NCAA WOMEN'S BASKETBALL CHAMPIONSHIP: FIRST ROUND - MIAMI (OH) VS WEST VIRGINIA

March 20, 2026

Jordan Harrison

Sydney Shaw

Mark Kellogg

Hope Coliseum

West Virginia Mountaineers

Media Conference

THE MODERATOR: We want to welcome the host team, West Virginia University. The Mountaineers with a 27-6 record, earned an automatic bid to the tournament as the Big 12 Conference Tournament champion. This is the Mountaineers third straight NCAA Tournament appearance. Joining us are student-athletes Jordan Harrison and Sydney Shaw. Welcome, ladies, and we'll open it up for questions.

Q. Actually for both of you, but Sydney why don't you start with this. The excitement level this week with the home game, but also does that bring pressure as well?

SYDNEY SHAW: I wouldn't say it brings pressure but I would say every time I put my head on my pillow, I go to sleep with a small on my face, just like giggling myself to sleep because I'm so excited.

It's a big deal to not have to pack your back, honestly and you get to sleep in your own bed, so I'm grateful for that.

JORDAN HARRISON: Kind of what Shaw said. I'm more excited than anything. Don't feel a lot of pressure. I feel comfortable playing here. I think we all do, so I think we're just happy to be here and have our fans.

Q. Is it a little surreal to see all this March Madness stuff around your home court?

JORDAN HARRISON: Yeah, it kind of is. Always used to being somewhere else so to have it here feels a little different.

SYDNEY SHAW: Especially having to walk through the tunnel to get -- it was very different.

Q. Jordan, was this kind of like what Coach Kellogg promised you when you transferred over here? All this? And now it feels surreal how it's all coming together?

JORDAN HARRISON: Yeah, it's definitely something we talked about a lot and we knew we couldn't do by ourselves and it was going to take time and we had to build to get here, so, yeah, it's pretty cool to see it actually happening and living in the moment of it. So, yeah, very excited about it.

Q. For either of you, Miami is very good at scoring the basketball but also very good defensively. What are you guys going to do? You have played teams that have very good on the offensive side but what's the defensive mindset going into this game?

SYDNEY SHAW: I think we take parade in defending great teams and we know they come with a lot of scoring ability and they are very aggressive on defense. I think just taking care of the ball and just trying to apply our same pressure and playing our basketball will be our focus.

JORDAN HARRISON: Yeah, they're a really good team. I feel like we have seen a lot of teams like them as well. It will just be coming making sure we do what we're supposed to do, play hard. We have done a loot of scout over them. We trust our coaches and what they tell us that they do. We're just going to do our best to execute, and, yeah.

Q. Jordan, on senior day you were pretty definitive that wasn't going to be your last home game. How does it feel to have delivered on that and know you're going to play tomorrow?

JORDAN HARRISON: It feels great. I just truly believed I didn't want this to be my last game. I wasn't even that sad on my senior fight because I felt like we were going to be back here, so for it to come true, I'm very happy about it. And, yeah, excited. Like I keep saying. I'm just super excited about it.

Q. You guys have played in front of big crowds before, but this may be the biggest. Does that matter, though, when you're on the court? Do you look up at all? 8,000, 14,000, is there a different pressure?

SYDNEY SHAW: I think I will look up just to see what it looks like and take it all in, but I think when you're playing the game, you get lost in it and the crowd doesn't become such a factor.

Q. When you guys talk about being excited and going to sleep with a smile, do you have to tamper that down at all going into tomorrow? Obviously you've talked about the lemons and how that shocked your system. Do you have to do that all week just to stay level?

JORDAN HARRISON: No, not all week. We just take one before the game, but, yeah, obviously we're happy, excited about it, but I think we're able to kind of bring ourselves down just a little bit and get ready to play.

Coach Kellogg was telling us today the quicker that we settle in, the easier the game will be. If we're too excited shooting off the side of the backboard, that's when things might be a little bad for us. I think we have the right level of excitement and we know how to kind of balance it.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions? All right, thank you student athletes. Appreciate it.

At this time we welcome West Virginia head coach Mark Kellogg. We would like you to start us off with general comments about making it into the tournament and then as well as your first round match-up tomorrow against Miami.

