Ross Hodge Gives an Assessment of the Win Against Wheeling and His First 'Country Roads' Experience

West Virginia Mountaineers handled the Wheeling Cardinals Saturday evening in an exhibition game 80-54.

West Virginia senior center Harlan Obioha led all scores with 19 points and pulled down a game-high eight rebounds, while senior forward Brenen Lorient put in 14 points, snared three rebounds and had a pair of assists.

Opening statement

I have a lot of respect for (Wheeling head) coach (Chris) Richardson and that Wheeling team. We have a saying amongst ourselves and our program, ‘We respect everybody, fear no one.’ Obviously, have a lot of respect for him and his program. I’ll be wishing him well as the season goes on.

I appreciate everybody who came out on a Sunday afternoon for an exhibition. NFL Sunday, Homecoming weekend, a lot of stuff going on and that’s what makes this place uniquely special, especially in this time period. Its fun to be out there in Hope Coliseum in front of your fans, put your jersey’s on for the first time.

Defensively, I thought we were fairly consistent for the most part. Took them deep into the shot clock, was able to do that several times – not break down and make it hard on them. They can change you in different ways. They’re smaller, kind of five out, can put you in space, but I thought we did a good job of not getting spread out.

I wasn’t crazy about the way we started the second half. Our closed door not so secret scrimmage anymore was kind of similar – didn’t feel like we started great to come out of halftime. We talked about that at halftime today and still came out a little slow, so that was disappointing. We got back into the flow of it.

I thought our defense was good enough when you’re not shooting the ball well. Kind of anticipated that a little bit as well as we shot it in our closed-door scrimmage. You kind of know – just law of averages.

I thought Harlan did a really good job establishing himself. B-Lo (senior forward Brenen Lorient) [as well]. I think that can be a plus for this team as you will have to decide: Are you going to play those solo when they get into the post? Or are you to bring help and open up some three-point shooting?

All in all, it was great to be out there and in a lot of ways, glad that it’s over.

Experiencing ‘Country Roads’ for the first time at Hope Coliseum

It was incredible. You see it on TV and, again, I’m a fan of college basketball and college sports in general. I’ve seen lots of Big Monday games in here and lots of big wins that I wasn’t a part of and to actually be in instead of witnessing it was really cool.

Even last night at the football game, and I know coach Rodriguez and them aren’t having the type of year that want to have or the type of year they will have in the future but to still see 54-thousand people show up in the midst of a tough stretch, to me is what can separate us and what gives us a distinct advantage when everybody else is looking for advantages. What is our advantage is we have one of the most passionate, one of the most loyal fanbases and they keep showing up and keep supporting you.

Opening statement

Experiencing ‘Country Roads’ for the first time at Hope Coliseum

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