Ross Hodge press conference summary: Utah
West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge addressed the media following the 61-56 home loss to Utah and WVSports.com provides a summary of what was said.
–Hodge gave Utah all the credit in the world. They’ve been close in these situations but has been on the wrong side of them. He was fully aware of the challenge they had in front of them. They started the game with force and pace and shot making and West Virginia didn’t match that. One of the biggest responsibilities as a head coach is to make sure your team is ready to play and there has been too many times that hasn’t happened and he takes the blame for that. Hodge said his team has a small margin for error and it doesn’t help when you put yourself in these holes. It’s to be commended that his team fights back but so many things have to go right. Hodge said the last possession they were down three he takes the blame he shouldn’t have left Honor Huff on an island there and took a timeout.
–Hodge said you can’t let those type of players see the ball go in early. You have to limit their shots.
–The coming back part is to be commended and his team has a level of urgency and desperation. You can’t continuously put yourself in those situations and think you’re going to come back.
–Hodge said they knew what they wanted to do if they missed the free throw shots at the end to get it to Huff but Jasper Floyd was trying to get it to him and Treysen Eaglestaff was in the picture and it resulted in a turnover.
–Hodge said all you can do is work on free throw shooting and try different methods and ways. If you’re going to get out rebounded by 10 you have to make free throws.
—Harlan Obioha it was an issue with execution in terms of the fouls not the matchup.
–Hodge said it’s maybe fair that his team isn’t playing with the level of urgency and desperation at the beginning of games. It’s not a feeling out part of it, you have to play with a level of urgency in this league and the margin error for his team is thin.
–Everything is on the table. They’ve evaluated it and looked at it and talked about it ad nauseam but it’s his responsibility and he owns that with the slow starts.
–Hodge believes you should be able to review a little more than what you can now. Officials are doing a good job of giving you grace to review that.
–Hodge said they’ve considered it all including changing the starting five or giving starters more run. He said that he’s considered staying in a hotel for home games to make it more consistent. Hodge is considering everything and will continue to evaluate it all.
–Some of taking the ball to the basket early was due to personnel and Utah got a little spread out in the second half of the game so that helped to open that up.
–Hodge said if there’s an action hurting you in a game you have to address that.
–Hodge said the reality is you’re going to be on a plane on Friday and the gift and the curse of being in the Big 12 is you still have opportunities in front of you but those can run out. You still have all your goals in front of you and that’s the truth. They let a great opportunity slip tonight and that puts more pressure on the rest of the opportunities on the schedule. They have to look at everything is it personnel, is it shots, is it what he’s doing? Hodge has to do a better job.
–Hodge thinks if you’re only looking at your last two road results compared to home results they’ve been better at home. But they’ve been down 14 points in both of those games and were able to dig yourself out and make the plays down the stretch but couldn’t do that tonight. What is happening in the pocket of these games doesn’t change that much and they’ve been very fortunate in a lot of these games. They’ve trailed in the second half of all seven of their Big 12 wins and at some point you can’t keep digging yourself out.
–When Chance Moore is aggressive and decisive that is when he is at his best getting downhill.
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