Northwest women exceed expectations in Kellogg's first year

Mark Kellogg arrived at Northwest Missouri State last April with a track record of being one of the most successful head coaches in Division II women's basketball.

In year one with the Bearcats, he may have done his best coaching job yet.

Inheriting largely the same roster that finished 6-22 the year before, Kellogg immediately turned Northwest from the MIAA's worst team into one that finished in the middle-of-the-pack and was competitive in just about all of its losses.

The Bearcats made a nine-win improvement to finish 15-13 and tied for eighth in the conference with Missouri Southern after being picked 14th—the largest jump of any school in the MIAA.

Northwest beat Missouri Southern in the play-in round of the MIAA Tournament and made it to the quarterfinals in Kansas City where its season ended with a 52-39 loss to top-seeded Washburn.

"I think we got a lot better," said Kellogg who spent the previous seven seasons at Fort Lewis (Colo.). "That's something we wanted to see taking over a new program and installing new thoughts, a new philosophy, a new culture. We wanted to take huge steps. We've been here 11 months, and to see how far we've come and how much more comfortable our players are, we're in a whole different spot. We took some huge steps in the right direction."

Northwest ended the year winning four its last five games, with the only loss coming against Washburn in the MIAA Tournament

This followed a five-game losing skid in which the Bearcats briefly fell below .500. They were as many as six-over after an 8-2 start.

Northwest established early on in conference play it was nowhere near the second-worst team and finished 6-2 against teams below them in the standings.

It went just 3-8 against teams above them, but only once was it beaten by more than 20 points and held second half leads in five of those losses.

Northwest's two best wins were against Northeastern State (Jan. 31) and Truman State to end the regular season (Mar. 2).

"Even through that stretch where we lost six of seven, I thought our kids were getting better," said Kellogg. "We played Washburn and Fort Hays State pretty close, Mo. West on the road. All those games we played pretty well, well enough to win. We finally learned how to win those kind of games. Day by day, week by week, month by month, we showed signs of moving in the right direction."

Statistically, Northwest improved in just about every phase of the game this year.

The most pronounced jump was in their shooting percentage.

Running a flex offense installed by Kellogg in the preseason, Northwest went from being at the bottom of the MIAA in field goal percentage (.338) right to the very top (.442).

The Bearcats also shot 38.6 percent from three this year compared to 24.9 last year. And they averaged nearly five points more per game.

"I'm a big shot selection guy," said Kellogg. "The first meeting of the year in August or September, the only basketball talk was about shot selection. It affects so many parts of the game. We also led the league in assists and those categories usually go hand-in-hand. We led the nation in field goal percentage one year at Fort Lewis. We were always in the top five or eight. That's going to be a staple of our program is to shoot high percentage shots."

Northwest also became more difficult to score against, using a mix of zone defense and full-court pressure throughout the year that made most teams uncomfortable.

The Bearcats finished fifth in the league in scoring defense, giving up 59.4 points per game and sixth in field goal percentage defense (.386). Last year, teams averaged 70.7 points per game and shot 41.3 percent from the field against them.

"We've always played zone, some years more than others" said Kellogg. "When I started coaching, I never thought I'd be a zone or man coach. We just try to understand what the strengths and weaknesses are of women's basketball players—usually passing and ball-handling—and try to take advantage. You look through the MIAA, nobody plays zone. I think that's an advantage for us."

Northwest fielded a balanced offensive attack in which six players averaged better than seven points per game. Four of the six were returners and all four increased their scoring production from the year before.

The three that made the biggest strides were sophomores Maggie Marnin, Annie Mathews and Ashleigh Nelson.

Marnin led the MIAA in field goal percentage (.575) and raised her scoring more than four points to 11.2 ppg. Mathews, who shot just over 50 percent, more than doubled her scoring average to 9.7 ppg and led the team in rebounding.

Just a 26 percent shooter from three a year ago, Nelson connected at a 39.2 percent clip this year and averaged 10.3 points.

"The sophomores got a lot of experience last year and generally you see a fairly big jump from freshman to sophomore year," said Kellogg. "Those kids worked pretty hard in the off-season and we worked on getting them good shots in the right place."

Northwest's three sophomore starters, point guard Monique Stevens, freshman guard Tember Schechinger and reserve Meridee Scott form the remaining core of a team whose best days are likely still ahead.

The Bearcats return all five starters and their top six scorers and should have a much deeper roster next year after Kellogg assembles his first full recruiting class.

Depending upon the quality of it, at least one of this year's starters could be coming off the bench next year.

"There's no guarantees ever," said Kellogg. "We tell kids every spring you got to go earn it. These kids have a year of experience. The majority had good years and are going in the right direction, but there's never a guarantee they have spots locked up. My job is to get better players. Their job is to make sure I don't. I hope that motivates them."

Northwest signed two players in the early period—5-11 forward Ashley Guenther (Independence) and 6-0 forward Morgan Dittberner (Louisville, Neb.).

Since then, the Bearcats have picked up a recent commitment.

That leaves Kellogg with four more scholarships to give out.

He plans to have most of his recruiting class complete by the first day of the spring signing period, Apr. 17.

"Depth and athleticism are the first two things that quickly come to mind that we need," said Kellogg. "We need another point guard or two. Another back-up for Maggie. Another wing for sure with some athleticism. We need to be able to match the athleticism of Washburn and Emporia at the guard spots. That's the next step. I don't think we're too far from getting to that level."