MARK KELLOGG: Yeah, thank you and welcome if you're not from Morgantown or West Virginia. We are excited to host, obviously, for us to have the opportunity to play at home in front of our fan base that's supported this since we got here and well before that. Happy for our team. It doesn't guarantee us anything, as we've said numerous times, but we're certainly excited to be here and sleeping in our own beds and we're going to have an electric atmosphere which I think will be great for all the teams.

I would imagine there will be a pretty good group that will be here for that first game tomorrow watching so I think they'll have a great feel and then certainly when we tip it off at 5:00, I think that environment will be fantastic. So congratulations to all the teams that made it. We're certainly excited to be one of those and to be hosting and now it's on us to take advantage of the opportunity. I will stop there, I guess. I know you said something about Miami but I'll let y'all ask whatever you need to ask.

Q. Mark, sort of playing off that, Kenny Brooks, Kentucky's coach, mentioned that when he was at Virginia Tech the first time they hosted there was a ton of excitement but he also felt pressure as well because he wanted things to go so well for his fans and get those wins. Have you felt pressure yet? Have you acknowledged that that's there or is it still in the excitement mode?

MARK KELLOGG: I have not felt that. Did you follow up and ask him if he would rather be on the road or at home or would he trade it? I doubt he would probably say that. That's a veteran coach, I think, just trying to plant a seed, potentially.

No, I think I'm still excited. I'm excited, obviously, for our program, for the state. It's just a tremendous opportunity. It hasn't happened here in 34-ish years, I believe. And so for me there's so many other people who have put in all the time since we found out we were hosting and there's a ton of work that goes into that.

It's not just about playing a home game. There's so much work that goes into it. From that side, I'm really excited too. I know our players are excited to get to play here. Pressure? I don't know. It's a privilege, I guess, if that is such a thing. I'm sure aisle have the same kind of anxious butterflies I have before every game we play the entire season.

But, no, I have been on the other end of it too where "supposedly" you're playing freely or when you're on the road but I do know there's some moments in there when the crowds get into it and stuff that I would rather be on the flip side of it. I guess ask me when it's over and I might have a better answer for you.

Q. Can you just give an early scouting report on Miami Ohio? I think they're a pretty good defensive team so it should be a good defensive match-up. Is that what you saw through the scout as well?

MARK KELLOGG: Yeah, obviously a championship team, which a lot are, especially at the mid-major level. That's how you get into this tournament for the most part. Regular season champion. They shared it with Ball State, went on to win and played really well in their conference tournament.

They're used to winning right now. They're playing with a ton of confidence. They can shoot it offensively. It looks to me they've been known for what they do on the defensive end and now maybe in his third year, this is the best offensive group that he has. But they can spread you, space you. They shoot at all five positions. Dynamic point guard in Singer that can really set the tone and set the stage for the rest of them.

But, yeah, they're versatile. They're deep. Obviously they have their league's Player of the Year in Tretter, so, yeah. It's a very good, well-coached -- they have a structure about them defensively. They have a flow about them offensively that's really good. For us, it will be trying to be as disruptive as we can to take them out of some of those things. It's a good team that's very well-coached from what we have seen on film.

Q. I asked Jordan and Sydney this, but is it a little surreal to see all the March Madness stuff on your home court?

MARK KELLOGG: Yeah. Yeah, surreal, competing. Probably lots of different terms. Just to be here again. We haven't been here in a day or so now so we haven't got to look at all of it but seeing pictures that other people are posting that even have the sneak peek better than we do, but, yeah, around the coliseum when I drove in today just has a different feel, but it does all around town, so that's a good thing.

Q. They both talked about being excited and just how excited they have been all week. Do you have to tamper that at all going into tomorrow? Don't get too excited. Don't be too, you know, I guess, high energy?

MARK KELLOGG: A little bit. We talked about it briefly. We have had these conversations, though, already this year. I think, again, we played games. When you go back to Greenbrier and Duke, that's where it probably started with that feeling. You have it the first game of the year, too. The first road game. You get into Big 12 play and you go to play in some really difficult environments. We started to play some really big games down the stretch when we were fighting for our regular season title and obviously the Big 12 Tournament you have it a little bit. I think you draw on all of those things for the Sydneys and Jordans, they have been in this situation before.

