By: Justin “Couz” Walker | WV Sports Chat
MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – After WVU men’s basketball blew a 16-point lead in a double-overtime loss to Ohio State on Saturday night, many fans took to social media to vent their frustration. Some went as far as to say it’s time for Wren Baker and West Virginia to fire first-year coach Ross Hodge.
While it’s understandable, and even justified, for fans to be upset and emotional after such a heartbreaking loss, I feel like the calls to fire Hodge 12 games into his first season are pre-mature. Below I will discuss the reasons why.
First of all, it’s 12 games and the season is not even half over. There are still 19 games remaining, including 18 in Big 12 conference play. While it’s unlikely the Mountaineers win a ton of games in the toughest conference in the country, it’s not impossible and Hodge and his team have an opportunity to see that through.
The second reason it’s too early to move on from Hodge is it’s his first year at the helm and he has an entirely new roster. It often takes a team and a coaching staff more than just twelve games together to gel as a unit. For this team, it’s even tougher. Only one player on the 2025-26 team, Abraham Oyeadier, was at WVU last season and he has seen very little action during his career. Also, only two of the players on the team have played for Hodge and were comfortable in his system. Those two players are Jasper Floyd and Brenen Lorient, who both followed their head coach from North Texas.
That leads me to reason number three; the staff and roster are having to adjust to coaching and playing in the Big 12. Outside of Oyeadier, all of the players were either playing at a mid-major program or in high school prior to coming to Morgantown. The same can be said for the coaching staff. With the exception of Yusuf Ali, who was coaching at Arizona State last season, the staff is primarily made up of assistants who followed Hodge from North Texas. Even the head ball coach himself has never been a head coach at the Power Four level, much less in the Big 12. It is fair to expect some growing pains with both the roster and staff as they adjust to the higher level of competition.
Now let’s look at recruiting. Ross Hodge and his staff were able to get Amir Jenkins, a top 75 player nationally, to reclassify for the 2025 class. Even though Jenkins did not play a lot of minutes down the stretch in the loss to Ohio State, he has shown flashes this season of why scouts love his game. His future looks really bright and he could be a key contributor late in the season or at worst, by next year.
Then you have Jayden Forsythe and D.J. Thomas. Forsythe is another 4-star and Thomas has been the biggest surprise of all. The 3-star was not heavily recruited out of high school and was committed to Hodge at North Texas. He decided to join Hodge in Morgantown and was a huge help off the bench early in the season when Jackson Fields had to sit out five games due to an eligibility ruling by the NCAA.
Then there’s the 2026 class. Hodge and the Mountaineers signed the highest rated recruit in the history of the program in 5-star point guard, Miles Sadler. He will be joined by his high school teammate, Aliou Dioum. The 6-foot-10 rim runner is a top 150 recruit nationally and a 4-star. Rounding out the 2026 high school class is another talented guard, Kingston Whitty. The Pennsylvania native is a high 3-star and a national top 170 player. All ratings are per 247 Sports Composite.
Mountaineer fans were seemingly spoiled by last year’s early season success under coach Darian DeVries. However, that type of success early on is not the norm and can be partly attributed to their pre-season trip to Italy. While overseas, they played several exhibition games. While the level of competition was not what these teams see in the Big 12, it was an opportunity for the team to build chemistry amongst themselves and with the coaching staff. This year’s team did not get those preseason games to help build chemistry.
That DeVries led team also contained multiple players who had already played at the Power Four level. One of those was an NBA level talent in Javon Small. The current Memphis Grizzlies guard was a clutch player for the 2024-25 Mountaineer squad.
Finally, let’s talk about the program. This WVU men’s basketball program has went through four coaches in four years. It has seen its share of adversity. Firing Hodge during or after year one would turn next year into another rebuilding year. It would be another year with a new roster and new staff, and another year with low expectations. This program needs continuity. It needs to be built up. Even in today’s landscape with the transfer portal and NIL, having a solid foundation still matters. West Virginia basketball has not had a solid foundation since Bob Huggins got a DUI in June 2023. Ross Hodge can provide that.
To hear more on this topic, check out this recent episode of Hoops from the Hills on YouTube.
