WVU Women’s Basketball Moves to No. 22 in Coaches Poll

WVU Women’s Basketball moved up in the USA Today Coaches Poll for the week of January 29, listed at No. 22 when the rankings dropped on Tuesday afternoon.

That’s the Mountaineers’ best mark in any major ranking system, as the AP Poll currently lists them at No. 23—where the Coaches Poll listed them last week—and the NET Rankings have them at No. 24.

The Mountaineers boosted their résumé with a close home win over Iowa State last week, improving their record to 17-2. Junior guard JJ Quinerly continued to make her case as one of the best players in the country in the game against the Cyclones, managing a career-best 31 points in the 84-78 win.

This week, they’ll have two more chances to improve their ranking with a game against the UCF Knights at 7 p.m. Tuesday and another at the BYU Cougars at 6 p.m. on Saturday, February 3.

WVU Women’s Basketball continues to dominate their opponents both on the court and in a number of statistics, ranking inside the top 50 nationally in the following categories: 

• Turnovers Forced Per Game (24.89, good for No. 2 and the most of any major program)
• Winning Percentage (.895, tied for No. 11)
• Field Goal Percentage (45.98, No. 33)
• Assists Per Game (16.4, No. 44)
• Scoring Defense (55.8 points per game, No. 28)
• Scoring Offense (78.3 points per game, No. 26)
• Steals (14.9 per game, No. 1, led by Quinerly’s 3.4 per game, the sixth-best individual mark in the country)
• Turnover Margin (9.53, No. 1)

Aggressive defense leads the way for head coach Mark Kellogg’s crew, but it’s far from the full story on these opportunistic Mountaineers.

The full rankings for this week’s Coaches Poll can be found here.