It seems that West Virginia Athletic Director Wren Baker has found his man.
Multiple sources reported on Wednesday morning that North Texas Head Coach Ross Hodge will sign a five-year contract in the same role with West Virginia to fill the coaching vacancy left open by Darian DeVRies' departure. The news brings to a close a coaching search that had multiple twists and turns over the past eight days.
BREAKING: West Virginia is hiring North Texas coach Ross Hodge on a five-year contract, sources tell CBS Sports. The deal will be officially announced soon. Hodge's UNT team is still playing in the NIT. Hodge has ties to WVU AD Wren Baker, who was at UNT before getting to WVU.
— Matt Norlander (@MattNorlander) March 26, 2025
While the Mountaineers embarking on their fourth head coach in four seasons is not an ideal situation, and many feel like the search stretched on too long before landing on an option that wasn't considered an early favorite, there are plenty of reasons to be excited about what Hodge can bring to Morgantown.
Here, we'll take a look at three reasons why Hodge's hire should generate some hope amongst the fanbase.
A Winning Pedigree at Lower Levels
Hodge has won at numerous locations at lower levels of college basketball, from a Division 1 mid-major to multiple JUCO programs.
Hodge is currently 27-8 this season at North Texas. The Mean Green missed the NCAA Tournament, but that doesn't necessarily signal a bad coach when you play in a league where you must win the conference tournament. North Texas did make the NIT for the second consecutive season under Hodge, however, and are currently in the NIT Final Four. Overall, he is 46-23 at North Texas.
Hodge also coached at the JUCO level for five seasons at two different stops -- Paris Junior College and Midland College. In those five seasons, he made one NJCCA Elite Eight and one NJCCA National Championship, and finished his JUCO coaching career with a record of 146-24.
Hodge has demonstrated a winning pedigree at smaller programs without near the resources available at WVU, and that bodes well for his ability to win in Morgantown.
Experience With Rebuilding Rosters
That aforementioned JUCO experience -- especially with the success Hodge had -- is a lot more appealing in the current era of college basketball.
With NIL, revenue sharing, and the transfer portal to consider, it is much more common to see teams constantly reloading or rebuilding their roster, and much less common to see a player stay with a program for their entire career.
The transfer portal and graduation has already depleted the 9-of-10 players that saw consistent action for WVU this season, with just Haris Elezovic and redshirt Ofri Naveh (who played for WVU in 2023-2024) remaining on the roster as players with experience in Morgantown -- it happened the previous season too, as is common with coaching changes.
But Division 1 coaches lamenting how easy it is for players to leave and how often they're reloading their rosters likely get chuckles and eyerolls from long-time JUCO coaches, who have always dealt with this type of issue -- it's in the nature of JUCO ball that players will be moving on to NCAA programs within a year or two, and that fresh bodies are always moving in and out.
Hodge has spent multiple seasons running programs where this is the reality, which should have him well equipped to handle rebuilding WVU's roster this off-season and continuously managing the transfer portal situation at the end of each season.
A Hire That Fits The Mold
Wren Baker has proven he knows basketball coaches -- he hired Mark Kellogg, who has led the women's program to the NCAA Tournament Round of 32 in both his seasons on the job.
He turned around and hired Darian DeVries, who took a depleted roster and rebuilt it from scratch. DeVries fell just short of the postseason, but won 19 games (10 in the Big 12) despite facing an undersized roster, lacking a deep rotation, and battling injury issues all season. He was impressive enough that he earned a blue blood job after one season.
He also hired Grant McCasland at North Texas, who was Hodge's head coach while he served as an assistant with the Mean Green. McCasland is now the head coach at Texas Tech and has led them to consecutive NCAA Tournament appearances, including the 2025 Sweet 16.
From DeVries to Kellogg to McCasland, Baker has had a proven model for basketball hires -- a coach with assistant coaching experience for multiple seasons that has held a Division 1 head coaching role and has proven themselves a consistent winner at lower levels of the sport, typically non-flashy names that often fly under the radar and are known for leading strong defenses.
Hodge checks every single box on that list. He was an assistant for multiple seasons under McCasland, and he has proven a consistent winner at the mid-major level and at JUCO programs. North Texas ranked third nationally with 59.9 opponent points per game allowed this season (behind Houston and Drake), and Hodge was a name that flew under the radar nationally and during WVU's search specifically this offseason.
Everything about this hire points to it be being a wise move on the part of WVU and Wren Baker based on the type of candidate Baker has chosen before. Now, we'll wait and see how the move works out.