What Ross Hodge Said at His Introductory Press Conference at West Virginia

Ross Hodge was officially introduced as the 24th men's head basketball coach at West Virginia early Thursday morning and in addition to delivering his message to Mountaineer nation, he fielded questions from the media.

Below are some of the key quotes that I pulled out from today's presser.

Opening statement

“Country roads, take me home! Man, this is an incredible honor. This is a blessing and this is an opportunity that I certainly don’t take lightly. The one thing you hear when you hear anyone talk about West Virginia, the first thing that comes out of everyone’s mouth is you will love these people. There is not better people anywhere on this planet than the people of West Virginia.”

How much his parents mean to him

“She’s the toughest person I know. If any description that goes towards me as being like a tough, hard-nosed, blue-collar…my mom…she worked three jobs at one point in time. She drove the big old school buses and she’d wake up at 4:30 to go to the bus barn and get the bus, drive the bus, go teach at the high school, and then when that was over went to JC Penny’s. She’d have stretches where she worked 20, 21 days in a row without taking a day off. If you watch our team play and you say, man, that’s a tough team…that’s a tough woman right there. My father passed away and he’s in heaven, and what better way to get closer to him than Almost Heaven?”

Early impressions recruiting with the WVU logo

“West Virginia basketball…it’s a powerful brand. I can tell you I was blown away at the power of the brand of West Virginia basketball across the entire nation. It resonates with people. Anytime you have an alumni as the most famous iconic logo in any professional sport, it’s something to be extremely proud of. Coach (Joe) Mazzulla and what he’s doing with the (Boston) Celtics, it’s someone that I admire with how he’s able to profess his faith on a big stage.”

Thoughts on Bob Huggins

“I can remember sitting in my living room, and it brought tears to my eyes when I saw it, and in a lot of ways it still does touch me emotionally. In 2010, when Da’Sean Butler tore his ACL and Coach Huggins went out on the floor and you could see the love and the compassion that he had for his players. I’ll never forget Coach Huggins kneeling down there and both those guys were shedding tears. It’s something that inspired me.”

How his style will translate to the Big 12

“If you’re going to win the Big 12, you’ve got to be one of the best defensive teams in the country. The years Kansas was winning the Big 12, they had the best defense in the league. (Houston) as we all know, who has had the best defense in the league the last couple of years, is still playing. We plan on being one of the best defensive teams in the Big 12, which makes us one of the best defensive teams in the country, which gives us an opportunity to play extended basketball in March.”

Forming a coaching staff

“I’m not putting myself on a timeline. There’s an incredible excitement around this program, and there’s not a shortage of people that would love to come be a part of this. Obviously, I will bring some staff members from North Texas. It’s like putting a puzzle together.”

Why fans shouldn’t be worried that he’ll only be at WVU for a year

“This move was not an easy move for me, I’ll be perfectly honest. We talked a lot as a family; we shed a lot of tears. We had deep, meaningful relationships in Denton and that’s very important to us. People are important to us. It’s not something that we take lightly - moving a family. There was probably only a handful of situations that we would have even considered. Wren mentioned it, me personally, I had several opportunities to leave when I was an assistant at North Texas for what some people would say were bigger and better opportunities at bigger brands, higher levels, more money…ultimately, that’s not what I’m interested in. I’m interested in people and being in a place that we can call home.”