Hosting Tournament Games is the Next Step for WVU Women

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — For the last two seasons, the WVU women have watched their season come to an end on someone else’s home court in front of someone else’s home fans.

Last year, it was against Iowa in Iowa City, this year it was against North Carolina in Chapel Hill. 

For the Mountaineers to get over this hump and get out of the second round of the NCAA Tournament, WVU coach Mark Kellogg thinks playing this game in Morgantown next year is paramount.

“I keep saying every time I get into this game that the advantage of playing at home is significant,” Kellogg said after falling to UNC 58-47 Monday night. “If that’s the rules of the NCAA, then we need to continue to work really, really hard to see if we can get one of these in Morgantown.”

As good as the crowds at Iowa and North Carolina were, Kellogg thinks a tournament crowd in Morgantown could be something truly special.

“I think that environment would be ridiculously off the charts and be so much fun for our community and our state,” Kellogg said. “We’re going to go to work on that. I think it certainly helps when you’re playing at home in these first two rounds.”

The top 16 teams, the top four seeds in each region, get to host games in the women’s tournament. The Mountaineers felt good about their chances to host this season, sitting at No. 12 in the NET Ranking after the Big 12 Tournament, but were selected as a No. 6 seed on Selection Sunday. 

“We’ve had a heck of a run, we had a great season,” Kellogg said. “Did we fall a little short of some of our goals? Yes we did, but that’s sports, that’s life.”

West Virginia won 25 games for the second year in a row, the first back-to-back 25-win seasons in program history, but Kellogg said it will take even more to get tournament games in Morgantown.

“You have to win more games, I guess,” Kellogg said. “For us, we probably didn’t win enough in the Quad 1 to get the home game. I think we’re close. We’re closer now than we were a year ago so I think we’re at the doorstep.”

The program has been on an upward trajectory since Kellogg took over two years ago, but he now faces the challenge of replacing a seven-player senior class that includes all-time WVU great JJ Quinerly.

“We’ve changed the way our program is looked at,” Kellogg said. “We’ve been a perennial top 25 team and our attendance numbers have shot through the roof. I hope we continue to build off of it and can use this as a growing pain for those who are coming back.”