Everything WVU Head Coach Ross Hodge Said Following the Loss to BYU

The West Virginia Mountaineers (18-14) fell to the BYU Cougars (23-10) in the second round of the Big 12 tournament Wednesday night in Kansas City (MO) 68-48 at the T-Mobile Center.

BYU freshman guard, and potential No. 1 overall 2026 NBA Draft pick, AJ Dybansta led all scorers with 27 points, while WVU senior guard Honor Huff paced the Mountaineers with 17 points.

West Virginia committed uncharacteristically turned the ball over 14 times in the first half and trailed by eight at they break. BYU separated themselves in the second half, shooting 50% from the field (14-28) and from three-point range (4-8) with all four made threes coming from Kennard Davis Jr. The junior guard scored 17 second half points to finish the night with 20.

The Mountaineers committed 22 turnovers on the night and shot a mere 38.1 % (16-42) from the floor, including an abysmal 27.8% (5-18) from behind the arc.

Opening Statement

“I want to start out by giving (head) coach Kevin Young and his team a lot of credit. Um thought they were the more physical team today.

“Obviously, turned the ball over entirely too much. Felt pretty fortunate to just be down eight at the half considering we had 14 turnovers and felt like our defense held up pretty good for the most part when we weren't throwing them the ball and just didn't play well enough to beat a quality opponent this time of the year.”

Thoughts on BYU’s defensive effort from game one to game two

"I thought the biggest thing was just their physicality and the intensity at which they played with - they made it hard for us to move the ball. They played some different lineup combinations and ended up playing a little more athletic and a little more physical. Twenty-four (redshirt freshman Dominique Diomande) didn't play much at our place. Six, (Freshman Aleksej Kostic) two (junior Tyler Mrus), five (senior Mihailo Boskovic), played a lot of minutes, and so really, I just felt it was like they were a lot more disruptive - got their hands on balls and really took us of took us out of things that we were trying to do, whereas a couple weeks ago, I thought the ball moved a little easier. And obviously, like I said, just turning the ball over 22 times you don't give yourself much of a chance but you got to give them a lot of credit for that. I just thought their physicality and their intensity level was a lot higher."