West Virginia Women’s Basketball head coach Mark Kellogg as well as some of the team spoke at the 2023 Big 12 Basketball Tipoff about the upcoming season which is closing in fast.

“I was the third coach in three years so that’s not the ideal situation for these guys,” said Kellogg.

West Virginia will be active on the defensive end this year with Kellogg saying, “we do like to press and we mix up our defenses quite a bit and then offensively we hope it’s free flowing and allow some of that offense to come from that defense in some of the pressure so that’s what it should look like. It’s still a work in progress and we’re working through that right now but that will be our identity, that will be our stamp.”

West Virginia’s JJ Quinerly, who was named to the Preseason All-Big 12 team, said she is trying to improve her game even with the success she has had at WVU.

“Focus more on my three-point selection and just getting that percentage up and then of course always working on my midrange and just always working on my finishes getting to the hoop, that’s what I like to do,” Quinerly said. “Just working on my game in general, just developing my game especially with him talking with Coach Kellogg and defensively just working on that box-out part.”

Fifth-year guard Jayla Hemingway was once a transfer herself from Mississippi State. Now the Mountaineers have an influx of them and Hemingway is the veteran in the room.

“The Big 12, it’s a very physical league but I feel like we have a lot of new players and they all kind of adjusted pretty well. I feel like our school is a good place where it feels like a family environment so I feel like it’s pretty easy for everybody to adjust and you know get used to each other so that was good,” Hemingway said.

Redshirt junior Kyah Watson spoke on how she is taking her game to the next level.

She said, “I think one thing that [Coach Kellogg] wanted me to focus on was getting my shooting percentage up so I worked on that and then just being more aggressive on offense you know attacking the rim, getting to the rim, getting to the free-throw line to shoot some more free throws this year.”

West Virginia begins their season on Nov. 7 against Loyola Maryland at the WVU Coliseum.