In their first outing since their stunning upset of No. 15 Duke that made national headlines. the WVU women's basketball kept their perfect on the season on Thursday, defeating Appalachian State 80-51 in an early morning affair that served as 'Education Day' at the Hope Coliseum in Morgantown. With a large crowd of raucous children on a field trip to watch some college basketball, the Mountaineers got the job done with ease in front of a large and rowdy crowd. Here are some takeaways from the win.
Mark Kellogg Reaches Major Milestone
We probably don't need to tell you that Kellogg is an incredible coach after he's led the Mountaineers to back-to-back NCAA Tournament Round of 32 appearances during his first two seasons with the program, but Thursday's win over Appalachian State earned him a special milestone that proves just how talented he is.
West Virginia's victory over Appalachian State was Kellogg's 500th win over the course of his 20-year collegiate coaching career. 250 of those wins came at the Division 2 level, where he led two separate teams to NCAA Division 2 Championship Game appearances and advanced to the Sweet 16 or further four different times. He earned another195 wins at Division 1 Stephen F. Austin before coming to WVU, where he is now 55-16 over two seasons and the first five games of his third season.
Elite Depth Can Carry This Team Far
Usual starter Jordan Harrison didn't play following her ejection against Duke for a flagrant foul, but the Mountaineers still had their other 10 players available. Of those 10, nine players scored at least once. The one who didn't, Loghan Johnson, tallied two offensive rebounds, two assists, and one steal.
Depth is important in every sport. But it's a bit more crucial in women's basketball, where there is less parity between the best and worst teams in the sport, and larger talent gaps from the best player on the floor to the worst players on the floor. WVU having 11 players, all of whom can play and contribute at a significant level, will be a boon to this team later in the season which they haven't had to this extent on their last two tournament teams.
Terrific Fan Support A Good Sign For Program
The Mountaineers turned out over 10,000 fans to the Hope Coliseum for a non-conference women's basketball game against a mid-major opponent at 10:15 AM on a Thursday morning in November, shattering last year's similar 'Education Day' attendance by 2,000 fans. Part of it was free attendance, and part of it was the massive student turnout from local grade schools and middle schools for the event.
But regardless of those factors, the crowd shows that not only is women's basketball growing nationally, but that the Mountaineers have a progream that's beginning to draw significant fan support in Morgantown. It's a team that deserves every fan in the stands it can get after it's performances the past two years, and last week's shocking win from "The Greenbrier Five" seems to have only peaked interest. It's great to see a sport that historically hasn't had great turnout garner this type of support, and to hear the Coliseum so loud for women's basketball.