MORGANTOWN \u2014 Save for a few framed jerseys leaning up against a wall \u2014 one of them a Jerry West from his WVU college days \u2014 Ross Hodge goes to work every day sitting in a rather bare office.<\/p>\n
The WVU men\u2019s basketball coach swears he has a bunch of stuff in the back of his SUV that will one day adorn those bare walls.<\/p>\n
The plan is for him and his wife Shelly to get in there one day and go to work.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a little busy,\u201d he says with a smile.<\/p>\n
That Hodge has. Since being hired at WVU on March 26, the former North Texas head coach has added five assistant coaches and three support staff members.<\/p>\n
One of his assistants, Phil Forte, was a former standout at Oklahoma State in his college days.<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah, Phil likes to tell the story about how he was 3-1 at the Coliseum,\u201d Hodge said.<\/p>\n
And, oh yeah, Hodge has had to rebuild the Mountaineers\u2019 roster almost entirely from scratch.<\/p>\n
Only center Abraham Oyeadier returns from what was left after Darian DeVries\u2019 one season in Morgantown, and Oyeadier was redshirted and didn\u2019t play in a game last season.<\/p>\n
Eight transfers were plucked out of the transfer portal and three freshmen were signed.<\/p>\n
One of those freshmen, Amir Jenkins, is a top 100 recruit nationally, but was supposed to be a high school senior this year. He earned enough credits to graduate early and is now enrolled at WVU.<\/p>\n
Hodge is currently evaluating players for the final scholarship that is still available, so those walls may have to wait a bit longer.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis place is incredible,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cI hadn\u2019t seen the offices and the practice facility until I had accepted the job. I was taken away and amazed at how modern everything looks. I\u2019m very appreciative of coach (Bob) Huggins and everyone else who had a hand at making this place I now get to call home.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHome\u201d is an important word these days to WVU hoops fans. Hodge is the fourth men\u2019s head coach in the last four years, including the end of the Huggins\u2019 era that led to Josh Eilert\u2019s interim season and then DeVries\u2019 one-and-done season before leaving for Indiana.<\/p>\n
Those previous three years have been, well, one could fill in the blank there with any number of adjectives, something Hodge is well aware of.<\/p>\n
The short end of that story is the end of the Huggins\u2019 era brought about a new beginning that only turned into another new beginning and then another.<\/p>\n
By now, WVU faithful just want a talented coach who isn\u2019t afraid to call Morgantown home.<\/p>\n
Hodge doesn\u2019t hesitate to do just that.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try, I\u2019m not always the best at it, but I do actually try to have as much gratitude and appreciation for life in general, but also for this opportunity and to come to work here every day,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cEven when you\u2019re having a bad day, you\u2019re a little frustrated and things may not be going your way, I take a deep breath and take a look around and realize how fortunate I am to be in this situation. It\u2019s not something I take for granted.\u201d<\/p>\n
Winning them over<\/p>\n
As far as first impressions go, Hodge appears to already be a winner in Morgantown.<\/p>\n
Several WVU hoops alumni have already expressed their take on how well he fits in.<\/p>\n
\u201cCoach gets it!\u201d tweeted former WVU forward John Flowers, a member of the 2010 Final Four team.<\/p>\n
Flowers added the word \u201cfamily\u201d as a hashtag to the tweet.<\/p>\n
Another member of that Final Four team, point guard Truck Bryant, told a story of Hodge welcoming former players with open arms this summer.<\/p>\n
James Reese, a guard for Best Virginia during the TBT run to the semifinals, once played for Hodge at North Texas. His praise barely stopped short of referring to Hodge as a second father.<\/p>\n
When Best Virginia won its quarterfinal game, Hodge was in attendance in Charleston, and he was asked to be the one to slap the Best Virginia sign onto the next round in the bracket.<\/p>\n
Either Hodge is the most likable guy in college basketball or he makes one heck of a first impression.<\/p>\n
\u201cI try to be intentional when you have opportunities to meet people for the first time or talk to people,\u201d is how Hodge tries to explain it. \u201cI try to be genuine and try not to be somebody I\u2019m not.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think people appreciate that around here. I have a lot of respect for former players, past coaches, the fan base and the people of West Virginia. I have a lot of respect for how important this university is to the people of the state. That\u2019s not something I take lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n
Hodge uses the word \u201cauthentic\u201d in attempting to describe himself.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is who I am, flawed and all,\u201d he said. \u201cI\u2019m not a perfect person, but I try to be genuine and appreciative in all settings.\u201d<\/p>\n
It\u2019s that identity Hodge will carry with him to mold his vision for the WVU program.<\/p>\n
Recruiting doesn\u2019t stop after one season, neither do expectations.<\/p>\n
He needs more players next year and then the year after that and so on. Hodge wants those players to feel like they\u2019re signing on to a special relationship and not just a team.<\/p>\n
\u201cI believe if you\u2019re surrounding yourself with the right players, those players want someone who is going to tell them the truth,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cIf you come across as someone who truly cares about them, they may think, \u2018He may be saying some things I don\u2019t like to hear, but I know it\u2019s coming from a place that\u2019s trying to help me become a better player and a better person.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cYou have to exhibit that you care about them more as a person rather than\u00a0 someone who can put a ball in the basket.\u201d<\/p>\n
