West Virginia hires Ross Hodge of North Texas as men's basketball coach

West Virginia hired Ross Hodge of North Texas as its men’s basketball coach Wednesday.

The 44-year-old Hodge replaces Darian DeVries, who left after one season for Indiana. Hodge agreed to a five-year deal. Terms of the contract weren’t immediately disclosed.

“Ross Hodge is a proven winner and leader who has demonstrated success at every stop of his career,” West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker said in a statement.

Hodge is 46-23 in two seasons as coach of the Mean Green, who are 27-8 this season and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals next Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Hodge has been part of staffs that went to three NCAA tournaments, including an upset of Purdue as a No. 13 seed in 2021.

Hodge might not have been on everyone’s radar when the West Virginia job opened, but others believed to be in the running went elsewhere: Drake’s Ben McCollum was hired at Iowa, Colorado State’s Niko Medved went to Minnesota and New Mexico’s Richard Pitino landed at Xavier.

All Baker needed to do was to go back to his past.

Baker was the AD at North Texas from 2016 to 2022. Hodge was an assistant coach for the Mean Green for six seasons under Grant McCasland. After McCasland took over at Texas Tech in 2023, Hodge became the Mean Green’s head coach and went 19-15 in the school’s first season in the American Athletic Conference despite numerous injuries.

Hodge is credited as the architect of the North Texas defense. The Mean Green had the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense in 2021-22 and 2022-23, when they won 25 and a school-record 31 games, respectively, including capturing the 2023 NIT championship.

A Dallas native, Hodge also was an assistant under McCasland at Arkansas State and served under Larry Eustachy at Colorado State and Southern Miss.