MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — One more preseason test awaits the WVU women’s basketball team before Mark Kellogg begins his fourth season leading the Mountaineers. With closed scrimmages against Virginia and Virginia Tech now complete, West Virginia will host Frostburg State Thursday night in a public exhibition game to conclude their stretch of three tuneup contests.
Ten newcomers and two returning players make up the roster for the Mountaineers, fitting a typical pattern across many levels of college basketball.
“We’ve adapted and we’ve adopted with new ideas. It is different,” said Kellogg. “In some aspects, it was like my first year here when you take over a new program and basically the whole team feels new. But we are just way more comfortable and my staff has been here. It is not quite the same but there was a lot of teaching going on in the summer and the fall.”
WVU’s leading scorer from last year, Gia Cooke returns after averaging 15.0 points per game in her fourth season of college basketball. Sophomore Madison Parrish played in 16 games for the Mountaineers last winter but the 5-foot-11 guard should take on a greater role this season.
“I learned a lot about pacing between the game. Honestly, just staying calm and collected, it will come a long way. Shots will fall and it will help you be in the right position on defense,” Parrish said.
“Me and Gia, we definitely want to uphold the standard of a winning mentality here. We have our word being ‘intentional’ this year. We definitely want to go back-to-back. But we’ve got some new characters to help us along the way.”
“She is just so much more comfortable. The game is slowing down,” Kellogg said.
“She is shooting it by far better than she has ever shot it. She is shooting it really, really well from three. Defensively, her length can bother people. She is still young and didn’t get to play a ton. There were some growing pains, not in a bad way, but what you might expect. I think she is in as good of a spot as she has been since she has been here, for sure.”
Joining Cooke and Parrish in the backcourt is senior guard Kennedy Harris. She and ZaZa Walton both transferred in from George Mason.
“It actually wasn’t planned at all. I saw that [Walton] first committed and I kind of had my phone off. Once I committed, I saw her and I called her and I talked to her. We just kind of talked for a couple minutes,” Harris said.
“We’re about to do this again and so we get a chance to play with each other for our last year.”
“Kennedy has been really good lately. She had a really good scrimmage and has been practicing really well,” Kellogg said. “She is just kind of calm, steady, her demeanor doesn’t change a lot. She is leading and you will hear her vocally from time-to-time. She is a really good defender and had a ton of steals at George Mason. That complements what we do on the defensive end with ball pressure.”
Sights & Sounds from Thursday’s WVU women’s basketball practice: https://t.co/tKRTdMNGPr
— MetroNews Sports (@MetroNewsSports) October 22, 2026
West Virginia has added length at most positions on the floor, notably with 6-foot-7 forward/center Hawa Doumbouya, 6-foot-3 center Khyala Ngodu, and 6-foot-3 forward Skylar Forbes.
“You start to look at ZaZa Walton and Marya Hudgins, now we have gotten bigger with longer length at the guards with production,” Kellogg said. “Obviously, what Forbes can do at the 4 and 5, with her production, length, shot blocking and defense.”
After coaching JJ Quinerly for two seasons and Jordan Harrison for three [at WVU], Kellogg believes the search for a new vocal leader may take some time.
“We want every kid to just be themselves. They don’t need to be anybody else. When JJ left, everybody kept asking, including you guys how we were going to do it. Trust me, it will play itself out. It always does. We lose Jordan. It will play itself out. It might be a little different but we will figure it out,” Kellogg said.
“Who is that going to be? I’m not sure. [Khyala] Ngodu is a voice on the court that you will hear a ton. Skylar is a little bit more quiet. ZaZa is going to be quiet. [Alexis] Bordas will talk and can offer her opinion, which is a good thing because she is a smart kid. There’s quite a few of them. But I think Gia and Kennedy will be the voice mostly because of the position they play.”