Everything Ross Hodge Said Following the OT Win Against Stanford

The West Virginia Mountaineers (19-14) defeated the Stanford Cardinal (20-13) in overtime in the opening round of the College Basketball Crown Thursday night 82-77.

West Virginia senior guard Honor Huff scored a team-high 21 points, senior guard Treysen Eaglestaff put in 18 points, and senior forward Brenen Lorient produced 14 points and seven rebounds.

WVU head coach Ross Hodge met with the media to provide his initial assessment of the thrilling overtime win.

Opening statement

"I want t start out by congratulating (head) coach Kyle Smith and that group on a on a great year. Got a lot of respect for him. He does a great job and he's done a great job everywhere he's been. So, just have a ton of respect for him and everything he's done since he's been there.

"(Freshman guard) Ebuka Okorie is an incredible player. I mean, he's everything we thought he was going to be and we did everything we could to keep the ball out of his hands and he's still had 34 points. So, but at the end of the day, our group is about as resilient of a group that I've ever been around. Whether it's a tough loss or games where we're not playing very well and we look just kind of down and out, they have an ability to stay together and keep playing for each other. So, super thankful for them and really appreciative that we get to have a few more team meals and a few more team dinners and a few more film sessions. And that's ultimately what you're fighting for this time of year."

Putting a team together with winning attributes

"When we put this team together - I think it was probably a year ago maybe a couple days ago that I got this job and uh when we when we started hitting the portal we wanted to recruit guys that have been part of winning and loved basketball and loved each other. And typically, if that's kind of your makeup and you really love basketball and you love being around other people, you'll have an ability to stay together through really tough times. And this group has embodied that and really set a standard for the future teams in the program."

A mature group sticking together when down late

"These guys, (Senior guard) Honor (Huff) and the rest of his teammates, they could have went to a lot of different places. They had a lot of good options and they chose to come not only play for our
university, but when you when you decide you're going to come play at West Virginia, you don't just play for your program and for your university, you play for an entire state. And, just this group's ability to stay together when things get hard and things get tough and people are probably counting you out like that, I think that embodies the state of West Virginia and I think a lot of people have been able to identify with this group.

"We've had some incredible highs and we've had some really tough lows, but the ability to stay together and that's what makes this job special.

"Even if you look at it tonight, just an incredible pro WVU crowd on opposite - you couldn't maybe be too much further than Morgantown. But, Tony Caridi, our radio guy, he likes to say, "Hey, we show up', and they showed up for us." And again, you're always thankful when you have a fan base that's as loyal and as passionate as ours. When you have opportunities to reward them, you really appreciate that. You're thankful for that and I think that's what this group has done. We're not perfect. We have stretches during games when we're certainly not perfect, but their ability to stay together and be at their best actually when they're counted out is special. And I think that's something that can be laid at the feet of everybody in West Virginia and the future teams to point to this group."