West Virginia cruised to a 103-66 victory over Glenville State in an exhibition on Friday night, moving to 1-1 in preseason play. Shortly after, WVU head coach Ross Hodge met with the media to recap the night.

Opening statement

“Some things are bigger than basketball, and obviously tonight was bigger than basketball. Got to honor an incredible man. It’s a big part of the reason why we chose to do this and his love for Glenville, his love for West Virginia, his love for both universities, how much he’s poured into everybody. It was a surreal moment, a surreal week. Just an incredible night for everyone that was involved. It was first class all the way around.”

If there was better physicality

“I thought that our attention to that part of the game was better at a concerted effort. It’s what’s great about these opportunities. You get a chance to learn about yourself, and you hope that each time out you get a little bit better.”

What he thought the team did better this week

“I thought we close the first half better. We were in similar situations. We talked about that in the last timeout before the first half. The score was very similar. We had a 19-point lead at Maryland going into the last media timeout. We didn’t finish it as strong as we would have liked. We ended up still going up 15, but just didn’t finish the half as well as we wanted. I thought we finished the half a little bit better. Wasn’t super happy with the start of the second half. We got back into that mode where we were trading baskets a little bit. That just shows that we’re far from a finished product.”

Injury update on Joson Sanon

“He got just a thigh bruise. He got a knee on a ball screen. (Pharrell) Payne knee’d him, and that’s a big knee, so he practiced yesterday non-contact, and usually you want to try to get a guy a little contact before you throw him in a game. But he’s trending in the right direction. I would anticipate, barring any sort of setbacks, that he’ll be back for Wednesday.”

Amadou Seini leading the team in rebounding

“He’s a talented rebounder. He led the under-18s FIBA in rebounding when he played for his national team, and that usually translates.”

Keonte Greybear’s performance

“He does it every day in practice. I wasn’t overly surprised to see it play out because he does it every day. He’s competitive. He’s physical. We have good practices because of our depth. So, you get a lot of, like, iron sharpens iron in there, and he sticks his nose right into the middle of it.”