Ross Hodge press conference summary 1-5
West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge addressed the media Monday afternoon ahead of the matchup with Cincinnati and here is a summary of what was said.
–Hodge is excited to be back at home at Hope Coliseum with the Big 12 opener at home.
–Cincinnati has a lot of length around the basket defensively. It allows them to pressure the ball and funnel them into shot blocking which allows them to guard the three. A lot of their three point defense is a by product of that and their size. The length and athleticism around the rim is difficult.
–West Virginia has to be able to move the ball and get the ball side to side and get some reversals and paint touches and make good rim decisions when you get into the paint.
—Brenen Lorient is still in the concussion protocol and progressing nicely and hasn’t had any setbacks. Right now he is questionable.
–If you can bend the corner and get proper spacing and move them side to side instead of letting them camp around the rim and use their strengths.
–That seven minute stretch to end the first half hurt them against Iowa State, but the first shot defense was as good as he thought it was on first look. When you’re playing as efficient of an offense as that you can’t give them second chances.
—Jizzle James gives them another play maker and ball handler that can make plays.
—Sencire Harris is a great defender and they’ve used him to guard the ball and at times chose to have him guard two-guards or players that aren’t initiating the offense. He can see him being put on Honor Huff or they could put him on the ball to make it difficult to get into offense.
–When you have a new group every experience is going to be new until you do it. It’s a mature group and he felt even at Iowa State they handled the environment but it was more the Cyclones players that got them and their inability to execute what they need to be doing. But the more they’re together and the more they do it they should be improving and growing in every situation.
–Hodge said that in basketball a good efficient offense is going to help your defense and vice versa. When you’re getting stops you don’t have to play against as many set defenses and you have to be good in the margins and find ways to steal baskets. A lot of these games come down to making those small plays. There’s certainly time periods in these games where it is the challenge against most teams how long can you do that and repetitive can you be on defense. You need a level of consistency over 40-minutes to give an opportunity to get shots up.
–Houston’s style of defense is different than what West Virginia does so the challenges they present will be different. They are very aggressive in ball screen coverages, put two on the ball and trap the post no matter what so you can watch their games to learn some things but also in your scouting you’ll find games and teams that are similar to what you play and gives you a better barometer of how you’ll be attacked.
—Chance Moore is not super unique in that way with his ability to be right handed and go left. A lot of times guards like the ball in their left hands to shoot the ball and rhythm into it that way. Moore really likes the ball there and it didn’t take long to see it when you were scouting him and watching it.
–It is a little ways away until West Virginia plays Baylor or BYU so he hasn’t put a lot of focus on those players that were once professionals playing. His opinion is that people are going to do what’s best for their program and if it’s within the rules it’s up to the coaches to do what they feel is best and until those rules change if you’re not trying to figure out the best way to give yourself a chance then you’re not doing all you can. He said he did not look at any players that had been drafted when putting together the roster during the off-season but he looked at all other angles.
–Hodge did talk to a good majority of the players that were on the team last year and they were all complimentary of this place and enjoyed their time here once he arrived. But they ultimately all made decisions that were going to be best in their interest but he had a lot of respect for what they did last year but it didn’t quite work out in retaining any of them.
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