Ross Hodge on WVU’s Slow Start and Dominant Finish Against Coppin State

The West Virginia Mountaineers (7-2) dismantled the Coppin State Eagles (2-9) Wednesday night 91-49.

West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge met with the medial following the win and gave his thoughts on the Mountaineers dominating win.

Opening statement

I wasn't pleased with the way we kind of started the game. That was like the first time since this group has been together that we haven't started pretty fast. We've been a fairly fast-starting team. But I just didn't think we kind of had it, whatever “it” is.

We were a step slow defensively. (We) had a hard time keeping the ball out of the paint. They drove us early. We fouled early, which is typically a sign that you're a little late. The harder you play, the more aggressive you are, the less you foul. And we had some definite reactionary fouls early on, but you've got to give them credit, too.

It's always really easy to look at yourself all the time and just talk about what you didn't do. But you know, (Coppin State) Coach (Larry) Stewart and his group, they’ve played a lot of these games. They've been on the road this whole time, and they were ready to roll, and they were physical, and they were aggressive, and we just weren't quite as sharp as we needed to be throughout the first half. I thought our guys responded well in the second half, just with the physicality.

I thought (senior guard) Jasper (Floyd) set the tone early on by going against some, like just big, physical defensive rebounds. He didn't shoot the ball great. But still to be plus 30 on a plus/minus, which tells some of the story, not always the whole story, but just thought his physicality rebounding the ball, thought (fifth year guard) Chance (Moore) gave us some big free throw rebound opportunities, and we were more physical, and did a better job keeping the ball in front of us and keeping the ball out of the paint in the second half.

Shooting 34 threes on the night

Especially the way the modern game is played, it is more at the basket and three-point shooting. Obviously, (freshman guard) Amir (Jenkins) shoots some floaters and Jasper shoots some floaters. The way that they were defending us, they did actually collapse on us when we drove. So, that's why we shot 34 threes. I thought probably 28 of them were actually really good shots. Then if you could kind of get past that initial line, then you were laying it up. They did a pretty good job of collapsing early and probably shocked us a little bit, because we just haven't been guarded that way. (Senior guard) Honor (Huff) in particular. We usually haven't. He receives a lot of attention, especially early in games, and he kind of has to work himself into finding open shots. And he kind of found himself wide open to start the game a couple of times. It was almost like it shocked him a little bit.

Holding Coppin State to 17 second half points

I just thought our physicality on the ball, defensively. We guarded the ball better in the second half, we kept the ball in front of us, and our activity level increased. I think that was the biggest difference. From the start of the game, they just drove us right down the seams and shot layups on us to start the game. In the second half, we were able to guard the ball a little bit better. Our gap integrity was a little bit better, and we just executed better defensively.

Opening statement

Shooting 34 threes on the night

Holding Coppin State to 17 second half points

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