While there were plenty of moments of basketball that left much to be desired during the first season of Ross Hodge's tenure leading the West Virginia Mountaineers, it's hard to say the rising coaching star didn't do a pretty solid job in his first 12 months on the job.
Hodge re-built his roster from scratch after Darian DeVries transferred to Indiana and much of the roster with remaining eligibility departed, and proceeded to lead the Mountaineers to 18 regular season wins and a seventh-place finish in the Big 12 before reeling off three straight postseason victories to capture the College Basketball Crown championship. Not exactly a Final Four appearance, but something to be proud of given the roster he was working with.
More impressive perhaps has been his recruiting, as he put together Top 15 classes in both the transfer portal and at the high school level to have one of the best offseasons in college basketball and put the Mountaineers in a position for further success next season. But still, some people arent sold on Hodge's value compared to other coaches in the league.
Ross Hodge ranked near bottom of Big 12 basketball coaches
College Basketball Report, an independent social media based outlet covering the sport, recently dropped their updated ranking of Big 12 coaches. Shockingly, Ross Hodge found himself near the very bottom of the list, ranking just No. 14 overall.
Ranking the Big 12 men’s basketball head coaches as of today 📋 pic.twitter.com/7uAEUebxIB
— College Basketball Report (@CBKReport) May 20, 2026
Likely, many fans will take this as a sign of disrespect, which isn't necessarily an off the wall judgement – given how Hodge has proven early in his Power 5 coaching career that he can lead a team to a top-half finish in one of the most competitive leagues in the nation, keep a team locked in during postseason play, and recruit at an elite level.
Of course, this also goes to show just how deep the Big 12 really is in the sport of basketball. The top of that list is not just some of the best coaches in the league, but a who's who of the top college basketball coaches in the past quarter-century. Kelvin Sampson, Bill Self, Tommy Lloyd, Scott Drew...it's hard to argue that Hodge has shown enough this early to measure up to those names.
But the majorwords to look at there are "this early," as Hodge has just finished up just one season as a head coach at the absolute highest level of college basketball. But if the Mountaineers excel with their reloaded roster in Hodge's second year, like many expect to happen, these rankings may need a major change.
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