Ross Hodge Disregards Big 12 Preseason Poll

The West Virginia University men’s basketball program was voted to finish 11th in the Big 12 Conference standings on Thursday and head coach Ross Hodge, in his first season at WVU, showed little concern shortly after the rankings were unveiled.

“Don’t address it a ton, to be honest. Don’t put a lot of thought into it one way or the other,” Hodge stated.

Hodge has been in the coaching ranks at the D1 level since 2011, joining Southern Miss for a season before moving on to Colorado State for four seasons, went to Arkansas State for a year, then landed in North Texas where he spent six seasons as the assistant coach prior to taking over for Grant McCasland, who left for Texas Tech.

“Over the course of my career, we’ve been picked really low to start the year and finished really high, and then there’s been times where we were picked higher in leagues and didn’t finish as high as we got picked,” Hodge said. “So, I don’t put a lot of thought into, honestly. Kind of one those ‘control what you can control’ deals.

Hodge and North Texas were voted sixth in the American Athletic Conference (AAC) preseason rankings and finished seventh, but in year two, the Mean Green were slotted seventh and ended near the top at no. 2.

Honor Huff, a senior transfer guard from Chattanooga, was not aware the preseason rankings were released, but once the message was relayed the Mountaineers were selected 11th, he wasn’t shocked.

“We figured that. We talked about that as a group,” Huff stated. “I saw something where he’s always been picked lower than he finished in his head coaching career. So, we’re not worried about that. We’ll prove a lot of people wrong - I can guarantee that."

The Mountaineers will hold an exhibition game on Oct. 26 versus Wheeling at 4:00 p.m. EST before opening the regular season Nov. 4 against Mount St. Mary’s at 7:00 p.m.

West Virginia begins its Big 12 slate on the road against Iowa State on Jan. 2 for a 9:00 p.m. tip-off.

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