A Closer Look: WVU’s Ross Hodge Versus Other First Year Head Coaches To-Date

By: Justin “Couz” Walker | WV Sports Chat

MORGANTOWN, W.Va. – With WVU basketball’s loss to Ohio State on Saturday night, it was the second time this season the Mountaineers gave up a double-digit lead to lose a game against a power four opponent. It was also the fourth loss to a high-major team in five tries, with the lone win coming at home against a struggling Pitt team.

These late-game collapses have many WVU basketball fans questioning whether Ross Hodge is the right coach to lead West Virginia men’s basketball. So, I decided to take a deep dive into how first year head coaches are doing at other major programs around the country.

When comparing this WVU team to other high-major teams around the country with first year coaches, there does not appear to be much of a difference in the level of success up to this point in the season. Let’s examine some of them below:

• Ross Hodge-WVU: current record of 8-4
  • losses to Ohio State (8-2), Wake Forest (8-3), Xavier (8-3), and Clemson (8-3)
• Darian DeVries-Indiana: current record of 8-3
  • losses to Minnesota (5-5), Kentucky (7-4) and 11th ranked Louisville (8-1)
    • Defeated Penn State 113-72
    • Defeated Kanas State 86-69
• Niko Medved-Minnesota: current record of 5-5
  • losses include two mid-majors; Santa-Clara and San Francisco
    • Defeated Indiana 73-64
• Buzz Williams-Maryland: current record of 6-5
  • losses to Georgetown (7-3), Iowa (8-2), and three ranked teams [Michigan (2), Gonzaga (8), Alabama (12)]
    • No signature wins
• Sean Miller-Texas: current record of 7-4
  • losses to Arizona State and three teams ranked in the top 25 [Virginia (24), UConn (5) & Duke (3)]
    • Defeated NC State 102-97
• Will Wade-NC State: current record of 7-4
  • losses to Texas (7-4), Seton Hall (10-1), and two ranked teams [Kansas (19) & Auburn (21)]
    • No signature wins
• Richard Pitino-Xavier: current record of 8-3
  • losses to Georgia (9-1), Iowa (8-2) and mid-major Santa Clara.
    • Defeated West Virginia 78-68
    • Defeated Cincinnati 79-74

The one exception to first year head coaches so far has been Iowa’s Ben McCollum. The Iowa native who replaced Fran McCaffrey has the Hawkeyes at 8-2 with both losses to top ten teams, Iowa State (4) and Michigan State (9). Iowa has wins over Xavier, Ole Miss and Maryland; all of whom have winning records.

Keep in mind, this is Hodge’s first year at the helm of a power four job and only his third year as a head coach at the Division I level. All the other coaches on this list, with the exception of McCollum, have more years of experience than Hodge. This is only McCollum’s second year at the Division I level. Ben McCollum, so far at least, appears to be the exception and not the rule when it comes to first year coaches taking over a program. However, with two-thirds of the season still to play, a lot can change between now and March.

While Ross Hodge and the Mountaineers have let multiple opportunities to get signature wins slip through their fingers, other programs are going through similar growing pains.

Finally, doing this exercise may seem a little premature to some, but so is calling for Hodge’s job at this stage of his tenure in Morgantown. With many fans on social media doing just that, I felt this exercise was necessary.

Photo Credit: WVU Athletics