Ross Hodge Weighs In on Brenen Lorient’s Potential Return to WVU

Ross Hodge and the West Virginia Mountaineers are one step closer to officially welcoming back veteran forward Brenen Lorient. On Wednesday, he revealed his intentions to return to the program but is still awaiting a ruling from the courts on his eligibility.

Lorient could have gone elsewhere for his fifth year, but opted to stay put and continue his journey with Hodge and a system he is familiar with.

A few hours after the news came out, Hodge dropped by the 3 Guys Before the Game podcast and was asked what his potential return means.

“What I can say and what I think is a really cool part of this story is that Brenen did finish his degree. He was taking nine hours in the summer. We had talked about prior to whatever the next part of the journey was for him, whether it was professional or…you know, that was going to be very important in the spring to him and his family. A lot of cool things are happening as it pertains to him, obviously, but a big part of that, to me, is that he’s also a West Virginia graduate now.”

Hodge smartly dodged the dynamic of what his addition means for the others and how he will fit alongside the newcomers, mainly because there is still a gray area as to what he's allowed to say and what he isn't. He did discuss his development and how his versatility on both ends of the floor is what makes him such a special player.

“Incredibly high basketball IQ, a range of defensive versatility. A true one-through-five type of guy. When you think about some of our bigger wins last year — the BYU win at home and how competitive he was in that matchup. Can switch onto point guards, athletic enough and savvy enough if you got to go small; he can get down there and rebounds. And then just the offensive growth that he continued through, going from his junior year when he was at North Texas, he was 11/22 from three. Shot a very high percentage on low attempts. Maybe doubled or even tripled his makes last year, and really there was just one little stretch in league where he struggled from three. But if you take away that six-or seven-game stretch and just look at the end and look at the beginning of the season, he really shot close to 40% from three. It gives you a lot of versatility.”

Lorient and his teammate, Javan Buchanan, filed a lawsuit against the NCAA in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of West Virginia, seeking a fifth year of eligibility earlier this month. If they get the green light there, it won't matter if the Tenth Circuit reverses Colorado Judge Charlotte Sweeney's ruling,

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