Ross Hodge Appreciation Thread

Ross Hodgeson · March 20

Thing is this guy comes in as a new HC with tons of new players, has his best player Tylor Perry bail along with his starting post Ousmane and tons of injuries all year long.

This is one of the most remarkable coaching jobs I have ever seen especially from a 1st year coach.

Ross Hodge has a very bright future in coaching and dare I say Jarrod made the right hire! GMG

Edited March 20 by Ross Hodgeson

MeanGreenTexan · March 20

It's nice to see when the keys to something special are handed over to a new steward, and that guy keeps it going, but in his own way. Recall, the same thing happened in 2012, and it was immediately wrecked.

It was nice to see Hodge relax the reigns a little and let the guys play some transition offense this year, instead of staying uber-disciplined in the deliberate offense that we played with GM. Not to say we abandoned that deliberate offense (still 2nd to last in pace of play out of 362 teams behind Virginia).

I appreciate Coach Hodge!

Matt from A700 · March 20

10 hours ago, Ross Hodgeson said:

Thing is this guy comes in as a new HC with tons of new players, has his best player Tylor Perry bail along with his starting post Ousmane and tons of injuries all year long.

This is one of the most remarkable coaching jobs I have ever seen especially from a 1st year coach.

Ross Hodge has a very bright future in coaching and dare I say Jarrod made the right hire! GMG

You profess your love for Boss Hodge after every win and I am here for it.

GrandGreen · March 20

NT and Hodge have had a great year when all turnover and injuries are considered. Hodge is a good on-court coach, but his real strength is recruiting. He is finding players and signing them without the benefit of an abundance of NIL funds and frankly a lot attendance support.

The mark of great coaching to me is the ability to create a team that is greater than the sums of the parts. Although NT has great college players, I believe they frequently beat teams with more individual talent.

NorthTexasWeLove · March 20

18 minutes ago, GrandGreen said:

NT and Hodge have had a great year when all turnover and injuries are considered. Hodge is a good on-court coach, but his real strength is recruiting. He is finding players and signing them without the benefit of an abundance of NIL funds and frankly a lot attendance support.

The mark of great coaching to me is the ability to create a team that is greater than the sums of the parts. Although NT has great college players, I believe they frequently beat teams with more individual talent.

RH has does a good job considering everything.

As for your attendance remark, we have to get the team out of that echo chamber of an arena. We need a 5500-6500(max) arena that gives the team the environment they deserve.

Cooke County Kid · March 20

Good job Coach Hodge, let’s keep it going! Repeat…

UNTLifer · March 20

4 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

As for your attendance remark, we have to get the team out of that echo chamber of an arena. We need a 5500-6500(max) arena that gives the team the environment they deserve.

I'm going to reverse this and say we need to be able to fill our current home when you have 40,000 on campus, not counting faculty and staff, 150,000 in Denton and over 200,000 alumni living in DFW. Pack the Pit.

Edited March 20 by UNTLifer

NorthTexasWeLove · March 20

25 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I'm going to reverse this and say we need to be able to fill our current home when you 40,000 on campus, not counting faculty and staff, 150,000 in Denton and over 200,000 alumni living in DFW. Pack the Pit.

Not realistic. Our arena is gigantic given our leauge and attendance history. To create a little perspective, there are 22 major programs that have a smaller arena than us.

Something to the tune of what NJIT has would be pretty incredible. But make it 5500 capacity.

BleedingGreen · March 20

What we don’t see that contributes to what we do see is important. Leadership and mentoring of the other coaches and players . Loving them well, lifting their spirits and correction with grace. These are paying the biggest dividends.

UNTLifer · March 20

3 hours ago, NorthTexasWeLove said:

Not realistic. Our arena is gigantic given our leauge and attendance history. To create a little perspective, there are 22 major programs that have a smaller arena than us.

Something to the tune of what NJIT has would be pretty incredible. But make it 5500 capacity.

I think it is realistic and I don't care if there are 100 major programs with smaller arenas than us. There is no excuse for not packing the Pit. I wouldn't give up until I've seen even a hint of effort from our administration to do so.

Edited March 20 by UNTLifer

MeanGreen22 · March 20

2 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I'm going to reverse this and say we need to be able to fill our current home when you have 40,000 on campus, not counting faculty and staff, 150,000 in Denton and over 200,000 alumni living in DFW. Pack the Pit.

There’s a middle ground here somewhere. I get that we SHOULD be able to fill it but we’re not. I think everyone agrees that something needs to be done but the increase from last year is definitely a positive sign.

NorthTexasWeLove · March 20

7 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I think it is realistic and I don't care if there are 100 major programs with smaller arenas than us. There is no excuse for not packing the Pit. I wouldn't give up until a see even a hint of effort from our administration to do so.

Nothing suggests that it's realistic. Major brand programs aren't coming to the Pit, and they certainly aren't anymore given our competitiveness.

Ultimately, attendance and atmosphere is driven by students. Our students are very inconsistent. Our alum are too busy trying on long whorn t-shirts at Walmart so they can have their need of self-worth fulfilled.

CMJ · March 20

I feel like we're a less famous/successful version of UCLA.

