MORGANTOWN — The position WVU women’s basketball coach Mark Kellogg finds himself in today, Kenny Brooks has been there.
It’s one thing to guide your team to a season good enough to be chosen as a host for the NCAA tournament. In itself, that is a major accomplishment.
It’s a whole other deal, though, when you do it at a school that’s not used to being in that position, which is where Kellogg is today. WVU is the host this weekend for three games that will determine one of the Sweet 16 teams playing next week. It’s been 34 years since the program could boast it had this type of role.
Brooks was in that exact same position in 2023 at Virginia Tech. The Hokies had a truly magical season then, going 31-5 and winning the ACC tournament to earn one of the four No. 1 seeds. Blacksburg, Va. was a host for the opening NCAA rounds for just the second time in school history.
How did that feel? Brooks, now the head coach at Kentucky, didn’t hold back.
“You’re going to be nervous as hell,” he said, as laughter filled inside the Hope Coliseum press room Friday. “There is an expectation that comes with it.”
That expectation is you’re the host and the favorite. You’ve got the home crowd behind you. Your players get to sleep in their own beds. You have no reason to fall back on if things don’t go well.
“Every time I put my head on my pillow, I go to sleep with a smile on my face, just like giggling myself to sleep because I’m so excited,” is the way WVU guard Sydney Shaw explained it. “It’s a big deal to not have to pack your bag, honestly, and you get to sleep in your own bed, so I’m grateful for that.”
Now, for a coach like UConn’s Geno Auriemma, no, he probably doesn’t get “nervous as hell” anymore. Hosting the NCAA tournament for the Huskies is as repetitive as eating breakfast.
Just maybe Kellogg will one day know that feeling, too. For now, he’s still the new guy on the block.
“There is an expectation. There is a responsibility that comes with it,” said Brooks, who led the Hokies to the Final Four in 2023. “I’ll be very honest, we carried that weight. It was like, OK, you got to win, you got to win, you got to win. So there are some nerves involved with it.”
This is where Kellogg spins the story a little differently, which if you’ve ever paid any attention to the WVU coach over his first three seasons, shouldn’t exactly surprise you.
He is a poker player of sorts, always finding his way to remain in that sweet spot in the middle. Outside of that one very brief moment two years ago when he told a gathering of WVU fans, “Let’s go see if we can send Caitlin Clark packing,” one would never really know if Kellogg has ever been caught up, overwhelmed or even underwhelmed by the moment.
Nervous over this situation? Not according to Kellogg.
“I have not felt that,” he said. “No, I think I’m still excited. I’m excited, obviously, for our program, for the state. It’s just a tremendous opportunity. It hasn’t happened here in 34-ish years, I believe.”
It was two interesting takes from two coaches who fully expect to be facing each other on Monday with a trip to the Sweet 16 hanging in the balance.
The other thing to know about Kellogg, you may never see him sweat, but he also isn’t afraid to voice what’s on his mind, either.
“Did you follow up and ask him if he would rather be on the road or at home or would he trade it?” Kellogg asked. “I doubt he would probably say that. That’s a veteran coach, I think, just trying to plant a seed, potentially.”
Maybe. Brooks said his thoughts are as the visiting team his Wildcats had the advantage of playing like they had nothing to lose.
“We’re on the other side of it now this time,” Brooks said. “We’re just going to come out and go play freely.”
Kellogg, especially the last two seasons when the Mountaineers had to travel to Iowa and North Carolina to play in the NCAA tournament, has already been on that playing-freely side.
Give him a few extra nights in Morgantown any day, nerves or not.
“I have been on the other end of it, too, where – supposedly – you’re playing freely or when you’re on the road,” Kellogg said. “I do know there’s some moments in there when the crowds get into it and stuff that I would rather be on the flip side of it.”
