WVU Donor Ken Kendrick Weighs in on the Hire of Ross Hodge
The search is over and hopefully, for Wren Baker’s peace of mind, he won’t have to conduct another search for football or either basketball program for the next decade. On Wednesday, West Virginia officially announced the hire of Ross Hodge as the team’s next men’s basketball coach.
Darian DeVries made Baker look like a smart man with the stellar first year on the job which featured three wins over top 10 opponents. Unfortunately, he used West Virginia as a stepping stone and put Baker back in search mode exactly one year later.
One of West Virginia University’s biggest donors, Ken Kendrick, also known as the owner of MLB’s Arizona Diamondbacks, gave his initial thoughts on the hire in a post on X.
“I have learned over my last 25 years of hiring professional coaches that both competence and character matter. I hope Ross Hodge brings both of those qualities to WVU!”
Being burned by DeVries just 48 hours after being wrongfully snubbed from the NCAA Tournament had Mountaineer fans furious. Donors shared those feelings. They didn’t buy into the pitch that he had “intentions” of staying at WVU for the long haul, as he stated in his introductory press conference at Indiana. Stability and winning are needed in Morgantown and perhaps Hodge will be that guy.
