Nespor: Ross Hodge Shares Roster Building Commonality with Darian DeVries

Other than their penchant for defense-first playing styles, there are not a lot of similarities between former WVU coach Darian DeVries and new WVU coach Ross Hodge.

In terms of personality, DeVries played his cards close to his vest during his year in Morgantown, giving away very little information outside of what was readily apparent. Hodge, we’ve seen so far in his brief tenure, isn’t shy about speaking from the heart and giving a look at what’s going on under the hood.

Their basketball systems also appear to be contrasts. DeVries prefers a run-and-gun style, scoring in transition and spending as little in the halfcourt as possible. Hodge’s North Texas teams, however, were near the bottom of the country in pace of play and utilized a traditional center.

The overlap between DeVries and Hodge, however, comes in the kind of players they want on their rosters.

Speaking to WVSN’s Mike Asti at a WVU Coaches Caravan event earlier this month, Hodge said he was focused on recruiting proven winners, regardless of what level they played at.

“Experience matters at this time period, so one thing we’ve tried to do is add guys to our roster who have won and been part of winning, even if it wasn’t winning at West Virginia,” Hodge told Asti. “We definitely wanted to add people who have won. Now we have to teach them how we want to win together, but you don’t have to teach them how to win.”

WVSN photo by Mike Asti

Hodge’s actions verify his claim. Of the eight transfer players Hodge has committed to West Virginia, six of them played in a postseason tournament last season. Harlan Obioha (UNC Wilmington) and Jackson Fields (Troy) both played in the NCAA tournament last season. Chance Moore (St. Bonaventure), Honor Huff (Chattanooga), Brenen Lorient (North Texas) and Jasper Floyd (North Texas) were all in the NIT.

Similarly, when DeVries was putting together his first WVU roster, he went after guys who had experienced success.

Joseph Yesufu won a national title with Kansas in 2022 and had been in the NCAA Tournament multiple times, Sencire Harris and Amani Hansberry went to the Final Four with Illinois a year before coming to Morgantown and Tucker DeVries was in the tournament multiple times and won multiple conference player of the year awards.

“We were incredibly picky of making sure we got the guys in here that we felt like were a great fit for our program and our school and fit how we want to play,” DeVries said at the beginning of last season. “We were trying to find a balance in the first year of guys we feel good about that are excited about being here and want to be a part of it and could complement each other in a good way.”

WVSN photo by Kelsie LeRose

Both rosters also feature a star player who has enjoyed individual success but hasn’t had the team success follow — Javon Small for DeVries and Treysen Eaglestaff for Hodge.

DeVries led that 2024-25 team to a 19-13 record with three surprising top-10 wins and had the Mountaineers on the doorstep of March Madness. With a similar recruiting philosophy, who’s to say Hodge couldn’t do the same?