photo by: Benjamin Powell

WVU guard Honor Huff, who led the nation with 131 3-pointers last season while playing at Chattanooga, will be counted upon heavily this year by the Mountaineers.

MORGANTOWN — On the surface, it may seem like a collection of “Who’s that?” first-year head coach Ross Hodge has put together for the West Virginia men’s basketball program.

To that degree, the same could even be asked of Hodge himself, who takes over the Mountaineers after two seasons as the head coach at North Texas.

“People are just now starting to recognize who I am around town,” Hodge said over the summer.

“They see me and ask if I’m the new basketball coach. Everybody asks about the new players and how things are going. You definitely get a feel from just meeting new people just how important basketball is to this community.”

In his first season with the Mountaineers, Hodge, who takes over the program after Darian DeVries left after one season to become the head coach at Indiana, is presented with a unique opportunity. WVU hasn’t experienced a 20-win season since 2019-20. It’s been three seasons since the Mountaineers played in a NCAA tournament and five since they advanced past the first round.

To come in during his first season, rebuild the roster basically from scratch and reset all of those timelines would be one heck of a story.

And that’s sort of the idea.

“Our expectations are to go out and compete for a Big 12 championship,” point guard Jasper Floyd said matter-of-factly. “We want to get to the NCAA tournament and play in the Final Four. That’s what we’re shooting for.”

Is that realistic?

On paper, the Mountaineers have 12 new scholarship players. The only holdover from last season, forward Abraham Oyeadier, is coming off a redshirt season in which he only practiced, but didn’t see any game action.

Of the eight players Hodge signed from the transfer portal. Only two – Chance Moore and Morris Ugusuk – have experience playing in a major Power Five Conference. Moore has to sit out the first five games this season to meet NCAA eligibility requirements.

Again, that’s all on paper. Hodge looked a little deeper when he constructed his first WVU roster.

“We were able to bring in guys who have experienced winning at different levels,” he said. “They’ve already won at different places. Now, it’s just a question of can we figure out a way to bring them all here and find a way to win together.”

There are a number of success stories on the WVU roster. Senior forward Brenen Lorient began his career at Florida Atlantic, when the Owls pulled off one upset after another and advanced to the 2023 Final Four. He eventually transferred to North Texas and played for Hodge last season, helping the Mean Green reach the NIT semifinals.

Floyd was also part of that North Texas squad. He and Lorient followed Hodge to West Virginia.

Honor Huff was in that same NIT last season, leading the way for Chattanooga to win the tournament following an 85-84 overtime win against UC Irvine in the finals.

Huff led the nation with 131 3-pointers last season. He had 19 of them over those five games in the NIT.

“Even if Honor goes a few minutes without hitting a shot, he’s still hot,” is the way WVU teammate Treysen Eaglestaff puts it. “He never goes cold.”

Eaglestaff is also an interesting story. In three seasons at North Dakota, the Fighting Hawks never advanced to the NCAA tournament or NIT, but the 6-foot-6 guard certainly made a name for himself.

He was the only player at the NCAA Division I level last season to score at least 40 points in a game two times. Eaglestaff went for 40 in a loss against Alabama during the regular season, before dropping 51 on South Dakota State in the Summit League tournament.

Harlan Obioha is the Mountaineers’ big 7-footer in the middle, who played in the NCAA tournament at UNC Wilmington last season. Jackson Fields, a 6-8 forward who is currently working his way back from wrist surgery, had seven points and seven rebounds against Kentucky in the NCAAs last season while playing at Troy.

That’s the potential Hodge has recruited. Add it all up, his eight transfers averaged a collective 91 points per game at their respective schools a year ago. Not a bad way to start for a coach who is known for his defense.

“It’s funny, because I tell people all the time it’s a complete flip from my old school,” Huff said. “My old coach, coach (Dan) Earl, is like an offensive savant. I come here and all we do is play defense.”

Hodge’s strategy is to turn the Mountaineers into a defensive machine. At North Texas, the Mean Green were third in the country in points allowed last season.

“If you look historically at which teams win the Big 12, it’s the best defensive teams that win the conference,” Hodge said.

Floyd will be the guy to direct the flow, on both offense and defense. He was Hodge’s main man at North Texas last season, where he averaged 9.0 points and 3.9 assists per game.

Huff and Eaglestaff are the shooters who will look to stretch opposing defenses, while Obioha and Lorient will supply some pressure around the rim.

“Our point guard is really good at what he does,” Eaglestaff said. “Jasper Floyd is one of the best point guards I’ve ever played with in my life. Honor Huff is the best shooter in the country. Harlan is 7-feet tall and his mindset is to work harder than everyone else. I’m really enjoying this team and what everyone brings to the table.”

The question simply is, can it all be brought together in such a short amount of time? WVU was picked to finish 11th in the Big 12 preseason poll. The Mountaineers received no votes in the preseason AP Top 25.

The odds don’t appear to be in WVU’s favor early on.

“For me and the team, we really don’t care about that,” Floyd said.

“For most of us, the odds have been stacked against us our whole lives. The odds, they really don’t matter.”