Ross Hodge Utah Postgame Quick Hits

The West Virginia Mountaineers (16-10, 7-6) fell the Utah Utes (9-17, 1-11) Wednesday night 61-56.

West Virginia shot an abysmal 30.4% from the floor, including 2-12 from three-point range in the first half. The Mountaineers trailed by as many as 15 points on the night and appeared to be poised their third comeback in four games, pulling within two with four minutes remaining, but ultimately fell short.

WVU head coach Ross Hodge met with the media following the game and gave some insight on the Mountaineers poor perfromance at Hope Coliseum.

Opening Statement

I want to give (Utah head) coach Alex Jensen and his team all the credit in the world. They've been close. They've been in these situations before, and they've just kind of been on the wrong side of them, even as recently as the Cincinnati game. So, I was fully aware of the challenge we had in front of us.

“They started the game with force and pace and shot making, and we just didn't match that. I think a coach obviously has a lot of responsibilities, but the biggest one, and one of the biggest primary responsibilities as a head is to make sure your team is ready to play and there have been too many times that we haven't quite been ready to play. So, I'll take the blame for that.

“We have a small margin for error, and when you continually put yourself in these positions and dig yourself holes, and some of that is the inconsistency that you're playing with, whether it's individually or collectively, to continue to put yourself in these holes, and again, it's to be commended, I guess, that we continuously fight back and give ourselves chances in this game, but when you dig yourself those types of holes, so many things have to go right. In the games that we've been able to do that, we were able to kind of get over the hump with a big shot. And then, tonight we weren't able to do that. The last possession, again, I'll take the blame for that, too. We were down three with 25 seconds. In those situations, you don't necessarily have to have a three. A quick two is more so what you want, and once the play kind of broke down, I shouldn't have left (senior guard) Honor (Huff) out there on the island by himself. I should have called time out, so that was on me as well.

The Mountaineers rallying late in the game

I think that part is to be commended. They stay together. They certainly have a level of desperation and urgency that they can get to that we have shown. I think the underlying factors have to be addressed, too. You can't continuously put yourself in those situations and think you're always going to be able to come back. The fight back, the togetherness, you appreciate that, but some of it is we need to play better with more consistency from individuals and collectively that we don't find ourselves in those situations. There's something that is leading up to being down 16, and being down 14, and being down 15 and starting slow in these games and I think that's where we have to ultimately figure out, I have to figure out.

Jasper’s outlet pass on the missed free throw

Leading up to the free throw shot, we knew kind of what we wanted to do if they missed the front end, we wanted to try and get the ball to Honor and if you watch the play, Honor was looking for it and (senior guard) Trey (Treysen Eaglestaff) kind of ran in front of him and Jasper was throwing it to where he though where Honor was going to be, but Honor kind of saw Trey and he stopped, and it was just kind of a bang-bang play. But they knew what they were supposed to, the execution was the missing piece.

Opening Statement

The Mountaineers rallying late in the game

Jasper’s outlet pass on the missed free throw

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