MORGANTOWN, W.Va. — Hours before he was introduced as the new WVU men’s basketball head coach on April 3, Ross Hodge got his first taste of the West Virginia-Pittsburgh rivalry. Shortly after arriving in Morgantown the morning before his first press conference, Hodge stopped by Kendrick Family Ballpark to see the Mountaineers and the Panthers meet on the diamond.

Seven months later, Hodge will lead his Mountaineers onto the court at Hope Coliseum in the 192nd edition of the Backyard Brawl.

“No one is insulated from the passion and the feeling of this game and the excitement of it. You can’t run from that. But at the same time, you can’t allow that to get outside of our character to try to do things that maybe you shouldn’t be able to do out there, or you shouldn’t be trying to do,” Hodge

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