Ross Hodge Details Defensive Adjustment, Belief in Win Over No. 22 Kansas

The West Virginia Mountaineers (11-5, 2-1) knocked off the No. 22 Kansas Jayhawks (11-5, 1-2) Saturday afternoon 86-75.

Mountaineer senior guard Honor paced the Mountaineers with 23 points, senior forward Brenen Lorient produced 18 points, senior forward Treysen Eaglestaff has 12, and Harlan Obioha registered his double double of the season with 11 points and 10 boards.

West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge gave his thoughts after the game on the Mountaineers first ranked win of the season after defeating the 22nd-ranked Jayhawks.

Opening statement

I Have a ton of respect for everything that coach (Kansas head coach Bill) Self has done in the game and that team, and you try to prepare your team through film and even through a little bit of scout with just the level of pace and force that they play with and I didn't think we handled that for really, very long stretches, pretty much the first half, early second half. I mean, you've got to give them a lot of credit. They're so aggressive. They're so downhill, and then, it felt like we were able to get a little bit better game plan, discipline and keep the ball out of the paint.

There were times in the first half when I thought we played pretty well. We just weren't able to come up with the ball. We had some balls go right through our hands, but that was kind of the difference in the game. At halftime, they had 30 points in the paint and only ended up with 36, and just felt like we did a better job of marrying that.

We had five early turnovers, and then, we only had nine for the game, and felt like we just did a better job of taking care of the ball, getting quality shots, getting back, keeping the ball out of the paint, which is not an easy task against them. When we did get the guy that we kind of wanted shooting it, we were able to get the rebound, and then, guys stepped up and made big plays.

Closing out the Bearcats, then the Jayhawks

Experience is so key in these situations, and just being able to execute defensively. I felt like in both of those games, it was almost the two games we lost early. It was like a flip of these games we've won. We talked about that at halftime, 43 points for us giving that up in a half, you're probably not going to win that game. It was like, hey, let's flip the script. We've had 25-point defensive halves where we have looked really good defensively, and been elite at times, but then over the course of the game, we give up a 40-point second half. So it was like, ‘Hey, let's flip it.’ I think just the ability to execute on both ends of the floor is the difference. And you get some misses. I mean, that's the truth. Basketball is a make-or-miss game, and you have a couple of misses and have a couple of makes and that was the difference.

The Mountaineers’ 16-0 run in the second half

A lot of resolve, a lot of togetherness, a lot of belief. We just kind of finally found a group that was able to put it all together. I thought (senior guard) Treysen’s (Eaglestaff) two threes during that stretch to keep us afloat were huge. (Senior guard) Jasper (Floyd) was able to get to some paint touches, kind of dribble downs, we call them - some people call them Barkleys, and we were able to get the ball close to the basket and finish.

Opening statement

Closing out the Bearcats, then the Jayhawks

The Mountaineers’ 16-0 run in the second half

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