Stock Up, Stock Down: Ross Hodge, Star Power, Postseason Chances + More

Evaluations from West Virginia's loss to Texas Tech.

Feb 8, 2026; Morgantown, West Virginia, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Honor Huff (3) dribbles against Texas Tech Red Raiders forward Lejuan Watts (3) during the first half at Hope Coliseum. Mandatory Credit: Ben Queen-Imagn Images | Ben Queen-Imagn Images

West Virginia dropped to 15-9 (6-5) on the season following its loss to No. 13 Texas Tech on Sunday. There's not a whole lot of good to extract from this one, but I found some positives to feature in today's stock report.

Stock Up: Brenen Lorient

The one individual performance I was really impressed with. Lorient did a great job of finishing through contact, fighting for positioning in the paint, and really controlling his matchup down low. This is what they need from him on a nightly basis, even when he doesn't go 10/14.

Stock Down: The supposed dynamic duo

WVU is quite frankly not getting the type of production that they had hoped for out of Honor Huff and Treysen Eaglestaff. Teams are keying in on Huff simply because there is no other legit scoring threat for WVU. Just because someone goes for double figures doesn't mean they are a scoring threat either. Teams will live with Lorient, Harlan Obioha, and Chance Moore doing much of the scoring, and if they beat you, then they'll tip their hat. Way too often, Eaglestaff goes ghost mode in these games. He has to be more aggressive for WVU to have a chance.

Stock Up: Ross Hodge

Hear me out for a second. Now just think about this. West Virginia shot a miserable 2/22 (9%) from three-point range while also going 13/23 (56%) from the free-throw line, yet still managed to keep the score respectable. When you have that type of performance, you're usually down 20+. Hodge coached his tail off for the full forty minutes. I don't want to hear how this one is on him. It comes down to execution. I know no one cares whatsoever about moral victories, but the reality is this team continued to fight until the final buzzer. They didn't throw in the towel even with a minute left and the game most likely in hand. His guys play hard for him, and that means something.

Stock Down: Tournament chances

I'll dive in a little deeper into this later this morning in a separate article, so keep your eyes peeled for that, but WVU is going to need a whole lot of things to fall its way down the stretch, including winning some games they aren't expected to win.

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