Hodge was officially introduced as the WVU men’s basketball coach for the first time on Thursday, when asked about “planting roots” he went into detail about his plan for the future and the importance of building close relationships.
He was finally introduced to the Mountaineer fans for the first on Thursday at his introductory press conference alongside Wren Baker. He was hired by the Mountaineers over a week ago but waited to finish his season at North Texas who fell just short to UC Irvine in the NIT semifinals.
West Virginia is on their third head basketball coach in the last three seasons after Darian DeVries left for the opening at Indiana. Hodge is looking to provide some long-term insurance for the program and looks to build a culture here that will last for a while.
“This move was not an easy move for me, we talked a lot as a family, we shed a lot of tears, we had deep meaningful relationships in Denton, and that’s something that’s very important for us, I’m a basketball coach that’s what I’m paid to do, to win games, to win championships but people are important to us. It’s not something that we take lightly, put it like that, moving a family. There was probably only a handful of situations that we would’ve considered,” Hodge said.
“The opportunity to get Shelly back close to her family is something that’s very important to us, Wren mentioned it, I had several opportunities to leave when I was an assistant at North Texas for what some people would say are bigger and better opportunities, bigger brands, higher levels, more money, and ultimately that’s not necessarily what I’m interested in, I’m interested in people and being in a place that we can call home,” Hodge said.
