Mark Kellogg Discusses Second Round Matchup Against No. 5 Seed Kentucky

Mark Kellogg and his West Virginia Mountaineers had a light day yesterday, going through their game plan for their second-round matchup against the Kentucky Wildcats. Shortly after, the head Mountaineer met with the media to briefly recap the win over Miami (OH) and discuss the battle with the Wildcats.

Here's everything he had to say.

Reacting to the win over Miami (OH)

“Pleased to still be here and advancing in the (NCAA) Tournament. Obviously, one of the goals is to continue and play, and even as a coach, it’s just to get to gameplan again and let them hang around each other and have another meal or two together. That’s what this is about, and you want to extend it as long as you can. I thought the environment was electric. The atmosphere was awesome. The fan base here is special. Hopefully, we can do that and run it back again Monday evening.”

Initial thoughts on Kentucky

“Kentucky is a very good basketball team, very well-coached. They will present some challenges and some different ones. It’s a different game plan, and it’s a quick turnaround, but that’s why you have a great staff and great people around you. You’re 34 or 35 game plans in, so I’m sure we can draw from one of the previous game plans to make it a little bit easier on our kids to play freely and not get caught up in the game plan.”

If Kentucky’s length is troubling and if it compares to another team

“Yeah, I think there’s some that we’re going to draw from. I’m probably not going to tell you who because I don’t want them to go back and look at that. But they’re not exactly like anybody, but we could probably go to two or three specific teams that the game plan might look somewhat similar. Their length is probably some of their superpowers, but obviously, they are talented in other ways too, so I don’t want to get caught up in that. When you watch them on film, and you look at a lot of analytics, there’s not a lot of holes, and that’s what happens when you get to 32 teams. If you don’t play well, if you don’t execute, you probably don’t advance at this point.”

What allows Meme Wheeler to be successful when she has a height disadvantage

“I think mindset. She probably doesn’t realize she’s giving up or probably want to accept that she’s given up three or four inches. Meme’s just going to play the way she does. She’s passionate, she’s aggressive. She loves these moments, she loves these matchups. It’s why she came here and what she talked about through the recruiting process, wanting to play at this level. She’ll be excited for this one, and you’ll probably get the best version of Meme you can.”

Kentucky starting games strong

“That first quarter won them the game. If you’re not careful and you’re not on it, teams go on big runs. We saw that across the tournament. So yeah, I think you’ve got to be dialed in. I hope that that doesn’t happen, and we’d better be prepared. I think they start well, though, from the games that I’ve seen them play. They do have really good first quarters, and they come out, and their length and ability to shoot the basketball and spread it — (Amelia) Hassett and (Asia) Boone can really fill it up. You just don’t want them to find rhythm early, so it’ll be on us defensively to make sure that we’re trying to take them out of rhythm early.”