Ross Hodge Emphasizes Importance of Protecting Home Court in Big 12

WVU basketball has been stellar on its home court this season with a perfect 12-0 record at Hope Coliseum.

Overall, WVU is 13-7 and 4-3 in the Big 12, with all three conference losses being on the road against teams ranked top 10 in the Associated Press’ poll. As March approaches, taking advantage of home opportunities is key for WVU.

“You gotta protect home floor. There certainly has to be a certain level of like urgency to protecting that, because it is hard to win on the road. It’s hard to win on the road in this league in particular, especially with, again, you look at like the kind of the the start we had three of your first four road games are against top 10 teams in the country,” Hodge said in a press conference Monday.

“And so, there needs to be a definitely a heightened sense of awareness to protecting home court.”

Despite WVU’s success in Morgantown, Hodge’s message to the team has been clear: The Mountaineers have to keep executing.

“There can’t be a, just because we’ve been good at home up to this point, doesn’t guarantee that you’re gonna win tomorrow,” Hodge added. “You have to go do it. Nothing happens because you think it’s gonna happen or because maybe even you want it to happen, you gotta make it happen and we’re gonna have to do that tomorrow.”

WVU is currently below even being on the bubble for the NCAA Tournament, but Hodge is reluctant to look at the big picture. Instead, he wants his team to focus on what’s right in front of them. Right now, that is Kansas State.

“We know we have a lot of opportunity ahead of us. Again, we have a mature team, there’s a lot of chances, but you’ve gotta take care of what’s right in front of you,” Hodge said.

“And the reality is you gotta put everything you can into beating Kansas State tomorrow if you beat ’em or if, or if it goes the other way. Like even then nothing’s established one way or the other. So you really are just trying to lock into what’s in front of you.”

WVU basketball will host Kansas State at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday night.

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