WVU Women’s Basketball star guard, JJ Quinerly, took some time to speak to the media on Tuesday leading up to the team’s Golf Coast Showdown in Florida this weekend. The team is set to play three games in three days starting on Friday with the championship set to be played on Sunday.
The Mountaineers will kick off the tournament against High Point and will play either Boise State or Illinois State on Saturday. The teams on the other side of the bracket that WVU could face are Butler, New Mexico State, Santa Clara, and fifth ranked Texas.
Quinerly was asked to start the press conference what a road trip will mean to the team who has played all six of their games this season in Morgantown.
“Hopefully we get to figure out our identity more in blue (away uniform). I think we’re a little slower in blue right not. I think we have to pick that up and just find our identity all around playing better teams now. So hopefully we get to play Texas in championship, so it should be a good run.”
Not only can road trips be a test for a team on the court, but it can also be a moment for the players to bond off campus while spending lots of time with each other. When asked if these trips are fun, Quinerly left no doubt about how she felt.
“Yes, of course. They’re always fun. You get to go to a different place and see a different environment, hang with the team. Whether it’s just in the hotel room or outside at the beach or something like that. So it’s just another time for us to stay together and just get to know each other.”
It will be a challenge, as it is for all teams, to have to play three games in three days. However, despite the challenge, Quinerly stated that she has been there before and feels confident in the team’s resources to face the challenge of three games in three days head on.
“We used to do that at AAU basketball. So I mean it’s going to be difficult, but you just have to take the good with the bad and go out there. You’ll get treatment after the game, so should be fine going into the next game. So we should be good.”
Not only is it physically demanding for teams in these tournaments, but the mental hurdle of a lack of time to prepare for teams is a tall task as well. The Mountaineers have had a whole week leading up to the start of the tournament, but they only know one team they will be playing for sure, High Point. The others will be decided later.
Luckily for WVU, Quinerly says Head Coach Mark Kellogg has done a great job spending the week getting the team ready.
“The good part about coach, is he’s getting us ready for basically all the teams that we could play as of right now. So when we go in and we figure out who we do play, we still got to go over some scouts with some team. So we’ll be fine for sure.”
The first game for WVU Women’s Basketball in the Golf Coast Showdown will take place on Friday at 1:30 p.m. ET against High Point.
