Familiar faces: Good friends Ross Hodge, Grant McCasland meet on Sunday as opposing coaches

MORGANTOWN — Ross Hodge is not one to get overly worked up about a lack of offense. The WVU men’s basketball coach is a steady believer there are better ways to win a game than simply lighting up the scoreboard.

“I tell these guys all the time, let’s beat someone 52-48, then, if that’s what it takes,” Hodge said. “It takes what it takes.”

Hodge spoke those words in Cincinnati, after the Mountaineers (15-8, 6-4 Big 12) erased a 14-point deficit to beat the Bearcats 59-54 on Thursday.

Roughly 1,200 miles away, Texas Tech coach Grant McCasland had to be smiling. The coaching duo once seemed inseparable when they first worked together at Arkansas State, before building something special together at North Texas.

During those seven years, McCasland built programs and Hodge anchored them with his tough and gritty defensive mentality.

Even back in those days, Hodge always seemed to have a quote on the ready about defense. McCasland’s favorite came during the 2023 NIT semifinals. Wisconsin jumped out to a big lead, but North Texas held the Badgers to just 13 points in the second half, including going completely scoreless over the final nine minutes of the game. North Texas won the game, 56-54, and went on to defeat UAB for the NIT title two days later.

“My favorite quote of his, anytime we had a lead, was, ‘We’ve got enough points to win, so they don’t have to score another basket,’ ” McCasland said. “That mentality is pretty wild. Scoring is obviously important, but he actually thinks about what if you can just hold someone without scoring for 10 minutes. I just think that’s him. That’s his grit. That’s his fight. That’s who he is as a person and I love that about him.”

Hodge took over at North Texas after McCasland left to become Texas Tech’s head coach in 2023. They meet for the first time on opposing sidelines at 1 p.m. Sunday inside Hope Coliseum, when No. 13 Texas Tech (16-6, 6-3) travels to Morgantown.

McCasland has an offensive showcase on his side. The Red Raiders are the top 3-point shooting team in the Big 12. Texas Tech averages 83 points per game. It has the returning Big 12 Player of the Year in forward J.T. Toppin. Sophomore point guard Christian Anderson leads the conference in assists, and, oh by the way, Anderson also averages 19 points per game.

Hodge will counter by summoning toughness and grit from his players, giving them a belief that a better defense can generally outmuster a high-powered offense if the gameplan is executed correctly.

“I love what he’s doing with their team,” McCasland said of Hodge. “They’re finding ways to win close games, and they’ve been in a lot of them. Winning on the road at Cincinnati says a lot about how tough they are. I’m looking forward to the opportunity to go and compete, and we’re going to have to play our best.”

The big question heading into the game will be how the Mountaineers begin it? WVU is setting the wrong kind of trends with slow and poor starts. Cincinnati took a 14-2 lead on Thursday and WVU went through a drought of 5:23 before its two points on the scoreboard turned into a three.

If that happens against the Red Raiders, with their offensive firepower, it’s likely WVU would face a much deeper deficit.

“We didn’t start well in either half,” Hodge said. “Again, that’s something we have been evaluating, we have been looking at. We’ve almost talked about it ad nauseum now. We just have to figure out better ways to get off to a better start and have a higher sense of urgency.”

Hodge has shouldered the blame for the poor starts, which also includes falling behind, 15-5, against Baylor and needing eight minutes to score four points against Kansas State.

WVU hasn’t broken the 60-point barrier since beating Arizona State, 75-63, on Jan. 21, and the Mountaineers trailed, 23-11, over the first 10 minutes of that game, too.

“The players, which they are, they have to be accountable for when you have opportunities in those segments,” Hodge said. “You have to make the play, too. That’s what I love about this group. No one points fingers. No one places blame. No one is, like, ‘It’s his fault or it’s coach’s fault.’ Everybody is looking at it as, man, we’ve got to be better than that.”