Ross Hodge ‘Distinctly’ Remembers Bob Huggins’ Powerful Moment with Da’Sean Butler

When Ross Hodge takes the floor at the WVU Coliseum next November, it will be his second-ever appearance coaching in the building. A few years back when he was an assistant under Grant McCasland at North Texas, the Mean Green came to town and gave the Mountaineers a bit of a scare.

“I was a junior college guy and coach Huggins always did such a good job of recruiting junior colleges at all his stops and had so much respect for him and got the opportunity to compete against his team in 2021 obviously it was the post-covid year so we did not get a chance to see the coliseum full, probably it was good for us that wasn’t the case,” Hodge reflected.

“We actually had an eight-point lead at halftime, we were up 29-21 and so we come out at halftime and we’re walking out on the floor and I’m using the restroom and I turned to our video coordinator at the time, his name was Louie and I said, ‘Louie you’re about to see an avalanche on the offensive glass like you’ve never seen in your entire life.’ And sure enough, to start the second half there were 10 bodies inside that little charge arc. All the guys in black jerseys were getting mushed under the basket and all the guys in white jerseys were grabbing rebounds and putting it back in.

Hodge not only remembers facing Bob Huggins and coaching the Coliseum, he also talked about the heartbreaking moment in the Final Four when Da’Sean Butler went down against Duke.

“One thing I distinctly remember and I honestly can remember sitting in my living room and it brought tears to my eyes when I saw it and in a lot of ways it still does touch me emotionally. In 2010 when Da’Sean Butler tore his ACL and coach Huggins went out to the floor you could see the love and the compassion that he had for his players.”

The game wasn’t completely out of hand at the time of Butler’s injury, but it was a double-digit deficit with just a handful of minutes left. Even then, Mountaineer fans remained optimistic, believing that at some point, the Butler would deliver once again and get the game within reach. The moment he went down, all hope was lost.

Huggins walked onto the court, said a few words to the officials about the play, knelt down to Butler lying down on the court in pain, and hugged him with tears flowing. It was one of the most powerful moments in sports history and it unfortunately came in a heartbreaking way.

While it may have been a sour end to that 2010 season, Mountaineer Nation still holds that team near and dear to its heart, as it should.