Ross Hodge

MORGANTOWN — It is a daunting task that West Virginia’s new men’s basketball coach Ross Hodge is undertaking, as he becomes the school’s fourth coach in three years.

He plays in what may well be the toughest basketball conference in the country, but certainly one in the upper echelons of Power 4 conferences as a name very few knew in these parts before Athletic Director Wren Baker plucked him away from North Texas to helm the program.

He starts from scratch. He came here to figuratively bake a cake but had not so much as an egg to crack nor a pan to put the ingredients as he gathered them from all areas of the basketball world.

You can be starstruck when facing a Kansas, a Texas Tech, an Arizona, be you a 45-year-old coach who is getting his first real break or one of a roster completely filled with newcomers, many of them who were on Group of 5 or junior college rosters a year ago.

“The game of basketball itself is … it is what it is,” Hodge said, beginning to address this issue. “Any time you move up, you are in situations like this press conference. How many are in here now? 15?”

Fifteen for a press conference? You didn’t have that at North Texas or some of the smaller schools he had coached at.

“You have more of these duties, these responsibilities now as coach,” he said.

It’s the same for the players.

“So many of these guys nowadays have played against these players since they were young, whether it’s AAU or high school or prep school,” Hodge said. “So, coming from the Group of 5 to Power 4 or whatever the situation, all of us have been in situations where we’ve played against people who were at this level. So, you understand that part of it. Sometimes it can be what comes along with it, the attention, good or bad. The scrutiny, good or bad.

“But the basketball part of it, once you step between the lines, that doesn’t change much as far as what we believe wins and what it takes to win.”

And, Hodge believes, that chance to win is there all the time.

“I do believe there is a way to win games,” he said. “Every game you go into, depending on who you are playing and where you play them can significantly impact how difficult it actually is to win the game. But there’s a way to win the game. You just got to find it, you have to believe it and you have to execute it.”

And that’s the challenge that makes coaching or playing so intriguing. You have to prove yourself, not once, but every time.

“I feel I’ve had to prove myself basically every time I’ve ever stepped on the floor,” he said, not with mock modesty, either. “You are always stepping in situations where you have to prove yourself. That’s what I love about sports. No matter what anyone thinks, no matter what anyone thinks about this school or that school.

“Well, this school is the school, but you actually have to step in between the lines with officials and figure out who’s better that night,” he continued. “I’ve been in situations like that both ways. There have been games where people thought we should have won that game and didn’t.

“On the other hand, we’ve had plenty of situations where people thought we couldn’t win a game — no chance. A lot of times it’s just your mind.”

He looked down at his T-shirt, which had West Virginia on it.

“A lot of times it’s because that school’s name is that and this school’s name is this and that school is supposed to beat that school. I’ve always tried to not allow myself to either way let it affect me. It may say West Virginia and they think we are supposed to win. I fight tooth and nail against that.”

It isn’t what people think. It’s what people do.

“I’ve been in all situations. In junior college I coached the No. 1 team in the country with the best players … 10 or 12 high level Division 1 players and we were supposed to win. I’ve been at Southern Miss and we got an at-large bid to the NCAA Tournament. At Southern Miss! We beat Memphis and South Florida and Arizona State and people think there’s no way in the world you can do that.”

He offers up one example.

“When we first got the job at Arkansas State, we were 23.5-point underdogs against Georgetown and we beat them. No one else thought we were going to beat them, but we did,” Hodge said. “Then we were in other situations where we were 15-point favorites and we got beat.

“You have to block out any thought about what should be happening and pour your heart into the game plan and go play.”