Photo courtesy of BlueGoldNews.com WVU first-year coach Ross Hodge is shown during a media gathering.

MORGANTOWN — When West Virginia finally gets its basketball roster settled in and positions and duties firmed up, maybe then might be the right time to discuss its place in the Big 12 and the schedule it has been dealt.

Maybe after it has gone through two months of non-conference play to work out the kinks and familiarize its fans with the players and the defensive heavy style that the new coach Ross Hodge is installing would be the right time to talk about that schedule.

But there’s no fun in waiting for answers before the questions are even asked.

The Big 12 play that looms ahead doesn’t get here until the new year and Hodge has far more on his mind at the moment than the daunting aspect of playing in what may be the best conference in the nation … or, at least, the most competitive.

And so, it was during his last media session, Hodge was asked his early view of the schedule he has been handed. Considering the timing, it was a bit of a blindside, but, hey, that’s what preseason is for.

He thought for a moment, then took the bait.

“I thought it was kind of cool to be opening the entire Big 12 slate on a Friday in a standalone Big 12 game,” he said, referring to the league opener in Ames, Iowa, against the Iowa State Cyclones on Friday night, Jan. 2. “I thought that stood out to be able to play that game in an incredible place to play that game.”

Certainly, that game will serve to wash away not only any hangover from New Year’s Eve, but also from the dizzying events of last season that went along with hiring a new coach in Darian DeVries and his son, then sitting on the NCAA bubble only to be passed over, and then the stunning announcement that DeVries was leaving for Indiana and taking his son with him.

That sent athletic director Wren Baker off on what seemed like his 134th coaching search in his short tenure at WVU, eventually grabbing off Hodge from North Texas, bringing him in and asking him to completely restructure the basketball team while learning what life in the big time is all about.

“I know it’s cliche-ish, but I think it can be overwhelming if you look at the totality of it, so I don’t do that,” he said. “You can spend too much time putting energy into that when you don’t know what’s going to be the situation on this particular game.

“You know they all are going to be difficult, but as far as injuries or who’s playing well or what’s happening you don’t know until you are actually there. Like right now, I’m just trying to get our guys to be in stance, let alone go to Ames,” he continued.

“We’ll just try to win every game, respect every opponent on our schedule whether it’s home or on the road, Power 4 or Group of 5, everyone will have our respect. We’re not fearful of anyone, but we do respect them all.”

That last statement is more than just talk. It’s a franchise statement.

“Fear none, respect all.”

“That’s what’s great about sports,” Hodge said. “It doesn’t matter what anyone thinks. It doesn’t matter what I think. The only thing that actually matters is what happens when you step on the floor that night against that team.”

If the uniform says Kansas or Central Florida, they can beat you on any night … and vice versa.

But what makes the Big 12 intriguing is that there are no real nights off. Yes, when you have 16 teams, some teams are better than others, but none are bad and from January to March you walk through a minefield of challenges.

“It’s a journey. It really is. Seasons are like spiritual journeys in their own way,” Hodge said. “The highs are high, the lows are low and there’s a little bit of everything in between. You are taking a group and running a marathon but at a sprinter’s pace.”

And it doesn’t begin on Jan. 2.

“Right now, because of the newness of rosters, every day matters. You want to walk away thinking, ‘At least we got a little better in this area.’ It goes by really fast. That’s why it’s important to have some seniors because they know that in that hourglass the sand in the bottom is a lot thicker than at the top, so there should be a daily urgency to how they approach everything,” Hodge said.

“There will be ups and downs, every team will face some level of adversity, whether it is through wins and losses or injuries or things people don’t even know about.

WVU will play 18 conference games with nine games at home and nine on the road. Six of WVU’s nine home games will take place on weekends (Friday, Saturday or Sunday) with the first game to be played in the newly christened Hope Coliseum being against Cincinnati on Tuesday, Jan. 6.

WVU’s weekend home games at the Coliseum will be against Kansas (Jan. 10), Colorado (Jan. 17), Baylor (Jan. 31), Texas Tech (Feb. 8), BYU (Feb. 28) and UCF (March 6). In addition to Cincinnati, the Mountaineers will play host Kansas State (Jan. 27) and Utah (Feb. 18) in midweek games.