Ross Hodge Breaks Down the Season-Opening Win Over Mount St. Mary's

The West Virginia Mountaineers (1-0) handled the Mount St. Mary’s Mountaineers (0-1) Tuesday night 70-54.

West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge provided a review of the win in his postgame press conference and some insight on the offense’s sluggish start.

Opening Statement

I want to start by commending coach Lind and his group. I have a ton respect for these guys and what they’ve done in a short time at Mount St. Mary’s. Last year was their first year – go to an NCAA tournament, win a game, lost to Duke. Lost some key pieces [to last year’s team].

One of the things I respect those guys the most, watched a lot of their games from last year and their scrimmages even from this year and even tonight, whether they were up 20 in games or down 20 in games, their bench was always really engaged – a very connected team. I would anticipate them to be right in the thick of things in their conference again for an NCAA tournament berth.

Probably the difference in the game was our defensive activity with our hands and getting deflections, turning them over 20 times. We only turned it over nine. That made up for some poor free throw shooting and didn’t shoot the ball well from three, but I thought our overall activity defensively was probably the difference in the game.

Challenged our guys. Had not come out of the two, the exhibition game, and the closed-door scrimmage, and hadn't come out of halftime very well, and I thought we came out with a good little push, got a little separation, and did just enough to hang on.

The offense’s slow start

I think everything is going to be a little bit of a work in progress for a while. All aspects, if you look at it, not only offensively. We had a couple of defensive breakdowns where we gave up a layup cause we lost a guy. There were some scouting report mistakes that we made, where we were supposed to do this, and we did not do that, they made you pay. Just getting comfortable. It is probably not like a super surprise, but the two guys who looked the most comfortable on the floor are the two guys who played for me (guards Jasper Floyd and Brenen Lorient) and have been through 40 of these [games] with me prior. You are always going to be settling in, and typically, your defense is a little bit ahead of your offense. For us, our defense was good enough to carry us on a night when we did not make a lot of free throws and had opportunities to kind of separate.

Freshmen DJ Thomas and Amir Jenkins playing significant minutes

They are very mature. I think that's where it starts, with both those guys. They have the physical capabilities, but more importantly, they have a mental ability to process information. And that's really where you're gauging. You know, their readiness. DJ has grown a lot through (senior forward) Jackson's (Fields) injury. You don't ever say injuries are a good thing, but it's forced DJ to get every single rep in practice, and he's gotten a lot better through that and both those guys will continue to get better the more they get out there.

Opening Statement

The offense’s slow start

Freshmen DJ Thomas and Amir Jenkins playing significant minutes

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