Latest news with #MarkKellogg
Dominion Post
30-07-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
Mark Kellogg's tinkering with WVU women's hoops schedule has brought the program an upgrade
MORGANTOWN — Mark Kellogg has spent two years evaluating and calculating in an attempt to find the sweet spot when it comes to strength-of-schedule (SOS) numbers. It ended up being an exercise of frustration of sorts. Two 25-win seasons under Kellogg produced nothing better than a No. 6 seed in the NCAA tournament for the Mountaineers, despite being ranked in the Associated Press Top 25 all of last season and for nine weeks during his first season. As to how that was possible, it's a 50-50 answer. As in WVU's overall SOS was ranked No. 55 last season, 52nd the year before. 'You don't want to over-schedule, but you don't want to under-schedule, either,' Kellogg said. 'That's the delicate balance. How do you get the right schedule for the team you are expecting to have? We maybe under-scheduled it a bit last year, looking back at it. We'll wait and see what this year looks like, but hopefully it's the right schedule.' It is a schedule that will be noticeably different, beginning with no match-up against rival Pitt. In the current landscape of NET and strength of schedule rankings, losing the Panthers may not be a bad thing. Pitt is a combined 21-43 over the last two seasons, and even a road win over the Panthers does little to change the needle in terms of SOS. WVU will also travel to Texas A&M and Temple will travel to Morgantown, in what are return games from last season. What will be new is Georgia Tech and Villanova will also visit the Coliseum this season. Those two teams combined for 43 wins last season, with Georgia Tech advancing to the NCAA tournament, while Villanova advanced to the semifinals of the WBIT. During Thanksgiving, the Mountaineers will participate in the Baha Mar Hoops tournament in the Bahamas, with Ohio State, Alabama and Minnesota being possible opponents. A game against Minnesota would pit WVU against former head coach Dawn Plitzuweit, who coached WVU to the 2023 NCAA tournament before leaving for Minnesota. The bigger scheduling news is Kellogg said WVU is signed to play against 'a top 10 opponent' at The Greenbrier Resort in November. The opponent is expected to be announced as soon as Thursday. 'I think we've got some challenges in front of us that we need to play well to win,' Kellogg said. 'Hopefully our nonconference (schedule) will be helped. That's probably what held us back to being a six (seed) last season instead of a five.' The ultimate goal is to get WVU in a position to host one of the 16 regionals in the NCAA tournament, Kellogg said. There's really two ways to accomplish that. Short of putting together a magical 30-win season and dominating the Big 12, WVU's other option is putting together another top-25 caliber season against a schedule that is ranked in the 20s or 30s rather than the 50s. Finding that scheduling comfort is no easy task. Power Five teams outside of the Big 12 may have no interest in traveling to Morgantown. Kellogg said caution must also be used as to not creating a super schedule just for the purpose of being able to say WVU plays a great schedule. 'You don't want to go too much the other way, either,' Kellogg said. 'You get beat up too much and you're not prepared or don't have the right mindset going into Big 12 play. 'If you slip a little bit and lose those nonconference games, that doesn't help you either.
Dominion Post
25-07-2025
- Sport
- Dominion Post
COLUMN: At first glance, Mark Kellogg has WVU in prime position in post-J.J. Quinerly era
MORGANTOWN — The doors opened to the WVU women's basketball practice facility on Thursday morning. On the inside was a shiny new car of sorts. We've all been there at one time or another. Our eyes can't escape the smooth paint job, the glossy look and the fancy features. Our hearts want to believe the rest of that car is in pristine condition, too, but we have no idea what it looks like under the hood or if that car will even make it 10 miles down the road before breaking down. In a sense, that's what was on display in that practice facility. If first impressions mean anything in college basketball, WVU head coach Mark Kellogg just may have a Sweet 16-caliber team on his hands. It's an athletic bunch that gets up and down the floor in a hurry. It just may be Kellogg's best rebounding team at WVU. It also appears the Mountaineers will be able to match up better physically with upper-tier teams, a question in the past. 'This is definitely going to be the deepest team we've had,' Kellogg said. 'I think we could go 10 or 11 deep.' Carter McCray, a 6-foot-1 transfer forward who played last season at Wisconsin after she was the Horizon League's Freshman of the Year in 2024 at Northern Kentucky, doesn't take much time to catch your eye. 'I feel like I'm a really tough player,' McCray said. 'Rebounding is my forte, that's what they have me here for. I just go after it every day in practice and go after as many rebounds as I can.' Gia Cooke, a 5-10 guard, took a big step forward in her game last season at Houston and it appears she's on track to do the same at WVU this season. She was once a highly-recruited 4-star prospect out of Bishop McNamara (Forestville, Md.), who first committed to Texas A&M, before changing her mind and staying home to play at Maryland. 'They are living up to what we thought,' Kellogg said about his newcomers of five transfers and one freshman. 