COLUMN: Apologies, an update and some insight on WVU men's hoops coach Ross Hodge
That was never more evident than Tuesday night inside the Charleston Coliseum.
Best Virginia had just advanced to the TBT national quarterfinals with a 79-68 victory against Elite Nation and head coach Jarrod West was giving his summation of the game to the media.
The victory kept Best Virginia alive for the $1 million winner-take-all prize money.
A member of WVU athletic royalty with his game-winning shot against Cincinnati in the 1998 NCAA tournament, as well as a state championship hoops coach at Clarksburg Notre Dame, West was asked where any sort of TBT accomplishment would rank.
His answer was an all-timer.
'I got married. I've had two kids,' he began. 'I hit a famous shot in college and won a state championship.
'I've already told my family that if we win $1 million, someone is getting bumped.'
It's probably the quote of the year and I could just not find a way to fit it into the game story.
My apologies, but coach West, that was one heck of a quote.
*** Had an opportunity to catch up with former WVU assistant hoops coach Ron Everhart, who is assisting West during the TBT run.
Now, the details of the conversation were strictly off the record, but what I can tell you is he's having a blast working with Best Virginia and he's doing just fine.
Since making his transition away from WVU, he recently signed on to become a fundraiser for Fairmont State.
*** Time for some insight, which leads us to first-year WVU men's basketball coach Ross Hodge.
Not much has been heard from Hodge since his opening press conference back in April, but that hasn't stopped him from making some pretty good first impressions.
That notion was relayed to me recently after a conversation with former WVU point guard Truck Bryant.
'Coach Hodge has reached out to the WVU basketball alumni many times and welcomed us with open arms,' Bryant said. 'He's invited us in. He wants all of us to be a part of the program. He's really a good guy who understands what it means to be part of the WVU family.'
Best Virginia guard James Reese played at North Texas from 2019-21, when Hodge was an assistant coach there under Grant McCasland.
'I'm 100% not surprised to hear he's making a good early impression,' Reese said. 'I think as more people in the WVU community get to know who he is, they'll like him even more.'
Reese did not hold back in the amount of love and respect he had built for Hodge in the short time they worked together.
'He's literally one of the few college coaches that I still talk with,' Reese said. 'I'm pretty sure when I get back to the locker room and check my phone, there'll be some type of message on it from him.'
The two seasons Reese spent with the Mean Green came during COVID-19.
The pandemic cut his sophomore season short and his junior season was muddled with eight regular-season games that were either postponed or canceled.
North Texas still went on to win the Conference USA tournament his junior season and the Mean Green upset fourth-seeded Purdue in the first round of the 2021 NCAA tournament.
'Two reasons come to mind on why he earns the respect of his players,' Reese continued. 'One, he's not going to sit there and talk to you about stuff you already know and he's not going to tell you things you want to hear. He's very real and honest.
'The other thing is it's not always about basketball with him. I've probably had more conversations about life with coach than I've had about basketball. He goes out of his way to talk about life off the court.'
That included when Reese wanted to transfer to South Carolina for his final season of eligibility.
Reese is a South Carolina native and wanted to be closer to home, but that did not make the conversation any easier with Hodge.
'Yeah, that was tough when I had to tell him I was transferring,' he said. 'We sat down and talked and he understood I wanted to go home.
'We ended up having a great conversation and hugged it out. We won a lot together. We made some history together at North Texas and I left feeling a lot of love from coach Hodge. I think that's what the people at WVU are going to feel about him.'
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