Nespor: There Won’t be Another JJ Quinerly at WVU Anytime Soon

It will be a long time before WVU has another basketball player like JJ Quinerly, if ever again.

It’s not that WVU won’t continue to have talented basketball players — look no further than Javon Small for the men this season — but Quinerly’s combination of talent and loyalty will be hard to match in the current era of the transfer portal and NIL.

Quinerly reached 2,000 career points during the Mountaineers’ win over Columbia on Saturday, her 125th game wearing the Old Gold and Blue. She moved into third place all-time in scoring for WVU and already ranked third all-time in steals.

“If we had a Mount Rushmore, JJ Quinerly should be on that list,” WVU coach Mark Kellogg said Saturday. “I think she’s solidifying herself with the steals and the points and the loyalty and staying for four years in an era where that’s very unlikely, especially through three coaching changes. Normally kids transfer three times, not stay through three coaches.”

West Virginia will certainly have more players talented enough to score 2,000 points, seven have done so across the men’s and women’s teams, but getting them to stay in Morgantown long enough to match Quinerly’s legacy will be the tricky part.

The fact that Quinerly stayed at WVU for four years is an anomaly in it of itself. Kellogg is the third coach Quinerly has played under in four years at WVU. No one would have blamed Quinerly if she went into the portal when Mike Carey retired after the 2021-22 season or when Dawn Plitzuweit left for a new job the following year.

“She’s played through three coaching changes. Stayed here through three coaching changes, which is very rare these days,” Kellogg said. “So very, very loyal kid. Great teammate. Easy to play with. Easy to cheer for. As a coach, she’s everything you would want a kid to be in so many ways.”

It also would’ve been understandable if Quinerly wanted to test the transfer waters after her breakout junior season last year. It’s not a stretch to think Quinerly could have gone into the portal and had her pick of destinations while making a good chunk of change along the way.

And yet, Quinerly stayed, again, to finish her career where it started.

WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose

A big part of that is just the person Quinerly is. She does not seek out the spotlight. When asked about her individual accomplishments, she often steers the conversation back to her teammates or the team as a whole. It’s a stark contrast as other players of her caliber rack up hundreds of thousands of social media followers and appear in national commercials.

“I’ve called her the unassuming superstar since I’ve been here,” Kellogg said. “I just think she’s a calming influence for her teammates. If we’re not going very well, let’s kind of get the ball to JJ and get out of the way at times and let her be as dynamic as she can be.”

The challenge for WVU moving forward will be that any player with enough talent to eventually score 2,000 points will be tempted at all turns to leave. The promise of more NIL money could draw them to universities with bigger brands and deeper pockets, if they don’t just forgo their college eligibility and elect to turn pro, like Deuce McBride did in 2021. The last players on the men’s team who spent all four years of their college eligibility at WVU were West Virginia natives Chase Harler and Logan Routt.

And that’s part of what makes Quinerly’s story so special, and increasingly rare. She never sought out a brighter spotlight or a bigger paycheck. She instead chose to stay and establish her legacy with the Mountaineers. Whether that was scoring 2,008 points, nabbing 327 steals, scoring 38 in a single game, winning back-to-back Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year awards or potentially leading the Mountaineers to just the second Sweet 16 in program history.

“I think advancing was a big goal of mine coming into this season and even last season,” Quinerly said. “Last season we came up short. Definitely this season I’m looking forward to advancing for sure. I’m going to go into that game like it’s my last and I’m going to play it like it’s my last.”

“She’s just kind of found her rhythm as this year has gone on and settled in,” Kellogg said. “She’s just wanted to leave a legacy.”