MORGANTOWN — West Virginia officially hit the third chapter of their feel-good journey Tuesday, marked with a dominant 84-43 victory against UCF inside the Coliseum.
It’s the chapter where the anticipation begins to build to a peak level and the end is now closer in the story than the beginning.
For three months, WVU (18-2, 7-2 Big 12) has played the part of the easy-going bunch with the first-year coach in Mark Kellogg who had no expectations coming in.
Collectively, they got off to an impressive start that eventually led to a No. 23 national ranking.
This next chapter, though, is where stories become great or forgettable. The Mountaineers are now halfway through the Big 12 schedule and they are just two games behind the No. 2-ranked team in the nation in Kansas State in the Big 12 standings and just a half-game behind Oklahoma for second place.
Will WVU eventually wilt under the building momentum or does this story reach a realm that was once thought unimaginable?
“We just mainly focus on staying consistent,” was the way WVU point guard Jordan Harrison answered the question after scoring 10 points and adding six rebounds and five assists against the Knights (10-9, 1-8). “We don’t want to get too comfortable. I think that’s what’s helped us stay in the top 25.
“I don’t think the moment will get too big, as long as we just play our game and not try to do things we usually don’t do. Just play our game and we’ll be fine.”
What was once thought to be a group of underdogs are now playing the unexpected role as favorite.
WVU was near-perfect in that role against the Knights, in that the Mountaineers did what favorites are supposed to do — dominate.
J.J. Quinerly scored 26 points on 10 of 14 shooting, the 11th time this season she’s scored more than 20 points in a game.
This one came with Quinerly watching from the bench and resting for the bulk of the fourth quarter.
“J.J. got going again,” Kellogg said. “The kid is playing pretty well right now.”
Lauren Fields hit three 3-pointers and added 15 points and Kyah Watson did a little bit of everything else, finishing with nine points, 10 rebounds and three steals.
If all continues to go well, and that’s the ultimate what-if question at the moment, WVU could take this journey into elite territory.
A Big 12 title? Not impossible at the moment, although K-State looks pretty unbeatable right now and the Mountaineers must still play No. 13 Baylor twice.
But what about continuing to climb, continuing to contend to the point where WVU could possibly be a host site for the opening rounds of the NCAA tournament?
That’s never happened before in program history.
Kellogg is not naive to what’s been accomplished to this point, yet is keeping all those what-if scenarios off in the distance.
“We still haven’t really talked about it much,” he said. “We did talk about this being the halfway point (of the Big 12 season). We’ll talk briefly about what this next part looks like and here’s the next stretch coming up.
“It’s the old coaching cliche, we’re going to take it one game at a time. We’ve got a couple of opponents now that we still haven’t faced and that will be something different for us again, something new. I don’t want to get too far ahead of ourselves.”
To those on the outside, WVU’s accomplishments thus far have been more than just noticeable.
“I think they are a really good team. I really do,” said UCF head coach Sytia Messer, who spent seven seasons at Baylor as Kim Mulkey’s top assistant. “I think their record shows where they stand in this league. They’re physical. They’re going to cause you to turn the ball over and they play well. I think they’re one of the best teams in our league.”
