MORGANTOWN — Two new assistant coaches and six newcomers to West Virginia’s women’s basketball roster would normally have been enough to keep Mike Carey busy.
Yet, the No. 19-ranked Mountaineers team that hosts Cornell (6-4) at 2 p.m. Tuesday in the WVU Coliseum — WVU’s final non-conference game of the season — is nothing like the one blew past Salem in an exhibition game back in October.
It has almost been a blur of distractions and triumphs that has got WVU (9-1) to this point.
Where exactly do the Mountaineers stand?
With Big 12 play starting next week, the Mountaineers are now a strong conference season away from positioning itself among the top 16 in the country, which would set up WVU as a host team for the first two rounds of the NCAA tournament.
The Mountaineers have never hosted before in school history.
“It’s still very early,” Carey cautions, not wanting his mind to wander past the daily task of making his players better.
Those players have become the real story thus far, whether it being overcoming adversity or simply overcoming a slow start to the season.
It begins with guards Kysre Gondrezick and Tynice Martin, the duo who have established themselves as the high-scoring wing players who are the reason opposing teams find it difficult to double team anyone in the paint.
Gondrezick played in just five games a season ago, before leaving the team for personal reasons.
Martin, who now finds herself just 27 points shy of moving up to sixth place on the school’s all-time scoring list, was indefinitely suspended to start this season for a violation of team rules. She didn’t return until the third game and then had to work herself back into shape.
“To be honest, this team is pretty close,” Carey said. “I think we brought in some freshmen who were able to contribute early and it helped us create a bench.
“We’ve got people competing for playing time and anytime you have people competing for playing time, you have a chance to be pretty good.”
Now that forward Kari Niblack is playing back to the potential that made her the Big 12’s Sixth Man Award winner last season, she gives the Mountaineers an inside presence.
Niblack has averaged 14.0 points and 8.75 rebounds over her last four games.
Three of those games were victories against then-No. 10 Mississippi State, as well as Michigan State and Syracuse, who both have spent time this season in the AP Top 25.
“I knew before the Mississippi State game, things had better come together or that probably would have been a long night,” Carey said. “I wanted to load up against Power 5 schools right before conference play. That was something that we needed to do and they’ve been successful so far.”
Kirsten Deans and Esmery Martinez continue to develop as talented freshmen. Deans was one of the heroes against Mississippi State with 17 points off the bench.
What began as a series of questions this season has now seemingly been whittled down to just one: How far can the Mountaineers go this season?
“We’re not even close yet,” Carey said. “Our inside game has a lot of room to grow as far as taking care of the basketball and defensively.
“Our freshmen still don’t know exactly all they need. They play on emotions instead of with their brains sometimes. I think we have a lot of room to grow, but I like this team. Whether that means we win or lose, I don’t know. But, we’re in great shape, I feel, going into league play.”
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