Short honeymoon<\/p>\n
Aside from the coaching changes and the turmoil that came with Huggins\u2019\u00a0 forced resignation in 2023, it\u2019s been five years since the Mountaineers have experienced a 20-win season.<\/p>\n
The last time the WVU program went through a slide like that, it included a year where the team played every game away from the Coliseum due to asbestos removal and Gale Catlett\u2019s tenure transitioning into John Beilein\u2019s.<\/p>\n
When DeVries was hired in 2024, there was still a sense of the program healing from the Huggins\u2019 aftermath, and so there were no instant expectations of a return to glory.<\/p>\n
Does Hodge get the same courtesy of a grace period? Funny thing is, he doesn\u2019t really expect one.<\/p>\n
\u201cUnfortunately in the modern era of college athletics, I don\u2019t know that anyone gets a grace period or a honeymoon period,\u201d he said. \u201cI think expectations are high across the board. I have high expectations for our program.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re trying to build a program here that can sustain a certain level of stability and consistency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Throughout the entire conversation, Hodge uses the word \u201crebuild\u201d just once and he does not see this situation as one.<\/p>\n
Sure, the roster has a ton of new faces and the entire coaching staff is brand new, but Hodge\u2019s overall view of the program is not one that finds itself back on the ground floor.<\/p>\n
\u201cIn the past, if you were taking over a job that had just one returning player, it would take you a year or two,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s been a lot of negatives said about NIL and the transfer portal, but the positives are you can put together a roster now that you couldn\u2019t do prior to the transfer portal.<\/p>\n
\u201cNow, you can shape your roster to the way you like it immediately. Our job now is to take that first roster and go find out how to win, how to bring back a certain level of excitement and how to make the people proud of this program again.\u201d<\/p>\n
Odds and ends<\/p>\n
*** Hodge\u2019s career as a Division I coach basically is a tale of being at schools that were small fishes in a large pond.<\/p>\n
As an assistant, he spent seasons at Southern Miss, Arkansas State and Colorado State.<\/p>\n
North Texas is just one of 22 Division I schools in that state that houses seven schools found on the rosters of the Big 12, SEC and ACC.<\/p>\n
Knowing full well what life is like at a mid-major, does Hodge have any intentions of discussing rekindling the WVU-Marshall rivalry that hasn\u2019t been played in the regular season since 2015?<\/p>\n
\u201cAt North Texas, we were actually in the same league with Marshall in Conference USA,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cI have a lot of respect for that program.<\/p>\n
\u201cPriority A is finding a schedule that can help you get an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. I would never say never. I would be open to something like that, but it\u2019s got to be something that makes sense for this university. With scheduling, I\u2019ve always said, especially when it comes to scheduling, that everyone has to do what\u2019s in their own best interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
*** Hodge\u2019s contract contains a unique buyout clause that binds him to WVU athletic director Wren Baker.<\/p>\n
If Baker, who just signed a contract extension with the school two months ago,\u00a0 were to leave during Hodge\u2019s first two seasons, then Hodge\u2019s buyout lowers from a potential 75% to 37.5% of his remaining salary if Hodge were to leave also.<\/p>\n
Baker was also the athletic director at North Texas when Hodge was an assistant at the school.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s no secret that with Wren being here, that was part of the attraction for me to come here,\u201d Hodge said. \u201cI think Wren is one of the best athletic directors in the country. In my opinion, coaches win games, but administrations win championships.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think whenever you\u2019re in the seat I\u2019m in, who you\u2019re working directly with and the alignment of their vision on how we can win championships has to be in sync. I wanted to make sure the level of commitment (from Baker) was there, as well. Like, we\u2019re going to do this and it\u2019s going to be a partnership. It was one more show of good faith, in my opinion, that he\u2019s invested here, too.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"MORGANTOWN \u2014 Save for a few framed jerseys leaning up against a wall \u2014 one of them a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":54383,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[68],"tags":[402,2939,398,400,401,41323,99,41324,41325],"class_list":{"0":"post-54382","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-ncaa-basketball","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-featured-sports","10":"tag-ncaa","11":"tag-ncaa-basketball","12":"tag-ncaabasketball","13":"tag-ross-hodge","14":"tag-sports","15":"tag-wren-baker","16":"tag-wvu-mens-basketball"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54382","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54382"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54382\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/54383"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54382"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54382"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54382"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}