WVU Women Hope to Put Tournament Experience to Good Use

CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The biggest difference for the WVU women between last year’s NCAA Tournament and this year is that the Mountaineers might actually be able to hear their own fans this time around.

Very few, if any, of the 14,000 people who piled into Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City last year were supporting WVU over the host Hawkeyes and superstar Caitlyn Clark. Any that were supporting the Mountaineers almost certainly had their cheers drowned out by the Hawyeye faithful.

This year’s tournament should be a different story, however. Not only is North Carolina’s Carmichael Arena smaller with a capacity of 10,000, but the location is easier for West Virginia fans to get to. 

And star WVU guard JJ Quinerly will have her own cheering section, as she said as many as 50 friends and family will be making the trip down from her hometown Norfolk, Va.

“I think we feed off that fan energy,” Quinerly said Friday morning. “Especially like at home, our energy with our fans is great. Just having them here to support us will be amazing.”

Point guard Jordan Harrison, who played in last year’s tournament alongside Quinerly, said the crowd against Iowa was her biggest takeaway from that game.

“I would definitely say the crowd for sure,” Harrisons said. “Getting that experience playing in front of that many people I think will help us this year in the tournament.”

In total, eight players from last year’s tournament team have returned to the Mountaineers this season. Second-year head coach Mark Kellogg is hoping that experience will show up on the court as WVU tries to go even deeper in the bracket this season.

“Every time you go through it, you get a little bit better,” Kellogg said. “You understand what to expect. Whether it’s the game, it’s what leads up to the game, these press conferences, it’s all

of it.”

WVU made it to the second round of last year’s tournament before dropping a hard-fought second-round game against the eventual national runner-up Hawkeyes. 

“We’ll just draw on those experiences and stay the course,” Kellogg said. “You hang on to every single possession. We’ll just kind of condense it and play some small four-, five-minute games. If you win more of those, then you typically get the outcome that you want.”

The Mountaineers begin their 2025 tournament run against Columbia Saturday at 2 p.m. (ESPNews). The first few minutes of that game might be the most important, as the WVU women will be playing for the first time in two weeks, while the Lions just played Thursday night.

“We need to settle in really, really quickly,” Kellogg said. “We’ve tried to keep the rhythm and flow through these two weeks, give them some time off, stay fresh, but at the same time you have to be ready to play at the speed in which we’re going to have to play at to have success tomorrow.”

Stay tuned for WV Sports Now’s complete coverage of the WVU women’s basketball team in the NCAA Tournament on location in Chapel Hill, N.C.