There are plenty of reasons to be excited about the Ross Hodge era at West Virginia. The Mountaineers won a College Basketball Crown championship this past season in his first season at the helm of the program, and put together a massive effort this offseason that positioned the program for an even bigger season in his second year on the job.
You can also look at Hodge's early defensive statistics, and get a sense that he could eventually go down as one of the program's top defensive coaches in history. And the more you look at the stat book from last year, the more it becomes clear that Hodge could lead the Mountaineers to some wildy successful highs.
Ross Hodge consistently outperforms preseason metrics
Ross Hodge has only been a head coach at the Division 1 level for three seasons, but it is quickly becoming clear that the Mountaineers have a winning head coach in Hodge. As a matter of fact, not only does he consistently win, but he overperforms compared to preseason expectations on a yearly basis.
Stat of the day:#WVU coach Ross Hodge has outperformed his preseason KenPom rank all three years of him being a head coach.
— Andrew Corbett (@AndrewwCorbett_) August 20, 2026
87th -> 74th in 2023
80th -> 71st in 2024
67th -> 55th in 2025
+11.34 per year on average.
All three seasons that he has been a head coach, Hodge has outperformed the preseason KenPom ranking assigned his teams. During his first season at North Texas in 2023-24, the team was projected to finish 87th in KenPom and they managed a 74th-place finish instead,
He followed that up by exceeding an 80th-place preseason ranking the next season, finishing the season 71st in the KenPom rankings. And during his first season with the Mountaineers, the team was ranked 67th in the preseason KenPom rankings, but ended up 55th overall com the end of the year. On average, Hodge outdoes preseason KenPom expectations by over 11 spots.
While we don't have the preseason KenPom rankings yet to determine what this might mean specifically for upcoming season, it does show that Hodge is consistently outperforming expectations. And any coach who can manage to do so with regularity is worth every penny he's being paid.
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