West Virginia head coach Ross Hodge enters into new territory with the move to the Big 12 Conference but he will be competing against one familiar face.
That’s because the former head coach that he worked at North Texas in Grant McCasland is over top the Texas Tech basketball program.
Hodge worked under McCasland as the associate head coach for seven seasons with one at Arkansas State and six with the Mean Green prior to being elevated to lead the program.
But it won’t be the first time that the two have competed against one another.
“We competed against each other as young junior college coaches when he was the head coach at Midland Junior College and I was the head coach at Paris Junior College,” Hodge said on the Jon Rothstein podcast.
That was the start of a relationship that has been key to both coaches over their careers.
“We were both two young guys that didn’t even know what we were doing but we thought we knew what we were doing,” Hodge said. “But we competed against each other then and obviously just competed against each other in practice settings as well.”
But now the two will be squaring off at the highest level in the Big 12 Conference which will allow Hodge to go against one of the most competitive people he’s been around in the industry.
“I would imagine there’ll be a healthy level of respect, but at the same time, when you kind of get into playing games, we’re not playing against each other,” Hodge said. «It’s just trying to figure out the best way to give our guys, our team, the best chance to beat them on that night. You kind of remove all the other story lines and stuff like that, but it’ll be fun.»
