Ross Hodge Praises Arizona, Says Mountaineers 'Played Hard' Despite Lopsided Loss

The West Virginia Mountaineers (13-7, 4-3) fell to the No. 1 Arizona Wildcats (20-0, 7-0) Saturday afternoon 88-53.

Arizona got off to a hot start and never really cooled, shooting 52.5% from the field, including 10-23 from three-point range as four Wildcats hit double figures with freshman guard Brayden Burries leading the charge for a game-high 20 points. Meanwhile, West Virginia could not get into an offensive rhythm and was held to the second lowest output of the season after shooting a mere 34.4% from the floor.

West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge have a breakdown of the loss during the postgame press conference.

Opening Statement

“I got a ton of respect for (Arizona head) coach (Tommy) Lloyd and this team in particular and this program overall. He’s just done a great job. He’s starting three freshman – it’s probably an under talked about story in college basketball – the year they are having, and he’s emerging it with young players playing a lot of minutes, albeit very good young players. And they just present so many challenges for you. You kind of have to make choices and decisions, none of them are great and our inability to do kind of do both. Obviously, the first thing you got to do is get back in transition, try to keep the ball out of the paint as best you can. You’d like to be able to do that and make them miss, but the reality is with their size, you got to get some misses and to their credit, they shot the ball well from three today.

“Offensively, we got a little hurried, a little rushed, didn’t share the ball as well as I would’ve liked, but again, that’s to their credit and to their size and they just don’t let you get anything close to the basket. If you’re going to come in here and beat the number one team in the country on their home floor, you got to get some very special performances from a lot of individuals and you’re going to have to probably shoot the ball at an incredible clip, and we didn’t tonight.”

The Mountaineers' effort

“I didn’t think our effort was necessarily the issue. A guy I used to work for, Larry Stachey, that was the Iowa State head coach won the Big 12 twice in a row. He had a saying, and it was, ‘sometimes the problem isn’t you, sometimes the problem is who you have to play and where you have to play them.’ So, I think you have to give Arizona a ton of credit tonight. I thought our guys played hard, stayed together for the most part.”

West Virginia returns home and is back in action Tuesday night to host the Kansas State Wildcats. Tip-off is set for 8:30 p.m. EST and the action will air on FS1.

Opening Statement

The Mountaineers' effort

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