Ross Hodge is an Elite Defensive Coach with Limited Experience

What jumps off the page about new WVU men’s basketball coach Ross Hodge is his teams play elite defense.

In two seasons as the head coach at North Texas, the Mean Green had the top defense in the American Athletic Conference and one of the best defenses in the entire country. This season, UNT is third in the nation in scoring defense, allowing just 59.9 points per game. In the AAC, North Texas ranks first in scoring defense and three-point defense (30.6%), second in opponent field goal percentage (41.1%) and fourth in forced turnovers (12.1 per game). The team’s defensive numbers were just as good in Hodge’s first season last year. UNT ranked No. 12 in the county allowing 63.8 points per game.

Nationally, UNT is ranked No. 69 by KenPom and No. 65 in the NET. The Mean Green went 0-3 in Quad 1 this season, but won four Quad 2 games, finishing 4-2. The team went 18-3 in all other games. North Texas lost in the AAC semifinals and accepted a bid to the NIT, where the Mean Green is still currently playing. UNT beat Oklahoma State 61-59 on Tuesday to advance to the NIT Final Four to face either UAB or UC Irvine on April 1.

Offensively, UNT has shot very well in each of Hodge’s seasons. Last year the Mean Green were 14th in the nation shooting 37.7% from deep. This year, North Texas shot 36.1% from beyond the arc, fourth-best in the AAC.

The biggest red flag with Hodge is that the last two seasons at North Texas are his only years as a head coach in Division I. He was a head coach at the Junior College level from 2006-2011 at Paris JC and Midland. After that, he spent five years as an assistant split between Southern Miss and Colorado State before linking up with Grant McCasland at Arkansas State in 2016. He followed McCasland to UNT in 2017 before eventually succeeding him when McCasland took the Texas Tech job two years ago.

His two seasons have been successful, however. UNT went 19-15 last season and is 27-8 this year with its season still going. The Mean Green accepted bids to the NIT both years, losing in the second round last season while advancing to next week’s Final Four this season.

WVU athletic director Wren Baker is familiar with Hodge, hiring him and McCasland to North Texas back in 2017. Baker was UNT’s athletic director from 2016-22.

For a related story, opposing coaches from around the country shared their thoughts on WVU hiring Ross Hodge.