WVU Kierra Wheeler looks to pass against Appalachian State - Ron Rittenhouse

MORGANTOWN — It’s been a 20-year journey now for Mark Kellogg, one that hit a major milestone Thursday, after the 23rd-ranked WVU women’s basketball team surged past Appalachian State, 80-51, inside the Hope Coliseum.

For Kellogg, it was his 500th career victory.

An Education Day crowd of 10,067 witnessed the event, although it did not come as smoothly as the scoreboard might have indicated.

“It was an interesting game,” Kellogg said. “Didn’t love the way we played, to be honest. In my younger years as a coach, I probably would have let (his players) have it in the locker room. I let up a little bit today.”

Don’t let Kellogg fool you, he’s still got plenty left in the tank. He’s still a few weeks shy of his 50th birthday and his career record of 500-136 equals out to a 78.6% clip of winning. That’s a higher percentage than Hall of Famers and legendary coaches such as C. Vivian Stringer and Muffett McGraw.

“It means a lot, but I don’t reflect a whole lot on it until someone asks me to,” Kellogg said. “It means you’ve been in the game for a little while, but I’ve been really fortunate.”

In those 20 years, hard decisions were made, but they were made with the idea of keeping Kellogg marching forward.

“We’ve moved five times, so my family has bounced across the country for this guy to chase a dream,” Kellogg said. “They’ve been there through it all.”

He was handed nothing along the way, only given opportunities. It began at a small liberal arts college in Durango, Colo., where the home gym sits only 2,750 for hoops games. There was a one-year stop at another small Division II school in Missouri – that was an opportunity given to him by his current boss, WVU athletic director Wren Baker – before heading back to his home state of Texas.

“You’ve got all of these players, coaches, administrators and AD’s that gave me a chance,” Kellogg continued. “One here that’s given me a chance twice. Those are the things I will briefly reflect on.”

In his third season with the Mountaineers (5-0), Kellogg is already up to 55 victories. He has WVU in an early position to contend for another spot in the NCAA tournament, although that is still too far away to think about.

In this one, it was weird for a number of reasons. WVU was coming off its monumental win last Friday against Duke, in which the Mountaineers had to play the second half of that game with just five players, but still held on for a 57-49 win.

His rock, Jordan Harrison, was forced to sit out the Appalachian State game while serving a one-game suspension handed down by the NCAA for her role in the shoving match against Duke.

“This was my first game without Jordan Harrison in three years and five days,” Kellogg said. “I thought we were a little off there. There was some value that we obviously missed with her.”

There was also the wave of emotions that came after the Duke win, and Kellogg said his players had to learn to deal with the aftermath of the victory.

“If you want to be great, I hope we have other big wins,” Kellogg said. “We have to learn and grow. We had to get after them a little bit (Wednesday), because I didn’t think they were doing what they were supposed to.”

Gia Cooke led the Mountaineers with 19 points, as WVU forced 27 turnovers and shot 56% from the field. Kierra Wheeler added 15 points and five rebounds and Jordan Thomas added 10 points.

It all added up to a 500th notch on Kellogg’s win total. The impressive part is those wins came in just his 636th career game.

“It’s winning 500, but to do it at the success rate that we have is every bit as (important),” Kellogg said. “You know, if I was 500-500, it still means you’ve been doing it a while, but you’re not overly successful. To do it and have the career we’ve had, it’s special.”

The best part? That just may be West Virginia getting set to travel to the Bahamas this weekend to play in the Baha Mar Hoops Pink Flamingo Championship. WVU takes on McNeese State in the first round on Monday and will likely face Ohio State in the title game.

“Not a bad way to spend it, right?” Kellogg joked. “I don’t know if we’ll be on the beach a lot, but maybe I’ll take a quick moment to go out there before we tip it off for the next one.”