MORGANTOWN — West Virginia added a first under head coach Mark Kellogg, while adding to the overall strength of the Big 12, too.
The Mountaineers (11-0) cracked the AP Top 25 Monday at No. 25, the program’s first national ranking in that poll since Nov. 23, 2021.
“You can only play the schedule in front of you and I think we’ve done a pretty good job,” Kellogg said after last week’s win against Niagara. “We’ve had two tighter games, but outside of that, we’ve done a pretty good job of taking care of business.
“I think we’ve earned the right. You look at some of the other metrics and rankings and people think we’re a quality basketball team. We just got to get those AP poll voters to think the same thing.”
West Virginia gave the Big 12 a fifth team in the poll, along with No. 5 Texas, No. 10 Baylor, No. 11 Kansas State and No. 23 TCU.
It’s the first time since the 2021-22 season the Big 12 has had at least five ranked teams.
WVU’s top win of the season came against then-No. 25 Penn State on Dec. 4, which began WVU’s slow climb up through the teams receiving votes, but not enough to be ranked.
“It’s been a couple of weeks now since we played Penn State and we haven’t been in there,” WVU guard J.J. Quinerly said. “Hopefully they do put us in there. That would be great.”
WVU has been dominant, so far, under Kellogg, who is in his first year after coming over from Stephen F. Austin.
The Mountaineers are 18th in the country in scoring (82.7 ppg.) and second in the country with 25.73 turnovers forced per game.
They are one of just nine remaining undefeated women’s teams left in the country.
“Do we play with a chip on our shoulder, because of the (rankings)? I don’t know about that,” Kellogg said. “We know we’re close and we know it would mean a lot to get there. We know it’s also going to take a lot to stay in that thing.”
WVU will take its national ranking for a test drive on Saturday, when it travels to Lawrence, Kan. to open the Big 12 season at Kansas (7-4).
The Jayhawks have won three of the last four against WVU, but the Mountaineers won the most recent meeting, a 62-60 victory last February.
WVU has dropped its last two games at Allen Fieldhouse.
