West Virginia men’s basketball coach Ross Hodge speaks during a press conference. (Photo Provided)

MORGANTOWN — If the early returns mean anything, new West Virginia basketball coach Ross Hodge understands building a basketball team, and that’s the long and the short of it.

His first signee was a 7-footer in UNC-Wilmington transfer Harlan Obioha and one of his earliest, and most important commits, is 5-10 guard Honor Huff, another transfer from Chattanooga.

Call ’em Mr. Inside and Mr. Outside, if you must, but in a lot of ways, that’s what modern basketball has come to be.

Get you a 7-footer who can grab rebounds and blocks shots and get you a guard who can shoot 3’s and distribute the ball and you have the two essentials to a winning program … and winning is what WVU is all about right now.

Now there are those who are going to question whether Huff is big enough to play in the Big 12 and it’s a legitimate question.

It’s the same question that forced JJ Quinerly to fall to the 27th pick in the WNBA draft, going in the third round. She was better than the 27th most talented player.

But she is 5-foot, 8-inches and that makes a team about to invest a lot of money in her wonder what her top side is. Her quickness, her instincts, her inner makeup count for what she’s done to date, but now she’s going to be tested against the best.

So, it is with this year’s top men’s transfer, the senior Huff, who is listed at 5-10 and 168 pounds and that makes one wonder how he stacks up in a Power 4 conference known for its physicality of play. Is he too small?

Let’s just answer it by reminding people that they did pretty well with a guy named “Small” running the show at guard last year … Javon Small.

Small can be big, as Quinerly showed on the women’s side, along with 5-6 Jordan Harrison, and as Huff has shown at lower levels.

But there’s a difference when you get to the Big 12 and you wonder how being the Division 1 leader in 3-point shots made with 131 of them at Chattanooga (to say nothing of 240 of them from 602 attempts for 39.9% over two years there) translates into shooting in the Big 12.

Five-foot-10 works OK on Wall Street, even if, as most of them are, exaggerated by an inch or so. Certainly, it can be done and has been done at WVU, but mostly over the years playing for the Mountaineers has been for players of larger frames.

There have not been many sub-6-foot players on rosters at WVU going back 35 years.

The last Mountaineer listed below 6-foot to get quality playing time was Jabarie Hinds, who averaged 7.4 points a game while playing 22.8 minutes a game in both 2012 and 20-13, which is more than a decade ago.

Perhaps the most talented of the sub-6-foot players since 2000 was 5-11 guard Jonathan Hargett, who apparently broke more rules than records and was the central figure in the quick exit of then coach Dan Dakich.

He averaged 13.6 points a game in his freshman season — and only season — and shot only 30.3% from the field and 28.8% from 3 while having nearly as many turnovers as assists (120-106).

That, of course, was in Gale Catlett’s disastrous final season that ended at 8-20 with one Big East victory and losses in 18 of the last 19 games.

On that same team was one of the more successful smaller players at WVU as 5-11 guard Lionel Armstead completed his four-year career with a 10.7 per game average and surpassing 1,000 points.

Jarrod West, of course, stood tall for WVU in a four-year career that ended with a solid 10.6-point average in a senior year that was highlighted with one of the most memorable shots in WVU history, an NCAA buzzer beater that eliminated Bob Huggins and his Cincinnati Bearcats in a year when they may have made a deep run into the tournament.

The 1990s were a different era, of course, but two shorter players were able to stand out before the Big East days.

Marsalis Bailey of Martinsburg was just 5-8 but he averaged 13.2 and 16.2 points in his junior and senior seasons while ringing up 514 career assists, topping his career off with a 36-point effort in an 82-81 double overtime victory over St. Joseph’s.

And, in 1990, 5-11 guard Steve Berger finished off his career with a school record 574 assists and a 10.3 point average.

So, it can be done and Hodge believes Huff is a little man who can pull it off, even at this level of play … but WVU tried someone of a similar size last season in the Big 12 with freshman KJ Tenner, who was listed at 6-foot and 166 pounds and had a rough go of it as an undersized freshman in the Big 12 before transferring to Murray State for this season.

There are probably less questions about what WVU has in the 7-foot Obioha, who joins a long list of players at or almost to 7-foot to come in and be purposeful big men.

A year ago, Eduardo Andre became a fan favorite with his play at 6-11 while Jesse Edwards preceded him in 2024 and the 6-10 Derek Culver before him.

Obioha averaged 9.2 points and 6.0 rebounds last year at UNC Wilmington with 42 blocked shots and has the physical tools to compete at this level.

And, of course, there was that guy named Pittsnogle.

So why not Obioha?

“He has been part of winning a championship and brings NCAA Tournament experience with him,” Hodge said in announcing his signing “He has continued to get better throughout the course of his college career and gives us a physical presence on both ends of the floor.”