MORGANTOWN — UCF senior transfer forward Khyala Ngodu had the reality dating show “Love Island” on her television the other night, but she wasn’t watching alone. The rest of the West Virginia women’s basketball team was there, too, laughing, smiling and talking about the show as most women around the country are.
“That was probably my favorite thing together,” Ngodu said.
It sounds like this team had been together for a season or two, like last year’s Big 12 Championship team was back and ready to repeat. In reality, just two players, guards Gia Cooke and Madison Parrish, returned for the 2026-27 season. The rest of the roster is made up of transfers and a high school recruit.
So, watching the Mountaineers’ open practice on Thursday morning was hard because you were constantly looking down at the roster to see who was who. There are 10 new names to learn, with nine of them being transfers.
That meant head coach Mark Kellogg did a lot of work rebuilding the roster, so WVU could get back to selling out and hosting an NCAA tournament, or winning the conference tournament.
“We had the two kids coming back,” Kellogg said. “We thought we had a couple more that were going to come back initially. Then, they made some decisions to go a different direction. We had a kid leave, and I think in 48 hours we had another kid on campus and committed.”
Luckily for Kellogg, it’s been the easiest it’s ever been to pitch the program. The Mountaineers are coming off a Big 12 Tournament championship, the first since 2017. WVU also hosted an NCAA tournament regional, won the first round game and had lines wrapped around the Coliseum for two straight NCAA games. If it weren’t for baseball having similar success a couple of months later, out of the major sports, women’s basketball would be the highlight of the 2025-26 WVU athletics year.
Also, WVU had another player, Jordan Harrison, signed and made a WNBA roster.
Duquesne transfer sophomore guard Alexis Bordas is from Wheeling, West Virginia, and was the West Virginia Gatorade Player of the Year three times at Wheeling Park. She grew up watching the Mountaineers, including Chase Harler.
Bordas said watching the NCAA tournament and the turnout was a draw to come to the school she grew up watching, alongside he brother, who was a Jevon Carter fan.
“Seeing it come to fruition and taking those extra steps last year, and then hopefully you just keep taking a step closer and closer in the coming years, seeing how everyone’s just fully supporting it is so cool,” Bordas said.
Now that the roster is complete, it’s time, especially in the summer, to get to know everyone’s names and, more importantly, playing styles. Get-togethers like the “Love Island” watch party and some other gatherings that the team’s psychologist has put together have been helping.
“I think mainly just how we’re gelling together,” Bordas said. “Obviously, we have so much talent individually, but just seeing how we’ve all come together and really learned each other’s games, being able to set each other up, knowing what we’re good at. I think that’s come a long way.”
It’s also helped that some of the transfers have played together before. Senior guard Kennedy Harris and senior wing Zaza Walton both came over from George Mason. There are two players from Pitt, redshirt freshman forward Divine Tumba and sophomore guard Nylah Wilson, who know each other. Cooke knew redshirt junior forward Hawa Doumbouya from her days at Maryland when the two were there together.
Some of the players have even played high school ball with or against each other.
“It is nice,” Bordas said. “I’ve actually played against a lot of the girls, so kind of already having a familiarity with them. It was super cool to kind of talk about playing in the same conference and stuff like that.”
There are two Big 12 transfers, Ngodu from UCF and BYU redshirt senior wing Marya Hudgins. Both of them played at least one game against the Mountaineers last season, so they knew what they were getting themselves into regarding playstyle, and they knew how Cooke played.
Ngodu had 21 points and almost had a double-double with nine boards. She also had a block. UCF still lost by 12. Ngodu didn’t play at the game at the Coliseum, but has been there before.
“I’m used to hearing boos and stuff like that,” Ngodu said. “It’s gonna be good to hear some cheers.”
Hudgins played 31 minutes, had 10 points and seven rebounds for BYU against WVU. She felt the full force of Kellogg’s press and turned the ball over six times in the game.
“I make a lot of jokes with Coach Kellogg of just like ‘I hated playing against your guys’ press,'” Hudgins said. “Hated it. So now, being on that side of the havoc is such a relief. I don’t have to deal with it now.”
At this point, learning and creating an entire new roster is the norm, especially in basketball. There are kids who are at their fourth school in four years. WVU has multiple players on its roster who have transferred multiple times.
They are used to making new friends and learning new play styles.
“I feel like it’s nothing new with this new day and age, the college space that we are in,” Ngodu said. “I was on a new team pretty much everywhere. It was something that I was used to doing, and I’m excited because they’re good people.”
All of the moving pieces will have to work in unison. A couple of weeks into summer workouts, it’s too early to determine if this entirely new team, except for two players, will work. For a lot of fans and the team, the expectations are to at least recreate what happened last year, a Big 12 tournament championship and hosting an NCAA regional.
It’s going to be difficult, but even if he didn’t have a lot of time to create the roster, Kellogg feels he has the team to do it.
“It was hot and heavy, that was a little hectic, a little stressful in certain situations,” Kellogg said. “But, really like the group we have.”
