For Ross Hodge it’s people that are the primary building blocks for successful basketball programs.
And as part of that Hodge has made it clear everybody in the program that he wants to develop will have equal value and nobody is more important than anybody else including even himself.
Now, there are different roles for people to fill such as a leading scorer and a leading rebounder, but in the end those two aren’t any more important than the fifteenth and final man on the roster.
That can sometimes prove challenging in a climate where everybody is trying to assign value to what certain players bring to the table. But it can be navigated.
“I fight every day for our players to understand that your value is not weighed in your ability to put a basketball in the basket or grab a rebound. That’s part of it, that comes with it, but who you are as a person,” Hodge said.
That extends to leading a household one day or becoming a father, things that aren’t necessarily always on the minds of a college basketball player in the moment but will be critical later in life.
“You win with people, and we’ll get the right people in place, and we’ll get people in place that you guys will come to love and come to respect,” Hodge said. “And you get everybody moving in the same direction.”
College athletics has a whole has drifted from the long established norms of players choosing a school and then spending four years maturing and developing in front of a fan base. Now, the sands seem to shift every off-season with players moving in and out of rosters akin to a marketplace.
It’s frustrating not only for the fanbases of schools, but coaches as well. That’s where the investment in people comes into play and how Hodge has approached navigating the waters.
“You can still find a way to make this non-transactional and you can still make it relational,” he said.
It’s something Hodge has demonstrated in both of his years as a head coach rebuilding the roster at North Texas in each season but developing strong ties with his teams. That was reflected in how he choose not to leave the Mean Green basketball program for his first high-major head coaching job before the season was done.
Now, of course the facilities and what the program can offer was alluring to Hodge. There is the opportunity to put players in position to reap the benefits of what they earned with the resources available. On top of the practice facility and locker room.
“Now you have to be able to do those things to be competitive,” he said.
Building a program the right way sounds simple enough, but it takes investment from all parties involved to make it work. And that’s exactly what Hodge plans to do in building the Mountaineers basketball program.
“You can do it in a quick time, and you can get players and staff invested in a university and in a state and in a program,” Hodge said. “And you can connect them in a way that’s impactful that will impact them for the rest of their lives.”
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• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE todayto stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
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• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
For Ross Hodge, it’s people that are the primary building blocks for successful basketball programs.
And as part of that, Hodge has made it clear everybody in the program that he wants to develop will have equal value and nobody is more important than anybody else, including even himself.
Now, there are different roles for people to fill, such as a leading scorer and a leading rebounder, but in the end those two aren’t any more important than the fifteenth and final man on the roster.
That can sometimes prove challenging in a climate where everybody is trying to assign value to what certain players bring to the table. But it can be navigated.
“I fight every day for our players to understand that your value is not weighed in your ability to put a basketball in the basket or grab a rebound. That’s part of it, that comes with it, but who you are as a person,” Hodge said.
That extends to leading a household one day or becoming a father, things that aren’t necessarily always on the minds of a college basketball player in the moment but will be critical later in life.
“You win with people, and we’ll get the right people in place, and we’ll get people in place that you guys will come to love and come to respect,” Hodge said. “And you get everybody moving in the same direction.”
College athletics has a whole has drifted from the long-established norms of players choosing a school and then spending four years maturing and developing in front of a fan base. Now, the sands seem to shift every off-season with players moving in and out of rosters akin to a marketplace.
It’s frustrating not only for the fanbases of schools but coaches as well. That’s where the investment in people comes into play and how Hodge has approached navigating the waters.
“You can still find a way to make this non-transactional and you can still make it relational,” he said.
It’s something Hodge has demonstrated in both of his years as a head coach, rebuilding the roster at North Texas in each season but developing strong ties with his teams. That was reflected in how he choose not to leave the Mean Green basketball program for his first high-major head coaching job before the season was done.
Now, of course the facilities and what the program can offer was alluring to Hodge. There is the opportunity to put players in position to reap the benefits of what they earned with the resources available. On top of the practice facility and locker room.
“Now you have to be able to do those things to be competitive,” he said.
Building a program the right way sounds simple enough, but it takes investment from all parties involved to make it work. And that’s exactly what Hodge plans to do in building the Mountaineers basketball program.
“You can do it in a quick time, and you can get players and staff invested in a university and in a state and in a program,” Hodge said. “And you can connect them in a way that’s impactful that will impact them for the rest of their lives.”
———-
• Talk about it with West Virginia fans on The Blue Lot.
• SUBSCRIBE today to stay up on the latest on Mountaineer sports and recruiting.
• Get all of our WVU videos on YouTube by subscribing to the WVSports.com Channel
• Follow us on Twitter: @WVSportsDotCom, @rivalskeenan, @wesleyshoe
