WVU men’s basketball defense thriving on anticipation, speed
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MORGANTOWN - Either Ross Hodge isn't much of a music fan or he may still be a bit cautious just one game into the season.
Chances are, it's the latter, meaning he's just not quite ready to take West Virginia's transition and fast-break opportunities and refer to them as strike-up-the-band moments.
"I'm usually not a strike-up-the-band guy until the buzzer goes off," Hodge joked. "What was it, the Stanford-Cal (football) game? I don't want the band going off until the clock hits zero."
What can't be denied is the team speed the Mountaineers (1-0) are working with compared to Hodge's first season.
The WVU head coach would like to see speed become a factor again at 7 p.m. Friday, when the Mountaineers host Stetson (0-2).
It, obviously, shows up in freshman point guard Miles Sadler, who can go from ho-hum to lightning quick in just a step or two.
It's also showing up in WVU's defense. A season ago, the Mountaineers were methodical in the way they positioned themselves with the idea of forcing opponents to work their hardest to get one good look before the shot clock went off.
Steals and picking off errant passes seemingly come in bunches now. WVU had three games last season in which it had at least 13 steals in one game. The Mountaineers are already at one just one game into the 2026-27 season, coming up with 13 against Niagara in Monday's 91-46 victory.
They led to nine fast-break points and 24 points off turnovers, band playing or not.
"A strength of this team will be the speed and being able to convert defense to offense," Hodge continued. "With forwards that can run and the shooting we have on the perimeter, it should be a strength."
As to the passes WVU defenders were able to intercept, Hodge said it's a mixture of his players being able to anticipate, as well as defensive positioning.
Interceptions are usually a football term, and the WVU coach.
"Part A is making sure when you're guarding the ball that you have good ball pressure and active hands, so they can't throw it exactly where they want it to go," Hodge said. "You can take the best quarterback in the NFL, and put him under duress, and he's going to be off target. You can take another quarterback, and give him a clean pocket, and he'll pick you apart.
"The other part is the guy playing help defense. Physically, he's in a spot, but in his mind, he needs to be thinking, 'This ball is about to be thrown,' and you don't want to get stuck in help. You want to be early."
WVU also sticks in a little full-court pressure at times, which also is designed to speed up the game defensively.
"To be honest, I feel like we're one of the more athletic teams," Sadler said after finishing with 16 points, nine assists and three steals in his first college game. "When we do press like that, we can cause teams to turn it over. We're going to be ready to run out and we have a lot of athletes who are going to be ready to dunk the basketball."
Stetson, located in DeLand, Fla., will be playing its third game of the opening week of the season. The Hatters have already lost road games at Clemson (85-72) and South Carolina (81-55), in which they took care of the ball pretty well.
Stetson had just nine turnovers against Clemson and the Hatters outscored the Tigers, 48-36, in the second half of that game. Against South Carolina, Stetson had 13 turnovers.
Collin Kuhl, a 6-foot-8 forward, was named the Atlantic Sun Preseason Player and he had 37 points over those two games.
Stetson finished 12-21 last season.
"Our team is wired around athleticism and speed," WVU forward Brenen Lorient said. "Whenever we get the ball in transition on a broken floor, it gives us our best opportunity."