INDIANAPOLIS — It ended for Ross Hodge at North Texas with a 15-point lead that got away and a night of cold shooting that sent the Mean Green home from the NIT semifinals. It ended with him turning to the North Texas fans in the Hinkle Fieldhouse stands Tuesday night and clapping above his head for them.
Soon he was gone, off the court, away into the night. Actually, away to West Virginia. “I'm thankful for everybody involved that they gave me the opportunity to finish this out,” he would say later, “I wish it could have finished with a win, but just an opportunity to do that with these guys one more time.”
Hodge is the new coach for West Virginia. Actually, he became the new coach for West Virginia a week ago. But he had a couple of things to do before heading to Morgantown, and one of them was to coach his North Texas team — his last North Texas team — as far as it could go in the NIT. That turned out to be Tuesday night when the Mean Green lost in the semifinals to UC Irvine 69-67, in a game they once led 24-9.
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It’s spring. College basketball coaches are coming and going, but this seemed a tad on the unusual side. A coach and his team knowing the next loss meant the end. Really, the end. Hodge arrived at Hinkle Fieldhouse as the ultimate lame duck. He was leaving, four of his starters were seniors, so this week was one emotional going-away party. On Tuesday night, he officially went from coaching his last North Texas game to starting the road to his first West Virginia game, a career change in two hours.
In Hodge’s last post-game press conference for North Texas, he thanked the athletic directors at both places “for allowing me to do this. They know my heart, obviously, and they know me. There was never any real discussion or any real doubt that I was going to finish what I started with this group.”
And then he gave his farewell address, so to speak. Often, a coach is gone the day after word gets out he’s taken another job. Only the last defeat would close the North Texas door for good for Ross Hodge. He had been there eight years, six as an assistant, two as the head coach.
“You literally do life with these guys and you help them navigate losses with their families,” he said. “We've had losses — we've had people lose family members this year. We've had staff members have kids this year. And you're going through all those life experiences with these players, and that's a big part of our messaging. And it's more important than the basketball part, a reflection of how much these guys care about each other, and I would be the biggest hypocrite in the world if I changed. So I was going to stay true to me.
“Obviously you get pulled a little in different directions. I wanted to give these guys everything I had, and when we told them (about West Virginia), they were so incredibly happy for me. It was like tears of joy from them. And I told them then, if you see me change my demeanor, or not jump on you for not getting on the floor for a loose ball, you need to call me on it.”
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Hodge's seniors understood all along. They were in it to the end, for them, for him, for North Texas.
This was Atin Wright, who tried his best to keep Hodge around a couple of more days with 25 points against UC Irvine: “Our motto is stay together all the time, on and off the court and we lead by Coach's example, and his heart is always in the right place. I personally had no doubt, like he wasn't going to change when he found out he had got the new job. Like he said, we were all happy for him. He's a great man, honestly.
“That’s why this loss hurts most. Because it’s over.”
And Jasper Floyd, who added 16 points to the cause. “I wasn't raised to just step out on somebody just because something happened. That's just not in me. We tell each other we love each other. It wouldn't be right for us. Like Coach said, that would be a hypocrite, to just quit on this team, I don't think that's the right mindset to have. Just wanted to try to finish something out together with these guys and this team.”
They finished Tuesday night with a 27-9 record. Trying to beat Chattanooga for the NIT championship would be UC Irvine’s problem. Hodge now has to worry about how to beat Houston and Texas Tech.
