Ross Hodge Highlights Unselfish Play After Mountaineers’ Win Over Little Rock

The West Virginia Mountaineers (8-3) handled the Little Rock Trojans (2-8) Tuesday night 90-58.

WVU head coach Ross Hodge met with the media and discussed guard Honor Huff, and Treysen Eaglestaff's night, the defensive effort and more.

Opening statement

I have a ton of respect for Coach (Darrell) Walker and that Little Rock team. I was reluctant to schedule the game, to be honest with you, because they were picked to win their league. Coming into this season, they were a top 150 team (in the) KenPom ratings. (The) preseason player of the year was their point guard. I knew when we scheduled the game that they were going to be a tough out, and he's done a good job there.

They've just been absolutely ravaged by injuries. When coaches are dealing with injuries, they never want to be the one to talk about them, and you ultimately have to try to figure out a way to win games despite it, but I'll say it for them. Injuries suck. They're a part of the game, and they've just been ravaged by them.

On our end, I did think it was a quick turnaround, but in some ways, you have to correct some of the wrongs we felt from Saturday. Wake Forest was very aggressive with their post double. We did not handle that great. They put two on the ball as well. So you don't always kind of get to play against a similar style right away,

I thought starting kind of with (senior center) Harlan (Obioha), I thought he did a really good job of handling the double team. Our spacing was good, and then I thought all night long, our guys just made simple plays out of the aggressive ball screen coverage, found the open man, and 22 assists on 33 baskets was a good sight from an offensive standpoint.

Defensively, I was a little disappointed with our defensive rebounding, and that's something we've been really good at. One of the best teams in the country. We just didn't defensively rebound at the rate that I would have liked. Some of it is that they do have length, and we were helping off some guys. So, you're not in great rebounding position, but did a little bit better job in the second half. And then I was disappointed with how we started the second half defensively, the first 10 minutes, but thought we responded well after that.

Seniors Honor Huff and Treysean Eaglestaff combining for 47 points

Those guys are good shooters. I thought our spacing and our willingness to share the basketball and they were the recipients. When Honor gets going, he can make some tough ones, as can Trey. But I thought they were on the receiving end of really unselfish play, even to the point I felt like we probably overpassed a couple times, but I was fine with that. And yeah, those guys are two of the better shooters in the country and I’ve got a lot of confidence in those guys. They put a lot of work in and if they're open, I always think it's going in.

Corrections from Saturday’s loss to Wake Forest

We were able to watch it (film) on Sunday and then yesterday, just kind of some of our spacing, and cleaning up some of the patience of our forwards, and knowing the double team is coming and not getting sped up by it and being comfortable taking it. You saw Harlan kind of step through the one time and found maybe it was Honor or Trey, and just tried to get the ball in some more favorable spots. So then, when they were double-teamed, they weren't in positions that you wouldn't want them to be in. So that was kind of the biggest thing from Saturday till now. That was our emphasis offensively.

Opening statement

Seniors Honor Huff and Treysean Eaglestaff combining for 47 points

Corrections from Saturday’s loss to Wake Forest

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