MORGANTOWN — According to WVU men’s basketball coach Ross Hodge, the best thing about his players is they are not a bunch of finger pointers. In essence, they refuse to play the blame game.
That’s a good thing.
Hodge is quick to point at himself when it comes to the current state of affairs concerning the Mountaineers.
That’s also a good thing.
“I’ve got to do a better job of helping our team in those moments,” Hodge said in his postgame press conference Saturday following West Virginia’s 89-88 loss to Ohio State in double overtime. “Whether that’s calling a set play or taking a timeout or whether that’s substituting. There’s a lot of little things, and I’m always going to start with what I can do better. In the same level of accountability that I ask for our guys to take, I’m going to take that, as well.”
Truth is, there’s plenty of reasons why this group of Mountaineers (8-4) find themselves with more and more doubters piling on.
It could begin with the players, in that the Mountaineers are missing key contributions from some who were expected to make major contributions. Some haven’t lived up to the hype. Others haven’t been as good as advertised or hoped.
If you look at it collectively, this WVU defense simply hasn’t been that good against better competition. This was Hodge’s calling card when he was hired at WVU, yet Ohio State, Wake Forest, Xavier and Clemson all sliced and diced their way through it.
None of those teams are currently in the Top 25. Xavier isn’t projected to make the NCAA tournament. Clemson and Ohio State are projected to be no higher than a No. 8 seed. These haven’t exactly been the crème de la crème of the college basketball world who have frustrated the Mountaineers.
And we are just two weeks away from the start of Big 12 play. That’s when it becomes real. That’s when Iowa State comes calling and Houston and Kansas, and, oh yeah, Arizona is the No. 1 team in the country.
WVU is not ready for that type of challenge. Not right now, maybe not this season.
That presents a real problem for Hodge, because he is now caught between two worlds colliding into one another. On one side is a coach – just 12 games into his first season at WVU – trying to establish his culture and his program, all while trying to get the full potential out of players who have never played together before.
As much as we don’t want to be reminded of it, that takes time.
That other world – the fan’s expectations – have run rather thin on patience. None of this is Hodge’s doing, but it’s been a long five years since this program was good enough to play in the second round of the NCAA tournament.
It’s been six years since the last 20-win season and eight since WVU was in the Big 12 title conversation.
You know what’s happened since. Bob Huggins was forced to resign and a threatened lawsuit followed. Josh Eilert’s interim season was 23-losses long. Darian DeVries gave the faithful some hope, only to pull the rug out after one season.
Getting better, getting closer are not the phrases most want to hear right now. Losing a 16-point lead in the second half against Ohio State is not a good look.
“This is a good opportunity with some incredible data points to point to,” Hodge said. “Like, if you had just grabbed a ball. If you had just blocked out one time, let alone make a free throw or a basket. Just grab a ball, one ball today and we win. It’s not easy to do, but it is that simple.”
The situation at hand is anything but simple. Under normal circumstances, Hodge would have a longer honeymoon period. There would be time and patience afforded.
As Hodge is likely figuring out, when it comes to the WVU men’s hoops program, there’s a large gap between where the Mountaineers currently reside and normal circumstances.
