Ross Hodge Wants WVU to Emulate National Title Contender

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — If Ross Hodge wants to emulate any other team while at West Virginia, he seems to have picked a good one.

During his introductory press conference last week, Hodge, WVU’s new men’s basketball coach, took several opportunities to compare his teams and style of play to one other team, Big 12 rival and national champion contender Houston.

“I would think it isn’t just us that’s chasing them, I would think anybody else that wants to be in the Final Four would take a hard look at them,” Hodge said. “I have a lot of respect for Coach (Kelvin) Sampson.”

Houston won the Big 12 this season and pulled off an improbable comeback to defeat Duke in the Final Four Saturday night to advance to Monday’s national championship against Florida. 

Hodge compared the teams at North Texas that he helped coach to what the Cougars have done recently several times during his hour-long introduction.

“If you’re going to win the Big 12, you’ve got to be one of the best defensive teams in the country,” Hodge said. “For the last eight years, the team with the best scoring defense in the country was Houston and number two was North Texas. We certainly plan on bringing that style of basketball and that brand to (Morgantown).”

Houston has the best scoring defense in the country this season (58.5 points per game) and North Texas was third (60.6).

“Not only has our scoring defense been really good, but we’ve went back and forth with Houston for having the best road winning percentage in the country the last eight years,” Hodge said. “If you’re going to win on the road, you better be tough, you better be physical, you better be able to defend and you better have elite guard play.”

Houston is a perfect 10-0 on the road this season. In its two seasons with Hodge as head coach, North Texas was 14-11 in road games. In the two previous years, with Hodge as an assistant, UNT was 19-4 on the road. In Hodge’s eight years at UNT as an assistant and head coach, the Mean Green were 57-45 as the road team (55.9%). During that same time, Houston was 64-21 (75.3%).

While elite defense is the hallmark of Houston’s and Hodge’s styles, the Mountaineers’ new coach said it goes even beyond that.

“Our defense gets all the attention, rightfully so, but we were an extremely efficient offense,” Hodge said of his UNT teams. “Our tempo gets used negatively against us at times in recruiting and I always say, you know who’s one spot above us in tempo, Houston and they’re winning championships.”

Houston ranked 360th in the country in tempo this season (65.3 possessions per game), while North Texas was 363rd (62.7).

North Texas and Houston have also had similar postseason success in the last eight years, relatively. In the NIT, UNT was 10-3 (76.9%) and won the 2023 NIT Championship with Hodge on staff. The Mean Green advanced to the NIT semifinals under Hodge this season, losing to UC Irvine. Houston is 19-6 (76%) in the NCAA Tournament during that time with a chance to win this year’s championship.

Find more coverage of Ross Hodge at WV Sports Now.