Quick Hits: Injury Update, First Game at WVU, Defensive Philosophy + More

Ross Hodge held his first pregame press conference on Monday afternoon.

West Virginia University head coach Ross Hodge | Christopher Hall - West Virginia on SI

Tuesday night, West Virginia will tip off the 2025-26 season against Mount St. Mary's at Hope Coliseum, which will also mark the official beginning of the Ross Hodge era in Morgantown.

Earlier today, Hodge met with the media to discuss the start of the season and provide an update on a couple of things. Here are some of the highlights from today's press conference.

If Jayden Forsythe’s performance in the exhibition was surprising

“It didn’t surprise me because we know he can really shoot the ball. His biggest growth and the biggest strides that he’s made has just been becoming more comfortable on the defensive end of the floor, which is where we tilt to. He’s gotten a lot better in that area. When he shoots it, I feel like it’s going in. It’s just about getting him more comfortable on the defensive end of the floor, executing, but he really wants to be coached.”

If this game means more because it’s his first at WVU

“Not necessarily. I mean, you want to win, but anything that gets outside of that, in my opinion, like you talk to your players or go into a game making it about you, you usually don’t play well. It’s more if I can go into that game and do everything I can to prepare our players pregame, during the game, relying on staff and try to make good adjustments and put our players first and not make it anything about myself, then that’s when you have the best results.”

How deep the rotation can go without Chance Moore and Jackson Fields

“We’re comfortable with Jayden Forsythe and even Abe (Oyeadier), those guys are getting better, and you may have to see some of those guys, especially early in the season. I think that’s where you see those guys creeping into nine and ten.”

Update on Jackson Fields

“All his restrictions are removed and now it becomes about how comfortable can you get him? He hasn’t participated in five-on-five activity, but he has been a participant in practice.”

What he typically wants to see from his defense

“Keeping the ball out of the paint primarily and not giving up easy baskets, and a lot of times, your offense impacts that. If yoy’re taking bad shots, if you’re turning the ball over, you’re not going to have very good floor balance, and you’re going to be scrambling around. And then just keeping the ball out of the paint. One shot and one shot only. That’ll look a little different depending on who you’re playing each time, and how you go about doing it changes.”

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