Save for a few framed jerseys leaning up against a wall — one of them a Jerry West from his WVU college days — Ross Hodge goes to work every day sitting in a rather bare office.

The WVU men’s basketball coach swears he has a bunch of stuff in the back of his SUV that will one day adorn those bare walls.

The plan is for him and his wife Shelly to get in there one day and go to work.

“I’ve been a little busy,” he says with a smile.

That Hodge has. Since being hired at WVU on March 26, the former North Texas head coach has added five assistant coaches and three support staff members.

One of his assistants, Phil Forte, was a former standout at Oklahoma State in his college days.

“Yeah, Phil likes to tell the story about how he was 3-1 at the Coliseum,” Hodge said.

And, oh yeah, Hodge has had to rebuild the Mountaineers’ roster almost entirely from scratch.

Only center Abraham Oyeadier returns from what was left after Darian DeVries’ one season in Morgantown, and Oyeadier was redshirted and didn’t play in a game last season.

Eight transfers were plucked out of the transfer portal and three freshmen were signed.

One of those freshmen, Amir Jenkins, is a top 100 recruit nationally, but was supposed to be a high school senior this year. He earned enough credits to graduate early and is now enrolled at WVU.

Hodge is currently evaluating players for the final scholarship that is still available, so those walls may have to wait a bit longer.

“This place is incredible,” Hodge said. “I hadn’t seen the offices and the practice facility until I had accepted the job. I was taken away and amazed at how modern everything looks. I’m very appreciative of coach (Bob) Huggins and everyone else who had a hand at making this place I now get to call home.”

“Home” is an important word these days to WVU hoops fans. Hodge is the fourth men’s head coach in the last four years, including the end of the Huggins’ era that led to Josh Eilert’s interim season and then DeVries’ one-and-done season before leaving for Indiana.

Those previous three years have been, well, one could fill in the blank there with any number of adjectives, something Hodge is well aware of.

The short end of that story is the end of the Huggins’ era brought about a new beginning that only turned into another new beginning and then another.

By now, WVU faithful just want a talented coach who isn’t afraid to call Morgantown home.

Hodge doesn’t hesitate to do just that.

“I try, I’m not always the best at it, but I do actually try to have as much gratitude and appreciation for life in general, but also for this opportunity and to come to work here every day,” Hodge said. “Even when you’re having a bad day, you’re a little frustrated and things may not be going your way, I take a deep breath and take a look around and realize how fortunate I am to be in this situation. It’s not something I take for granted.”

Winning them over

As far as first impressions go, Hodge appears to already be a winner in Morgantown.

Several WVU hoops alumni have already expressed their take on how well he fits in.

“Coach gets it!” tweeted former WVU forward John Flowers, a member of the 2010 Final Four team.

Flowers added the word “family” as a hashtag to the tweet.

Another member of that Final Four team, point guard Truck Bryant, told a story of Hodge welcoming former players with open arms this summer.

James Reese, a guard for Best Virginia during the TBT run to the semifinals, once played for Hodge at North Texas. His praise barely stopped short of referring to Hodge as a second father.

When Best Virginia won its quarterfinal game, Hodge was in attendance in Charleston, and he was asked to be the one to slap the Best Virginia sign onto the next round in the bracket.

Either Hodge is the most likable guy in college basketball or he makes one heck of a first impression.

“I try to be intentional when you have opportunities to meet people for the first time or talk to people,” is how Hodge tries to explain it. “I try to be genuine and try not to be somebody I’m not.

“I think people appreciate that around here. I have a lot of respect for former players, past coaches, the fan base and the people of West Virginia. I have a lot of respect for how important this university is to the people of the state. That’s not something I take lightly.”

Hodge uses the word “authentic” in attempting to describe himself.

“This is who I am, flawed and all,” he said. “I’m not a perfect person, but I try to be genuine and appreciative in all settings.”

It’s that identity Hodge will carry with him to mold his vision for the WVU program.

Recruiting doesn’t stop after one season, neither do expectations.

He needs more players next year and then the year after that and so on. Hodge wants those players to feel like they’re signing on to a special relationship and not just a team.

“I believe if you’re surrounding yourself with the right players, those players want someone who is going to tell them the truth,” Hodge said. “If you come across as someone who truly cares about them, they may think, ‘He may be saying some things I don’t like to hear, but I know it’s coming from a place that’s trying to help me become a better player and a better person.’

“You have to exhibit that you care about them more as a person rather than someone who can put a ball in the basket.”

Short honeymoon

Aside from the coaching changes and the turmoil that came with Huggins’ forced resignation in 2023, it’s been five years since the Mountaineers have experienced a 20-win season.

The last time the WVU program went through a slide like that, it included a year where the team played every game away from the Coliseum due to asbestos removal and Gale Catlett’s tenure transitioning into John Beilein’s.

When DeVries was hired in 2024, there was still a sense of the program healing from the Huggins’ aftermath, and so there were no instant expectations of a return to glory.

Does Hodge get the same courtesy of a grace period? Funny thing is, he doesn’t really expect one.

“Unfortunately in the modern era of college athletics, I don’t know that anyone gets a grace period or a honeymoon period,” he said. “I think expectations are high across the board. I have high expectations for our program.

“We’re trying to build a program here that can sustain a certain level of stability and consistency.”

Throughout the entire conversation, Hodge uses the word “rebuild” just once and he does not see this situation as one.

Sure, the roster has a ton of new faces and the entire coaching staff is brand new, but Hodge’s overall view of the program is not one that finds itself back on the ground floor.

“In the past, if you were taking over a job that had just one returning player, it would take you a year or two,” he said. “There’s been a lot of negatives said about NIL and the transfer portal, but the positives are you can put together a roster now that you couldn’t do prior to the transfer portal.

“Now, you can shape your roster to the way you like it immediately. Our job now is to take that first roster and go find out how to win, how to bring back a certain level of excitement and how to make the people proud of this program again.”

Odds and ends

• Hodge’s career as a Division I coach basically is a tale of being at schools that were small fishes in a large pond.

As an assistant, he spent seasons at Southern Miss, Arkansas State and Colorado State.

North Texas is just one of 22 Division I schools in that state that houses seven schools found on the rosters of the Big 12, SEC and ACC.

Knowing full well what life is like at a mid-major, does Hodge have any intentions of discussing rekindling the WVU-Marshall rivalry that hasn’t been played in the regular season since 2015?

“At North Texas, we were actually in the same league with Marshall in Conference USA,” Hodge said. “I have a lot of respect for that program.

“Priority A is finding a schedule that can help you get an at-large bid for the NCAA tournament. I would never say never. I would be open to something like that, but it’s got to be something that makes sense for this university. With scheduling, I’ve always said, especially when it comes to scheduling, that everyone has to do what’s in their own best interests.”

• Hodge’s contract contains a unique buyout clause that binds him to WVU athletic director Wren Baker.

If Baker, who just signed a contract extension with the school two months ago, were to leave during Hodge’s first two seasons, then Hodge’s buyout lowers from a potential 75% to 37.5% of his remaining salary if Hodge were to leave also.

Baker was also the athletic director at North Texas when Hodge was an assistant at the school.

“There’s no secret that with Wren being here, that was part of the attraction for me to come here,” Hodge said. “I think Wren is one of the best athletic directors in the country. In my opinion, coaches win games, but administrations win championships.

“I think whenever you’re in the seat I’m in, who you’re working directly with and the alignment of their vision on how we can win championships has to be in sync. I wanted to make sure the level of commitment (from Baker) was there, as well. Like, we’re going to do this and it’s going to be a partnership. It was one more show of good faith, in my opinion, that he’s invested here, too.”