Last Sunday the Stephen F. Austin women’s team had an 11-PT win over Sam Houston State in the Southland tourney title game to earn an automatic bid to this week’s NCAA tournament. The Ladyjacks lost 2 games during the 1st month of the season but have won 19 in a row to get back into the NCAA tourney for the 1st time since 2006. Earlier today HoopsHD’s Jon Teitel got to speak with Coach Mark Kellogg about winning by an average of 30 PPG and making the NCAA tourney.
You played basketball and golf at Austin College: how good of an athlete were you back in the day, and how did you 1st get into coaching? The older I get, the better I was! I was not recruited a whole lot and thought I would try to walk-on at TCU, but I had an unbelievable experience at Austin College and finished as a top-5 scorer in school history. I thought that I might become a sports broadcaster but did an internship and did not like it. I did a double-major in communications/exercise science, got a job as a graduate assistant, and have been coaching ever since.
You finished as D-2 national runner-up in 2010 as head coach at Fort Lewis and 2014 as head coach at West Texas A&M: how close did you come to winning a pair of titles? Really close. We lost the 1st 1 to Emporia: it was a 1-possession with about 4-5 minutes left. In the 2nd 1 we were up by 9 in the final 5 minutes against an undefeated Bentley team but let that 1 slip away.
You were hired at Stephen F. Austin in 2015: why did you take the job? It was a D-1 opportunity after accomplishing about everything I could at the D-2 level besides winning a national title. I thought we would be able to have success based on the rich tradition and the commitment of the athletic department. It gave me a chance to win/compete at the highest level.
What is it like to be a college basketball coach during a pandemic? It is unique/different and you cannot prepare for it so we are learning on the fly. Everyone has had to sacrifice: we ask the players to be committed each year but it has been taken to a whole new level this year. As great as it is to be in the NCAA tourney, it is different than what it traditionally is.
You lost a pair of games during the 1st month of this season by a combined 11 PTS, then won each of your next 19 in a row: how close did you come to going undefeated? Just a couple of possessions, honestly. We had a chance to beat Houston on the final possession, and had a chance to take the lead against ASU during the final 2-3 minutes.
Last Sunday in the Southland tourney title game you had an 11-PT win over Sam Houston State: what did it mean to you to win a championship, and how big a deal was it to clinch a conference tournament title for the 1st time in 15 years? The emotions were all over the place: there was relief after breaking the “Katy Curse”. There was also a sense of accomplishment and happiness for our seniors after losing a couple of title games during the past several years. This has been 6 years in the making and we would like to make some noise in the NCAA tourney.
You have a lot of players from Texas but also have an international roster including players from Germany/Spain/Sweden/Ukraine: what sort of recruiting philosophy do you have? We start locally to find the right kind of players but we also like a balanced approach: we do not need just shooters or just length so we might have to find 2 players who complement each other. We can play multiple ways and can speed teams up or grind it out: we just try to make it all fit.
Each of your top-6 scorers is averaging 8-13 PPG: how crucial has that offensive balance been to your team’s success this year? We had some pretty lopsided conference scores where we won on average by 40 PPG so it allowed our starters to rest in the 4th quarter. If 1 player has a bad night or gets into foul trouble then we have many other options due to our depth.
The Ladyjacks have been winning games this year by an average of more than 30 PPG: are you concerned that your team will be able to remain calm if they fall behind early or if they are in a close game that goes down to the wire? 10 days ago I would have agreed with you 100%, but we won our final regular season game by 12 PTS with some kids out due to COVID, a situation that had not challenged us in the past. Both of our conference tourney games came down to the final minute so we really got to experience something new: we hit some big shots and got some big stops.
How do you feel being a #12-seed, and what do you know about Georgia Tech? It has been quite some time since anyone from our conference has been as high as a 12-seed and we thought that we might even get a 10 or 11. We feel like we have a legitimate chance: we beat Auburn on the road by double-digits in December and have beaten some other tourney teams so our confidence is at a high level. Georgia Tech coach Nell Fortner started at SFA and they will be the best defensive team that we have seen all year. They have a lot of size that we do not see in our own conference so hopefully we can present a few challenges for them as well.