MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Much of Ross Hodge’s success as a head coach to this point has been defined by his teams’ ability to defend.
The 24th head coach of West Virginia men’s basketball hopes that remains the case in Morgantown, but wants to be known for more at a program with four head coaches in as many seasons after having three in the previous 45.
“This move was not an easy move for me,” said Hodge, who led North Texas to a 46-24 record over the last two seasons. “We talked a lot as a family. We shed a lot of tears. We had deep, meaningful relationships in Denton, and that’s very important to us.
“I’m a basketball coach paid to win games and championships. We understand that, but people are important to us. It’s not something we take lightly, moving a family. There were probably only a handful of situations that we’d have considered leaving my family in Texas where I’m from and have so much immediate family. The opportunity to get [Hodge’s wife] Shelly back to her family is really important to us.”
Before his two seasons as head coach of the Mean Green, Hodge spent six as associate head coach, working under then-North Texas coach Grant McCasland. McCasland became head coach at Texas Tech two years ago and Hodge was named his replacement.
“I had several opportunities to leave when I was an assistant at North Texas for what some people would say were bigger and better opportunities at bigger brands, higher levels, more money,” Hodge noted. “That’s not necessarily what I’m interested in. I’m interested in people and being at a place that we can call home.”
The 44-year-old Hodge recently wrapped up his tenure at North Texas with a loss to UC Irvine in a NIT semifinal, the fourth straight season the Mean Green have played in the postseason they won in 2023. While Hodge was named head coach at WVU on March 26 (one day after North Texas won at Oklahoma State in a quarterfinal) he finished the season with the Mean Green.
“That was something we really respected and admired throughout the process,” said WVU Director of Athletics/Vice President Wren Baker, a former North Texas AD himself.
North Texas was third nationally in scoring defense this season behind only Big 12 champion and Final Four participant Houston and Drake. Surrendering an average of 60.1 points, the Mean Green finished 27-9 with a revamped roster that had lost its top six scorers from the previous season. Projected seventh in the American Athletic Conference, UNT finished second while winning the second most games in a season in program history.
“Our defense gets a lot of the attention, but we were an efficient offense with one of the best three-point percentages in college basketball the last two years,” Hodge said. “What wins basketball games? Sharing the basketball and the right guys taking the right shots at the right time. Our tempo gets pointed out and gets used negatively sometimes in recruiting. You know who’s one spot above us in tempo? Houston. And they’re winning championships.”
Among 364 Division I teams, the Cougars rank No. 360 in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted tempo metric on kenpom.com, while North Texas is 362nd.
The Mean Green show a No. 45 defensive rating and No. 114 offensive rating. By comparison, West Virginia’s 19-13 team from this season was 331st in adjusted tempo, 15th in defensive rating and 134th in offensive rating.
“There is no evidence that somebody who’s not really good defensively can compete at a high level in the Big 12,” Baker said.
Hodge, who attended Wednesday night’s West Virginia-Pitt baseball game, was joined by his wife, two kids, mother, mother-in-law and father-in-law at his introduction inside the Milan Puskar Center Team Room.
Each has been part of the journey that led him to Morgantown, which began as an assistant coach at Texas A&M-Commerce, where Hodge played basketball. Then came a stint at Paris Junior College (where Hodge’s playing career began in college) as both an assistant coach and head coach, before Hodge was head coach at Midland College. He compiled a 146-24 record at the junior college level from 2006-11.
Before his time at North Texas, Hodge was also an assistant coach at Southern Miss, Colorado State and Arkansas State.
“I love coaches who’ve done it at hard places and won at a high level,” Baker said. “That’s in his background.”
Hodge said he doesn’t have a timeline as to finalizing a coaching staff, but he’ll continue to work diligently to add to a Mountaineer roster that will likely be in need of replacing every notable contributor from this season.
“There’s incredible excitement around the program and not a shortage of people that would love to come be part of this,” Hodge said. “Obviously I’ll bring some staff members from North Texas and evaluate it all.“
In the meantime, Hodge will adjust to different surroundings at a new home and embrace the opportunity to coach at highest level.
“Nobody’s going to have higher expectations than myself, staff and players,” he said. “We welcome it.”