UCLA is (usually) in a great league (though the Pac-12 was obviously down this year) with 11 National Tittles to their name. For such a historically fantastic program though they have trouble filling Pauley Pavilion. Not as much as we do filling the Super Pit, but considering their league and history...yeah they struggle outside of the Arizona, USC, and maybe one marquee OOC game. I'm not sure what they report as their official capacity, but I watch them a lot on TV since I live here, and most home games they're at around 60% full. For cupcake OOC games it's obviously less and for the big games more, but...55-60% is fairly typical.

They have a HUGE alumni base and a large number of students who live on or near campus (when you are in Westwood it weirdly has a bit of a commuter feel though), with as much tradition as anyone, and they still struggle to fill. Some of that is they have high standards. They have to compete with a million other options (which we always talk about at NT too) with tons of pro and college teams also in season (not to mention all the other stuff that any big city has).

Looking at attendance, it usually places that are true college towns that have little to compete with as far as other options which are the ones that consistently draw. I mean if you go to Lawrence Kansas, the biggest game in town is Jayhawk basketball, there's nothing else close. As much as we like to talk about being located in DFW is great for us, it's also a bit of a curse.

Edited March 21 by CMJ

ForneyGreen · March 20

I thought it was interesting to see Hodge loosen-up the offense and shot clock management a bit toward the end of the conference slate.

The first half of the season was very McCasland-like where we would score in the mid-60's and try holding the opponent to low-60's or less. Our latest games have been pretty different scoring in the 70's and 80's.

I wonder if this "new, faster" pace is more of what Hodge wants to run in the future?

UNTLifer · March 20

I don't care how fast we go as long as we keep up our defense. So fun watching these teams get frustrated.

NorthTexasWeLove · March 20

14 minutes ago, UNTLifer said:

I don't care how fast we go as long as we keep up our defense. So fun watching these teams get frustrated.

Our weak help was slow this year. Our on ball defense took a step back. But our gap defense is brilliant. It's phenomenal, really.

Coach Bill Lewis · March 20

UNT is a very respected defensive program. I mean that nationally respected.

untlynchka1 · March 21

8 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I think it is realistic and I don't care if there are 100 major programs with smaller arenas than us. There is no excuse for not packing the Pit. I wouldn't give up until I've seen even a hint of effort from our administration to do so.

I agree that it is realistic, but unlikely. I am hopeful, but doubtful.

we averaged 4132 per game this year. Which is a new record over the last 20 years, I believe.

we have to continue to win, and we have to start going to the tournament and having success. We don’t have to pull an FAU, but we need to make it more than we don’t, and we have to be a top 25 or close team.

I was at the smu game, with my old pledge brother, and we both were blown away by the atmosphere. The students were incredible! When they started swaying we were goin nuts. We had over 7000 at that game and the pit was lit!

I say all of that to say this, if we continue success and average 5500 in 2 years, do you really think they are going to build an arena that holds 5500-7000 when in their minds, they are already about to outgrow that.

NTXDJ · March 21

11 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

I'm going to reverse this and say we need to be able to fill our current home when you have 40,000 on campus, not counting faculty and staff, 150,000 in Denton and over 200,000 alumni living in DFW. Pack the Pit.

I know enrollment is up over 40,000, but do we really have 40,000 living on campus? Or even coming to campus on a regular basis? I say that because I know we have the unfortunate distinction of being known as a "commuter school".

Jonnyeagle · March 21

7 hours ago, NTXDJ said:

I know enrollment is up over 40,000, but do we really have 40,000 living on campus? Or even coming to campus on a regular basis? I say that because I know we have the unfortunate distinction of being known as a "commuter school".

Good question as I think we may count online in that number.

NorthTexasWeLove · March 21

10 hours ago, untlynchka1 said:

I agree that it is realistic, but unlikely. I am hopeful, but doubtful.

we averaged 4132 per game this year. Which is a new record over the last 20 years, I believe.

we have to continue to win, and we have to start going to the tournament and having success. We don’t have to pull an FAU, but we need to make it more than we don’t, and we have to be a top 25 or close team.

I was at the smu game, with my old pledge brother, and we both were blown away by the atmosphere. The students were incredible! When they started swaying we were goin nuts. We had over 7000 at that game and the pit was lit!

I say all of that to say this, if we continue success and average 5500 in 2 years, do you really think they are going to build an arena that holds 5500-7000 when in their minds, they are already about to outgrow that.

We are not outgrowing anything. Marquee games would simply dictate more ticket money, sellouts, and great atmospheres. Good games would still draw a very good crowd with an actual good atmosphere. And poorly attended games (1/3 or more of our home games) wouldn't sound, feel or look like an echo chamber. I can count on 2 hands (maybe 1) how many times the draw has surpassed 7k in the last decade+.

Shark84 · March 21

22 hours ago, ForneyGreen said:

I thought it was interesting to see Hodge loosen-up the offense and shot clock management a bit toward the end of the conference slate.

The first half of the season was very McCasland-like where we would score in the mid-60's and try holding the opponent to low-60's or less. Our latest games have been pretty different scoring in the 70's and 80's.

I wonder if this "new, faster" pace is more of what Hodge wants to run in the future?

He said at the beginning of the year that they wanted to push the pace a little bit more this year but I think the injuries derailed some of that. Now that we have everyone healthy and can go 8-9 deep, we are playing a a faster tempo. I know that plays into Ruben's game, Scott and Edwards as well.