games against Big 12 competition starting with Houston.
UH has found success tough to come by since joining the Big 12. The Cougars have won a total of 20 games over the previous two seasons and only six within league play.
The Cougars (6-5) are under the direction of head coach Matthew Mitchell, who’s in his first season at Houston after previously holding the same title at Morehead State and more recently, Kentucky.
The Mountaineers represent Houston’s first power conference opponent this season.
Stylistically, the matchup appears to be a favorable one for West Virginia, which relies heavily on defensive pressure to disrupt the opposition’s rhythm and create offense. The Mountaineers are forcing an average of 24.3 turnovers to lead the Big 12, while the Cougars turn it over an average of 19.7 times — two more than the next-closest Big 12 squad.
Kellogg expects WVU center Jordan Thomas to return to the lineup after missing three straight games. She last played December 5 against Mercyhurst.
“This team will continue to get better. The newness of it is why I think the ceiling is fairly high,” Kellogg said. “We’re still working in quite a few players. I still don’t completely know the rotation all the time. We still are working through that, where the last two years at this time, I knew exactly probably who was playing how many minutes. Unless there was an injury, there wasn’t a whole lot of movement there, so that’s good and bad.
“There’s still a level that this team can achieve that they just don’t even know yet if they’ll continue to work. But we have some elite teams in our league at the top of it. We’ll have our hands full for sure night in and night out. Excited to see where this team can go.”