'We haven't had any negative surprises, like we missed in a certain area with a portal kid. They've been what we thought they were.' WVU sophomore center Jordan Thomas showed flashes of star power as a freshman. A season later, she appears set to meet some higher expectations. 'In time, we will be able to finish and we can throw the ball to some bodies inside,' Kellogg said. 'We should be able to finish around the rim at a higher clip. I anticipate that happening.' Add in what you already knew about this team — the leadership of Jordan Harrison, the shooting of Sydney Shaw — and WVU has one impressive paint job, complete with the sharp racing pinstripes and the glossy finish. It simply becomes a question of whether or not this team can make it 10 miles down the road without breaking down. 'I feel really good with where we're at,' said Shaw, who averaged 11.4 points per game and led WVU with 67 3-pointers last season. 'I think we're meshing well on and off the court. That's really showing, so we can speed things up on the court. I think we're in a good space right now.' If it works out, it would equate to the highest stamp of approval possible for Kellogg's ability to sustain a major program. To be sure, his mark has been left on this program since he took over the Mountaineers in 2023, but it's a heck of a lot easier to leave that mark when you inherit a player like J.J. Quinerly. She's in the WNBA now, meaning Kellogg doesn't have that safety pin of sorts. He doesn't have that player to lean on and say, 'Hey, just go take over this game.' And if this WVU team ends up being just as highly-ranked in the top 25 polls, contending for another Big 12 title and pushing for a Sweet 16, well, simply put, Kellogg would be the man. 'You replace points. You replace certain things,' Kellogg said. 'It happens every year that you lose players. Yes, J.J. was an extremely talented kid, but it was some of her intangibles that you miss. 'Her on-ball defense, the calmness that late in a game we could get the ball to her and she would go make a play. Those are the things you have to talk through and try to overcome.' Some programs lose a generational talent and are never heard from again. Then there's UConn, which loses generational talent every two or three seasons, only to have the next one step right in. Going only on first impressions here, Kellogg is likely somewhere in the middle, but he just may be leaning closer to the latter.
Chicago Tribune
24-06-2025
- General
- Chicago Tribune
Air Force veteran's Park Forest home gets thousands in repairs through Cook County program
Mark Kellogg and his wife, Keisha, were looking at taking out a hefty home equity line of credit to pay for thousands of dollars in repairs at their Park Forest home. But the U.S. Air Force veteran didn't have to pay a dime for $30,000 worth of work, completed this spring through a Cook County program that repaired homes of 30 military veterans, including homes in other south suburbs. At a news conference outside Kellogg's home Tuesday, Cook County Board President Toni Preckwinkle said the program was meant to make veterans' homes 'more accessible, safer and more secure.' 'Our veterans have given us so much,' she said. Launched in 2023, the Veterans Home Repair Program tapped $1.25 million in federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. Along with Kellogg's home, the county program repaired the homes of veterans in Chicago, Blue Island, Calumet City, Dolton, Homewood, Lansing, Matteson and Richton Park. Interior and exterior work was done on all of the homes, with costs ranging from $15,000 to $45,000, according to the county. At Kellogg's home, work included new gutters, a new furnace and water heater, repainting six rooms and replacing a concrete patio in the backyard. 'When we bought the house we didn't know rain pooled against the back of it,' he said. The county program replaced the concrete patio and regraded the soil underneath so that storm runoff is directed into drains in the backyard. Kellogg said fixing that problem alone would have cost him $16,000. 'I am extremely greatful I was chosen to participate,' Kellogg said. He said he and his wife have lived in the home since 2010. Kellogg was in the Air Force from spring 1988 to winter 1992. He is commander of the American Legion post in Park Forest and works for the village's Public Works Department. He grew up in Harvey and has six siblings, and his family moved to Park Forest during his senior year of high school. After graduating from the since-closed Rich East High School in 1987, he joined the Air Force. Kellogg said he comes from a military family and that his father and a younger brother both served in the Air Force, and other relatives, including a grandfather, uncle and cousins, were in other branches of the military. He said he applied online last December for the county program and was told in March he'd been selected. All of the work was done by the end of April, he said. The 56-year-old Kellogg and his wife have been married 22 years and have three daughters. The county worked with Rebuilding Together Metro Chicago, which relies on volunteers to repair homes and other buildings in the Chicago area. Since 1991, the organization has repaired 1,900 homes and 285 facilities operated by nonprofits, according to its website. Wanda Ramirez, Rebuilding Together's president and chief executive, said there are a 'growing number of homeowners who cannot afford to make repairs' needed for them to stay in their homes. Without the financial resources needed, Ramirez said the many veterans 'may have to live in substandard housing.'
