MORGANTOWN — Even four months later, the wound is still a little raw and disappointment still easily shows on Mark Kellogg’s face when asked about that night in Iowa.
“I have not watched it,” the WVU women’s basketball coach said Wednesday about that 64-54 loss against Iowa in last year’s NCAA tournament. “I remember it, vividly. That’s one I know I don’t have to watch. That one is in my mind and forever will be.”
The showdown with the Hawkeyes and star Caitlin Clark drew some of the highest TV ratings of the entire tournament, drawing an average of 4.9 million viewers to ESPN.
The fact WVU came out on the short end came with a lot of pain and frustration, but it was not without some positives.
“I think we definitely have a lot more eyes on us after that game,” is the way junior guard Jordan Harrison put it. “Obviously for ourselves, we have a lot more confidence from that game. We showed we can play with anybody and we’re not scared to go up against anyone.”
While time maybe hasn’t healed all wounds for the Mountaineers, it has brought some recognition — at least that was one story Kellogg relayed.
“Once people figure out who I am, normally it comes up pretty quickly,” Kellogg began. “I was out recruiting and going to Dallas and sat next to this lady, because there was an empty seat next to her. She was from Wheeling and I told her who I was.”
The lady immediately got her husband on her cell phone and Kellogg was there FaceTiming with him in the middle of the airport.
“First thing he tells me is how they watched the Iowa game,” Kellogg said. “You get stuff like that all the time. People pay attention and are paying attention. Hopefully we are building some excitement around here.”
Recruiting doors, too, have opened. As the Mountaineers took the practice floor Wednesday to prepare for their exhibition trip to Italy and Croatia at the end of the month, they did so with a talented transfer in guard Sydney Shaw — she admitted she didn’t watch the game — and two freshmen with potential in forward Jordan Thomas and guard Destiny Agubata.
“Those top-100 kids, we should be on the phone with the majority of them,” Kellogg said. “They do take our calls. That’s what helped with the Iowa game, is so many people watched it. It makes those conversations a little easier now, at least initially. People are excited about what we’re doing and want to be a part of it.”
Capitalizing on the momentum is now the goal for the Mountaineers, who are no longer the underdog working their way up the totem pole as they were last season in Kellogg’s first year with the program.
WVU, which returns four starters from last season’s 25-win team, is ranked No. 16 in ESPN’s Way-Too-Early Top 25, still behind Big 12 foes Baylor, Iowa State and Kansas State, but ahead of so many others they weren’t a year ago.
“I don’t think anything changes,” WVU star guard J.J. Quinerly said. “We’re going to go out there and play everybody the same way we did last year, with nothing to lose.”
“Being more at the top, there is a little bit of pressure,” added Harrison. “You’re held to a standard to where you’re expecting to win. Last year we did well with being the underdogs, but I think we’ll be good at staying at the standard that people hold us to now.”
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