Goodbye Ross Hodge

Eight Years A Coach

Ross Hodge officially gets credit for two seasons of wins. He set a record at this program for wins in that timespan, and you could be tempted to credit his old boss Grant McCasland for helping along with that. To that I say that all team wins are shared, and no one person can carry a program to wins. Ross Hodge benefited from Grant’s leadership no doubt, but Mac benefited greatly during his six years at the helm.

Hodge was announced as the new head coach for West Virginia, joining basketball-knower Wren Baker in Morgantown for the next five seasons at three million a pop. That’s too rich for Denton and the salary, while nice, was not as impressive as the NIL and resources available to him. For all the good done in Denton, there are still more empty seats than filled ones. The wins came easy on the pocketbooks of the NIL donors, and new head coach Daniyal Robinson will have to find a way to compete with the Memphises and UABs while balling on a literal small budget.

Such was the magic of the Mac-Hodge team that they were able to apply some JUCO skills in Denton. They recruited winners and tough guys and dudes with chips-on-shoulders for the task of winning and being the Toughest Team. Why? Well because the Toughest Team Wins, folks. North Texas has won more NIT games than ever in the program history in the eight short years under the combination of these two.

The Hodge reign feels short but also long. He spent eight years here and knows what it is all about. If you think that he and or Mac or the combination thereof could have won more you are right. That they won how much they did is a credit to their talent at coaching. There is a very real chance that this program reached a peak the likes of which we won’t see again for a very long time.

For long time followers of the program, the Johnny Jones era was a high point. NCAA tourney appearances, conference title games, big time recruits. Then he was poached by LSU and the program entered a dark period — just about the worst in school history. Mac and Hodge represented a gigantic turn-around and showed what was possible in Denton.

For North Texas this represents a chance to pivot away from the defensive-first, hard-scrabble version of hoops that won a lot of games. Is it risky? Yes, but it also was not pleasant to watch. Winning is fun, but rock fights aren’t so much the best version of this great game to casual viewers.

I know. Yours Truly came up as a big fan of the David Robinson-Tim Duncan San Antonio Spurs and can tell you first hand that winning is great, but no one really is creating Tik Tok compilations of the best of the 1999 season’s defensive stops. Defense wins championships, but it doesn’t put butts in seats.

But what about Houston? Baylor? Yes, those teams had a great emphasis on the defensive side of the ball and they also had an incredible knack for winning big games in big moments. The Hodge era looks like it will top out —at best! — at two NIT titles. That ain’t bad at all. In fact the all-time leader is St. John’s with five so getting to two is right in there.

Goodbye Ross Hodge, we loved watching you coach defense. Happy trails, and thanks for the banners. GMG