Ross Hodge press conference summary: 2-3
West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge addressed the media Tuesday afternoon and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
–Hodge said in the Baylor game the defensive intensity wasn’t at the level it needs to be at when you’re facing the individual talent they have. The Mountaineers gave up 15 points in the first four minutes of the game. The start of the game got the Mountaineers and they weren’t able to finish the game.
–Hodge said for a large part of the season his team was getting off to fast starts and weren’t finishing. Now it’s been a reversal and it’s a combination of different things. It’s not one singular issue. It’s a lot of things. You have to evaluate as a coach and everybody has had their hands in it. The coaches and team have looked at it specifically.
–Hodge said it’s a combination of it all when playing a team for the second time. This is the first time that’s happened with this group so you’re looking at some things that Cincinnati did that hurt West Virginia and what can you do to counterbalance it. Also, looking at what the Mountaineers did to hurt them and what they could elect to counter with to prevent that. You have to be good in the margins with loose balls and second chance points. You can’t get too singularly focused on plays and actions and strategies.
–Hodge said that in the last stretch they didn’t have a chance to come back and clean up some things because of the travel and the quick turnarounds. This week you have that extra day to practice which you do need. You can game plan and strategize. Hodge said he wanted to work on the spacing because it allows players to make decisive and aggressive decisions with the ball.
—Jayden Fortsythe and Evans Barning have been coming along good and they’re working on scout team and improving as individuals. They have been great and have helped the team a ton and the experience has helped to prepare them. They get to learn a lot because they learn other actions. doing that in practice and that’s where they’ve been helping the team this year.
–Cincinnati has dealt with some injuries but not too fundamentally different than the last time the two teams played this season.
–Film because of the little extra time they had allowed them to focus solely on themselves coming out of last week instead of the typical approach of looking at the opponent as well and prepping for them. It allowed them to focus on themselves in the film session without any concentration on Cincinnati.
–You can find yourself at times only preparing for who you’re playing and you don’t get a lot of time to self scout or self correct and it can allow you to take advantage of how you’re being guarded.
–Offensively it was spacing that needed to be corrected and within that understands where things are coming from to allow players to be more decisive. On defense, the spacing has improved outside of a few fundamental breakdowns and it was more about execution.
–Hodge said you still have to execute the fundamentals when setting a screen.
–Elite defensive teams typically have a slower tempo because they guard for a long period of time. It takes a little while to score which naturally will slow the tempo of a game down. Houston is a team that defends. You’re typically talking about two to three possessions per game which creates big differences.
–Hodge said what it illuminates the most is the most consistent players and teams have the most consistent results. A player might not have their best shooting game from game-to-game but find ways to impact the game in other ways. You’re challenging your team and as individuals to be consistent.
–Hodge said the game plan the first time against Cincinnati was to take away the inside game but in the second time they have watched the film to and likely have a different plan of attack. You have to make sure you’re not giving the Bearcats second chance points and keeping them out of transition.
–Hodge said it goes to executing with screening. You can fall into a trap when you’re not having the level of success you’d like but sometimes it really is just executing. You have to execute, it’s not what you’re doing it’s how you’re doing it. Some of it is do what you’re supposed to be doing simply and execute it well.
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