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5 hours ago
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New West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge has had a long journey from junior college coach to head West Virginia men's basketball coach.
Hodge is aware of the key steps on that journey and how it has positioned him to be prepared to lead WVU in his first year as their head coach.
"I have a pretty good awareness of how I ended up here, and I've been extremely fortunate to be around incredible players dating back to my junior college time, being a head coach for five years. And then being in a division one assistant, being part of NCAA tournament teams, teams that won games NCAA tournament, NIT championships. And so, I'm fully aware of how I ended up in this situation," Hodge said.
The two keys for Hodge have been being able to coach really good players as well as be around coaches on the highest of levels.
"I've been just so blessed to coach really, really good players and be around other incredible coaches, and work for really good coaches. Coach Eustacey he won the Big 12 twice when he was at Iowa State, he was national AP Coach of the year. Grant [McCasland] is an incredible basketball coach and an incredible human being," Hodge said.
Hodge said he's had opportunities to leave when he was at different places along his journey, but wanted to wait for the right one, the one he felt was best for his career.
"I did have opportunities along the way to leave and maybe go to what other people would consider, this is a bigger, a better opportunity, more money, maybe some opportunities to be a head coach along the way, but I was just always really convicted about wanting to be with the right people and be around people that I believed in," Hodge said.
That has now landed Hodge at WVU, where he hopes younger coaches might take his journey into account when they are making decisions for their own journey.
"If I was going to give any advice to like younger coaches or whatever, I would say, just keep surrounding yourself with quality people. Surround yourself with quality people and figure out ways to win, and if you do those two things, success will follow, and you can end up in situations like this," Hodge said.
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