Press will set pace for West Virginia women’s basketball | News, Sports, Jobs - News and Sentinel

Oct 18, 2024

West Virginia guard JJ Quinerly (11) speeds in pursuit of the equally fast Jordan Harrison (10).(Photo by Kevin Kinder/BlueGoldNews.com)

MORGANTOWN — There is a bit of irony that comes about each time West Virginia’s women’s basketball team meets with the media for inevitably it turns into a “press” conference, only unlike during games, it is the players being pressed with questions rather than pressing an opponent for steals.

No doubt, the WVU women’s team found themselves ranked No. 16 in the nation this week because last year, with Mark Kellogg taking over as coach, they brought the press back into Press Virginia. This time the gender may be different than it was in the original Press Virginia with Bob Huggins and his men’s team, but the result has proven to be the same.

Last year this unknown, newly constructed team of Kellogg’s, who came in from Stephen F. Austin and brought his helter-skelter pressurized defense into the Big 12, went 25-8 and might have made a real run in the NCAA Tournament tournament had they not met up with Iowa and its superstar Caitlin Clark, who in the end was just too good as she changed the face of women’s college basketball.

If WVU couldn’t beat Iowa, it made an im-PRESS-ion on the Hawkeyes with that devastating press that was so good that only one team in all of college basketball — and there are 349 of those teams — had more steals per game than WVU’s 13.6.

That team was Niagara.

WVU not only had its superstar JJ Quinerly, who is a unanimous All-Big 12 preseason selection and expected to earn All-America honors, leading the way as it applied pressure throughout each and every game it played, but when they added up the stats the top four players in steals in the Big 12 came from WVU, Quinerly joined by partners in crime Jordan Harrison, Kyah Watson and Lauren Fields.

The heart and soul of this team that was picked only fifth in the Big 12 — a dual signal of just how good the conference is and of how underrated WVU may again be — is Quinerly and Harrison.

While Quinerly was a carryover at WVU and already a budding star entering last season, Harrison came in with Kellogg as the perfect complement to Quinerly.

“It clicked instantly,” Harrison said recently. “JJ likes to play off the ball, I obviously play on the ball being the point guard. We just kind of fit together easily. There weren’t any struggles. She knows what she likes to do, I know what I like to do and we don’t get in each other’s way.”

“It wasn’t learning about each other so much as we play the same kind of game,” Quinerly added. “We like to get to the rim. We love to look for our teammates. We both don’t really shoot the 3 as much as we need to. With us being so similar, so athletic, so smart that we just gelled off each other immediately, and that chemistry now is getting stronger.”

The two supercharged the defensive end and turned it into baskets, the press becoming an offensive weapon, just as it was with Huggins’ teams led by Jevon Carter, the NCAA Defensive Player of the Year before heading off to a strong NBA career.

“Our press goes off of who we are,” Quinerly said. “We are a hard-working team that loves to go get the ball. Our best attribute is our defense.”

The Mountaineer defense was so strong last year that twice during the season it put together shutout quarters. They didn’t come against some of those weak non-conference foes that wind up on the schedule but in Big 12 games.

And, here’s the bad news, they expect the press to be better this season

“We probably will be,” Harrison admitted when asked if that was possible. “We have more players so we’ll have more time to sit down and catch our breath. We’ll have enough energy to keep the pressure and the next person to come in will have fresh legs”.

One of those new players who has been impressive is Long Beach State transfer Sydney Woodley, who last year was eighth in the nation with 104 steals.

“That kid (in an earlier practice) was touching every single pass, it felt like,” Kellogg said. “She’s done some good stuff on the defensive end.”

But it begins with Quinerly and Harrison, who have the perfect demeanors for the defense that Kellogg employs.

Asked why she has been so successful with her defensive play, Quinerly answered:

“My ability to go get the ball. I have a keen sense to go steal the ball, whether it’s in the air or someone is dribbling it right in front of my face. That’s what puts me over the top,”

“Obviously, we’re gifted to be fast but we’re also pretty smart,” Harrison added. “We only get five fouls in a game, so we have to be smart and know when to go get a steal. There are a lot of times — trust me — when me and JJ want to go get a steal, but we already have three fouls so we hold off.

“I’d say our basketball IQ does come into it.”