CHAPEL HILL, N.C. – J.J. Quinerly, between bites of French toast during the team’s Sunday morning breakfast, struggled to recall her first college basket at West Virginia University.
“I don’t know, all I remember is the team wore black and gold, and it was a layup,” she shrugged.
Turns out, her memory was a little off.
That black and gold team was Kennesaw State, her second college game three days after she tallied 10 points in a forgetful 86-33 Mountaineer victory over Saint Francis, Pa., during her freshman season in 2022.
J.J. is not a point counter, which is a good thing considering she’s now scored 2,009 of them during her brilliant four-year Mountaineer career that is nearing its conclusion.
Guard Cathy Parson scored a school-best 2,113 points in 121 career games from 1980-83. All-American guard Rosemary Kosiorek ended her four-year career with 2,061 points, while six-year professional player Bria Holmes tallied 2,001 from 2013-16.
Those are the school’s four 2,000-point scorers – the four that would most likely go on West Virginia’s Mount Rushmore, although an argument could be made for Georgeann Wells, too. She was the first to ever dunk in a women’s college basketball game.
Quinerly’s coach, Mark Kellogg, isn’t too familiar with the others, but he knows all about J.J., and he would put her on there.
“If we had a Mount Rushmore, JJ Quinerly should be on that list,” he said following Saturday afternoon’s 78-59 NCAA Tournament victory over Columbia. Quinerly led all scorers with 27 points.
“I think she’s solidifying herself with the steals and the points and the loyalty and staying for four years in an era where that’s very unlikely, especially through three coaching changes. That’s normally (a kid) transfers three times, not stay through three coaches,” he said.
Mike Carey recruited the Norfolk, Virginia, resident to West Virginia. Quinerly opted to stick around for 11 months of Dawn Plitzuweit for her sophomore season and then on the backside of that, she’s really thrived the last two years in Kellogg’s fast-paced, free-wheeling style.
She boosted her scoring average to 19.8 points per game as a junior, and at 20.8 points per game this year, she should finish as one of only four players in school history to average better than 20 points per game in a season.
Kosiorek (24.3 ppg. in 1992 and 20.2 ppg. in 1991), Janis Drummonds (21 ppg in 1981) and Parson (20.7 ppg. in 1981) are the others.
“I just think she’s a calming influence for her teammates,” Kellogg explained. “If we’re not going very well, let’s kind of get the ball to J.J. and get out of the way, so to speak, and let her be as dynamic as she can be.”
Parson and Drummonds played during an era when the games were not televised or filmed regularly, so little footage of them exists in West Virginia’s archives for comparison’s sake.
Kosiorek’s career was well documented, and I got to spend a year promoting her All-American senior season in 1992, which ended with an NCAA Tournament round of 16 loss at No. 1-seeded Virginia.
J.J. possesses a lot of Rosemary’s best on-court qualities – toughness, athleticism and competitiveness – that made her the school’s only consensus All-American player.
Off the floor, there are some differences, but both are extremely self-confident. Quinerly’s self-confidence is frequently evident in her responses. Asked yesterday if she was aware of scoring 2,000 points, she admitted she was.
“I knew I needed 19, but I really wasn’t thinking about it – I just shot it,” she said.
A moment later, she was asked to expand on her momentous achievement. She gave a little more, but not much.
“I just think it’s just an amazing accomplishment,” she admitted. “I don’t think I dreamed of scoring 2,000 points probably my whole life, so just seeing it happen and then being where I’m at with these group of girls and the coach I have right now, I love it.”
Her coach certainly loves it.
“Every once in a while, she will make a move … like that’s not coaching,” he admitted. “That has nothing to do with me. That’s just a phenomenal talent making a play. We had a matchup we liked, and I just told her, ‘Drive it, just go!’ She just drives in there and gets a layup.
“Yeah, that’s brilliant coaching, right? She’s extremely talented,” he said.
Quinerly is one of the 25-best players in this year’s NCAA Tournament, despite being left off the list of the top 25 players ESPN.com posted before the start of tourney play. It’s the same players from the same teams that we’ve seen again and again and again.
“The kid has played in some big-time games,” Kellogg said. “She’s an even-keeled, level-headed kid. I’ve called her an unassuming superstar since I’ve been here.”
But there is an opportunity for J.J. to get her due tomorrow night against third-seeded North Carolina on the Tar Heels’ home floor on national TV. She had a similar opportunity last year at Iowa City going up against Caitlin Clark.
It’s also a chance for West Virginia to break through and do something it’s never done since the tournament field was expanded to 64 and now 68 teams – win two tournament games in a row.
WVU’s “Sweet 16” appearance in 1992 was aided by a first-round bye.
“We want to advance as far as we can,” Kellogg noted. “What I told (the team) is if we can win two in the tournament, we would be the first team in our school’s history to win two NCAA Tournament games.
“We talked about it a year ago,” he said. “Obviously, we were at Iowa and had a great game and a great game plan. We’ll go prepare and have another opportunity in front of us to leave a legacy, and that’s what our kids want to do. It’s what you want to do as a coach.
“We’re going to go into that game with an expectation that we can do something really special,” he concluded.
It will likely require a special performance from Kellogg’s very special player, J.J. Quinerly.
Tipoff is 7 p.m. and the game will be televised on ESPN2.
