MORGANTOWN — Mark Kellogg’s second season at WVU officially hit the expectation point Thursday, as the Big 12 released its women’s basketball preseason predictions.
For star guard, J.J. Quinerly, well, it really meant nothing new.
Returning four starters from a 25-win team a season ago, the Mountaineers were picked fifth in the Big 12 — WVU was selected eighth last year in the league — and received one first-place vote.
Kansas State, boasting the conference’s preseason player of the year in center Ayoka Lee, was picked first. It’s the first time in school history that K-State topped the Big 12 preseason poll.
Behind the Wildcats were Iowa State, Baylor and TCU.
The Mountaineers finished with 184 points in the poll, just one point behind TCU for fourth place and 27 behind K-State.
Quinerly was a unanimous choice for All-Big 12 preseason first team.
What else is new? WVU’s high-scoring guard was in the same spot a year ago. Quinerly was also named All-Big 12 first team at the conclusion of last season and her sophomore season.
She was also named the Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year last season, after averaging 19.8 points per game, while adding 97 steals.
Quinerly has 231 career steals heading into her final season, needing 125 to surpass Talisha Hargis as the school’s all-time leader.
“She still has that as a goal,” Kellogg said as preseason practice was beginning. “She’s going to have to get going a little more if she wants to get there.”
Baylor’s Aaronette Vonleh and TCU’s Hailey Van Lith were named the top preseason newcomers, while Colorado’s Tabitha Betson was named the preseason’s top incoming freshman.
WVU finished in a three-way tie for fourth place in the Big 12 last season with a 12-6 league record.
The poll
First place-votes in parentheses:
- Kansas State (7), 211 points
- Iowa State (6), 209 points
- Baylor (2), 194 points
- TCU, 185 points
- West Virginia (1), 184 points
- Utah, 149 points
- Arizona, 136 points
- Kansas, 128 points
- Colorado, 113 points
- Texas Tech, 84 points
- Oklahoma State, 80 points
- BYU, 59 points
- Cincinnati, 56 points
- UCF, 54 points
- Arizona State, 51 points
- Houston, 27 points
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