But certainly, yes, you probably want to do that first rotation in the first quarter and get even on the court and hopefully you just relax at that point and just play.

Q. Coach, you have had Jordan her whole year but she was just recently named to the Naismith Defensive Player of the Year Semifinal list. What has she meant to you in building this from coming from when you first started, you went to Iowa City and now you're here hosting a March Madness tournament?

MARK KELLOGG: Yeah, obviously Jordan and I's relationship goes back to the high school recruiting days, so there's a bond with her, her family. I alluded to how much, how special that kid is to me and just the loyalty that she showed when she chose to come here with me and hadn't even taken the visit and just said I'm all in and later came on the visit after she had already committed and just to watch her grow and develop as a person, as a player. That's probably what's the most exciting.

I have seen her battle through stuff to start this year when she wasn't playing at the level they will thought she was capable of, to just kind of continue to fight through it and work and a lot of times, that's what it takes. There isn't a secret recipe or sauce to it. Just stick to the grind. That's what she does. That's what she's all about. To watch it start there, to end -- end, I guess, but to be back here to start it.

Playing here in 34 years and Jordan Harrison is the point guard and the leader of that group. That's something she'll get to take with her forever.

Q. Mark, have you talked to any other coaches that have hosted and asked for advice like, hey, what's it like or anything like that?

MARK KELLOGG: No, not really. It's different but I have hosted plenty of Division II levels. I have been through that host deal quite a bit, actually, at that level, and you've got ought teams coming and you play two and get a day off and play at one, so pretty familiar from these ten years at the Division II level of what hosting looks like and feels like.

Same thing when you get to those regional finals, there's an advantage. You have that home crowd and they typically grow as you advance. So, no, I don't know that I needed a whole lot of advice just on that piece of it.

Q. And I think Gia, when she was at Maryland, would be the only player that's ever been on a team that hosted. Has she said anything about what she remembers from that?

MARK KELLOGG: No. She has not. I don't know that she was a huge piece of that one so now she's going to have a little bit of a different role which will be a little more exciting for her, I think.

Q. Have you figured out how quickly you can get to Charleston tonight? Are you going to Charleston tonight? And where does your family go tomorrow if everything works well?

MARK KELLOGG: Yes, the plan is to go. I'm not -- I have said this. I want to be very careful to be a great father, his too and that obviously is priority A. We will have a problem tomorrow, I will have a problem if they advance today and I won't be able to make that one so I better make do when I can.

But I got to go last night. Obviously they advanced and Camden played great so you're a proud father and you'll get back down there and hustle back as quickly as I can and be ready for tomorrow. We're in a good spot and I'm happy for him and for the boys' basketball team at Morgantown because they've worked hard for what's in front of them and this is life and this is what happens. Hopefully they take care of business and we're playing, both of us, for something really special tomorrow.

Wife will be down there, I think tomorrow to support him. But her parents are here, my dad is here, so we'll forget out how to divide and conquer a little bit. Good problem to have, though, right?

Q. Is that a breath of fresh air for you during this week of preparation to have that time off to go to Charleston and watch your son and just have that break?

MARK KELLOGG: Yeah. The answer is supposed to be yes but your mind is kind of racing here at this point and it doesn't really turn off probably right now a whole lot. Yeah, no, I can work and do a lot of things while you travel and we have ways to get there sooner, quicker than others. Just fortunate for the situation that we're in.

But, yeah, when the ball is tipped for him, I'm probably a little more -- I don't know if nervous is the right word but there's even less under my control and that's probably pretty hard if you're a parent in that situation.

Even doing this for a living, I still don't have a ton of control once the ball is tipped here either, but at least I have a little bit of control and in that situation I don't have any. I don't think Coach Tallman is going to listen to me from the stands so I just kind of sit there and be a parent and cheer and hope for the best for him and their team.

For a little bit, for sure, it does. This has been a long week, to be honest, since we found out and to play Saturday, it's probably good for me to have it. Otherwise I will just stay on the grind and that's probably not healthy, either.

THE MODERATOR: Any other questions for Coach? Coach, thank you very much and good luck.