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Jan 3, 2025 By Justin Jackson 5 min read

MORGANTOWN — Outside of having their paychecks signed by the same athletic director and their children attending the same high school, Mark Kellogg and Darian DeVries aren’t exactly attached at the hip.

If you ever wanted a sign that the two WVU head basketball coaches — DeVries with the men, Kellogg for the women — are on the same page, it came Wednesday night.

Kellogg was meeting with the media following the Mountaineers’ 80-58 victory against UCF, a game that really held no important significance other than being a Big 12 matchup, yet there were an impressive 5,200 people in the Coliseum to watch it.

That is a credit to what Kellogg accomplished in his first season at the school last year and what he’s continuing to build.

There is an obvious increase in interest on the national level in women’s basketball, and Kellogg has not disappointed locally with how his players have performed.

Here’s the direct impact: The WVU women set an attendance record last season with 2,861 fans per home game. A season later, WVU is going to smash it, averaging 4,053 per home game so far.

Yet this was an opportunity to go outside the box for a moment. It was just about 24 hours earlier when DeVries pulled off a miracle of sorts, winning at Kansas for the first time in the program’s history and doing so without two injured starters and one travel mishap after another.

Kellogg was asked what he thought of the moment. He didn’t disappoint.

“It takes a ton,” said Kellogg, who said his team was practicing while the Kansas game was being played, but the team managers were watching and providing updates. “You can do extraordinary things when you all rally around each other. You just have to take the us-against-the-world approach in places like that.”

Having not seen it live, Kellogg said he went back and watched the replay.

“I thought the game plan was absolutely spot on,” Kellogg said. “I thought Darian coached his ass off and kind of willed that team a little bit.

“They guard and they’re tough. Those are the things that he obviously wants his team to be about. It’s what I want my team to be about. When you talk about West Virginia, those are the things that are really important to the state.”

If you’re fortunate enough to be in the college coaching business long enough, you’re going to collect a few stories of misfortune.

In 2014, Kellogg and his West Texas A&M team showed up for the shoot-around for a Division II Elite Eight game, only to find the baskets had been pushed back and lowered.

The team lost the majority of its practice time before the baskets were corrected.

“I think we all probably have stories,” Kellogg said. “What they overcame with that short roster and, obviously, in that environment is special.”

Even more special, perhaps, is the combined efforts of the two men.

They share similar stories with a midwestern upbringing — Kellogg is from Texas, DeVries from Iowa — and both got their first coaching opportunity at a Power Conference school at WVU.

Neither is outlandish in nature, rather they project a sense of calm whenever the moment has gone haywire.

The most controversial statement by either, to date, was Kellogg’s rallying cry to the supporters in the audience after the NCAA tournament bracket was announced last season and Kellogg came out with “Let’s send Caitlin Clark packing.”

In all honesty, if that’s the biggest cauldron of hot water either of these guys get into, then WVU athletic director Wren Baker should be able to sleep soundly each night.

They are confident and talented, yet you wouldn’t know it at the national level. Kellogg and DeVries don’t generate headlines other than the results of the games they coach.

That seems to be just fine by both. It allows them to keep working, keep building and to keep winning while flying under the national radar.

And while it’s still very early at WVU for both men, here is maybe their greatest accomplishment of their short tenure: They’ve shut down the noise.

It wasn’t that long ago when basketball at WVU was a sour topic.

Mike Carey decided to suddenly retire. His replacement — Dawn Plitzuweit — left after just one season.

Bob Huggins was forced to resign, creating a great divide amongst the fan base. Josh Eilert, his interim replacement, followed with the worst season in school history.

Men’s players hit the transfer portal like it was giving out free candy. Women’s players had to get used to a third coach in three years.

All of this is still rather recent history, yet DeVries and Kellogg has somehow made it seem like ancient history.

“Hopefully they can keep it rolling and I hope both of us do,” Kellogg said. “I hope this just becomes an electric place and both basketball programs just become the place to be, and this place gets rocking.

“Man, that would be pretty special.”