WVU Women’s Basketball Lands in Way-Too-Early Top 25

Fresh on the heels of a Round of 32 appearance that saw them take Caitlin Clark and the nationally-acclaimed Iowa Hawkeyes to the wire, WVU Women’s Basketball enters the 2024-25 season with some of the highest expectations in program history.

Although they made the tournament the previous season, the Mountaineers entered 2023 flying under the radar with a brand new head coach, Mark Kellogg. They’ll have a tougher time claiming underdog status this year, as ESPN rated them as the No. 16 team in the country in their “Way-Too-Early” Top 25.

The Mountaineers—who finished at No. 24 in last year’s AP Poll—will see senior guard JJ Quinerly, the reigning Big 12 Defensive Player of the Year and a two-way star who saw her name floated for a number of national awards, return for her final season in Morgantown. They can also bank on junior Jordan Harrison, a sharpshooter who actually picked up more steals than Quinerly last season.

While the ESPN brand name carries quite a bit of weight, their rankings are secondary to the traditional Associated Press Poll, which won’t drop for roughly three more weeks: last year, their Week 1 poll debuted on Oct. 17.

WVU Women’s Basketball is the fourth and final Big 12 team named in the poll. With the departure of traditional powerhouses Texas and Oklahoma for the SEC, they’ll have an excellent shot at contention in what should be a wide open conference. The Mountaineers will host Towson in their regular season opener at 7pm on Tuesday, Nov. 5.

For a related story, WVU women’s basketball head coach Mark Kellogg held his first press conference after opening up practice ahead of the upcoming season.