Ross Hodge has only two years of experience as a head coach at the division one level but a whole lot more than that when it comes to reconstructing rosters.
Hodge certainly checks a lot of boxes on many levels, going 46-23 in two years atop the Mean Green basketball program and is known as a defensive tactician with a deliberate but effective offense.
But how will Hodge deal with some of the other challenges of the jump to high-major basketball, including navigating roster construction and a changing landscape?
Well, the evidence to date suggests quite well.
Prior to his two seasons atop the North Texas basketball program, Hodge spent five as a successful junior college head coach at Paris JC and Midland. That experience is one that aptly prepares coaches to deal with the amount of turnover that can now occur at the highest level on a year-to-year basis.
And Hodge proved certainly capable of navigating that challenge by going 146-24 over that span.
The time with the Mean Green was also critical for Hodge. Given the lower budget that Hodge had to work with he essentially spent both seasons atop the program being forced to rebuild his roster.
After being promoted to the head coaching role after the departure of Grant McCasland a total of seven players from the year before needed replaced either by graduation or transfer. That included the top three leading scorers with guard Tylor Perry heading to Kansas State, guard Kai Huntsberry leaving the team for personal reasons and forward Abou Ousmane transferring to Xavier.
And because of that Hodge brought in six transfers of his own leading to a 19-15 overall record in his first year largely due to injuries across the roster. Talent evaluation is a key role of any head coach and if those abilities are in question Hodge was forced to rebuild the Mean Green once again.
Of those six transfers he brought into the program ahead of his first season all but one exited the program and a total of nine players elected to enter the transfer portal. Among those that departed included guard Jason Edwards (Vanderbilt), forward Aaron Scott (St. John’s), guard Robin Jones (Michigan), guard C.J. Noland (New Mexico) and John Buggs (East Tennessee State) among others.
By the time the dust settled that was the top six scorers from that team not set to return.
That forced Hodge to once again get to work in the transfer portal reeling in seven different players ranging from forward Brenen Lorient (Florida Atlantic), guard Atin Wright (Drake), guard Jasper Floyd (Fairfield), forward Grant Newell (California), guard Jonathan Massie (Longwood), guard Latrell Jossell (Stephen F. Austin) and center Brock Vice (Creighton).
That list made up six of the top seven scorers on this past year’s team which has gone 27-8 and finished second in the regular season of the American Athletic Conference while again boasting one of the nation’s top scoring defenses. Coaching certainly matters, but talent evaluation is a key piece as well.
“The nature of college basketball, you're going to spend -- this time of the year, whether you're returning to the program that you're coaching or in my situation, taking a new one, there is an element of what's next that creeps in,” Hodge said at his NIT Final Four press conference.
To date, Hodge has clearly shown the ability to navigate those waters at ...
