West Virginia hired Ross Hodge of North Texas as its men’s basketball coach on Wednesday.

The 44-year-old Hodge replaces Darian DeVries, who left after one season for Indiana. Hodge agreed to a five-year deal to become West Virginia’s fourth coach in four seasons. Terms of the contract weren’t immediately disclosed.

“Ross Hodge is a proven winner and leader who has demonstrated success at every stop of his career,” West Virginia athletic director Wren Baker said in a statement.

Hodge is 46-23 in two seasons as coach of the Mean Green, who are 27-8 this season and advanced to the National Invitation Tournament semifinals next Tuesday in Indianapolis.

Hodge has been part of staffs that went to three NCAA tournaments, including an upset of Purdue as a No. 13 seed in 2021.

Hodge may not have been on everyone’s radar when the West Virginia job opened, but others believed to be in the running went elsewhere: Drake’s Ben McCollum was hired at Iowa, Colorado State’s Niko Medved went to Minnesota, and New Mexico’s Richard Pitino landed at Xavier.

All Baker needed to do was to go back to his past.

Baker was the AD at North Texas from 2016 to 2022. Hodge was an assistant coach for the Mean Green for six seasons under Grant McCasland. After McCasland took over at Texas Tech in 2023, Hodge became the Mean Green’s head coach and went 19-15 in the school’s first season in the American Athletic Conference despite numerous injuries.

Hodge is credited as the architect of the North Texas defense. The Mean Green had the nation’s No. 1 scoring defense in 2021-22 and 2022-23, when they won 25 and a school-record 31 games, respectively, including capturing the 2023 NIT championship.

“I have such respect for the toughness, grit and pride of the people of West Virginia, and my hope is that we can reflect that with how our team competes on the court,” Hodge said.

A Dallas native, Hodge also was an assistant under McCasland at Arkansas State and served under Larry Eustachy at Colorado State and Southern Miss.

West Virginia was left stunned last week, first when it was snubbed from the NCAA Tournament despite a 19-13 record and six Quad 1 wins, then by DeVries’ departure two days later.

DeVries had been hired at West Virginia a year ago to replace interim coach Josh Eilert, who steered the Mountaineers through a nine-win season in 2023-24 after Hall of Fame coach Bob Huggins resigned following a June 2023 drunken driving arrest.

After DeVries left, Baker was asked whether it was important to find someone with ties to the program in the hope of having a coach for the long term.

“I know that there can be a knee-jerk reaction when you lose a coach after a year,” Baker said last week. “Human nature is to think, ‘Oh God, we have to get somebody who’s connected to here.’ I just think your job is to go out and get the best coach that you can. And you want to have coaches that other people covet and want to come after. Because the alternative to that is, nobody wants your coach. And that’s not very good.”

West Virginia’s roster will undergo its third straight season of makeovers. Five players on the current roster have entered the NCAA transfer portal, including four starters. Baker has said he hopes the players will give the new coach a chance to recruit them back for next season.

Three teenagers in Texas have been arrested after allegedly coordinating an attack to kill their mother for turning off their Wi-Fi.

According to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, police apprehended three siblings aged 14, 15 and 16, at their home in Houston, after they allegedly chased their mother through the house and into the street with kitchen knives.

She was hit with a brick, but not seriously injured. Their grandmother was also pushed over when trying to protect their mother, according to police.

Why It Matters

This incident raises questions over how addictive screens can be, and the impact internet use is having on children.

It isn’t clear at this time whether the household experienced other violent incidents before this one, or if this alleged event was a one-off outburst.

What to Know

Gonzales posted about the incident to X, saying: “Overnight, Harris County Sheriff’s Office deputies and detectives responded to a disturbance at the 3400 blk of Barkers Crossing Avenue.”

He then provided details of the alleged assault and stated that the teenagers were taken to the Harris County Juvenile Detention Center.

According to a paper from Allina Health, multiple studies connect violence and outbursts in children with screen time.

The paper, written by Dr. Aditi Garg, states excessive time spent on screens is linked in many studies to “school problems, anger, aggression, frustration, depression, and other emotional problems” in children.

Screen time can result in overstimulation and a lack of human interaction, which leads to attention issues and erratic behavior.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that children under the age of 18 months have no screen time other than video chatting, that children aged 18-24 months have “high quality” screen time that involves the parent, and children aged two to five have one hour of “high quality programs” a day.

They do not provide guidance for older ages, but suggest that parents create a technology schedule with enforceable rules for their children to follow.

The organization Common Sense Media says that not all screen time is created equal and classifies screen time into passive, interaction, communication and content creation.

Where passive can be mindlessly scrolling or being on autopilot, other forms of screen time can be enriching and engaging when used correctly.

What People Are Saying

Sheriff Ed Gonzales said on X: “Because the mother turned off the Wi-Fi, all three grabbed kitchen knives and chased her throughout the house and into the street, attempting to stab her. The mother was struck with a brick. In the process, the grandmother was knocked over while trying to protect the mother. No serious injuries were sustained by either adult female.”

The American Academy of Pediatrics: “It is important to consider the specific activities that children and teens engage in on social media, and to support them in using social media in ways that strengthen their social, emotional, cognitive and identity development.”

What Happens Next

The three teenagers were charged with aggravated assault with a deadly weapon following their arrest.

Various research typically points to the state of Texas as one of the largest economies in the United States; however, new data from the Texas Women’s Foundation amplifies a systematic gender pay gap that could have widespread economic implications across the state. 

The foundation’s new white paper, Texas Women and the Wage Gap: A Corporate Leader’s Guide to Driving Workforce Sustainability, notes that the wage gap has increased since 2019 to $60.1 billion annually in lost earnings and lost economic productivity for the state. 

Karen Hughes White, the President and CEO of the Texas Women’s Foundation, said the data was released intentionally on March 25, often recognized as Equal Pay Day. 

“The Equal Pay Act was passed in the 1970s, yet we are still discussing pay for equal work,” she said. “The urgency around this now is that women comprise 46% of the Texas workforce and that’s growing.” 

Read the full report here.   

“Over a lifetime, the average Texas woman stands to lose $750,000 in lifetime earnings. That’s game-changing for women,” Hughes White said. 

Hughes White said the designation for Equal Pay Day represents the amount of extra time women have to work in order to earn as much as men did in the previous year. 

“The most shocking part of the data is how the age gap widens based on women’s education. In Texas the more educated a woman is, the wider the wage gap is, [but] If we could just cut that wage gap the same as men with advanced degrees, it would actually cut the economic impact of the wage gap in half for equal work. We’ve been asking a long time.”

Hughes White said for the average Texas woman, the ever-widening gap can impact her ability to achieve long-term economic security, stability and success for herself and her family. 

According to Hughes White, that is not the only barrier for women to participate consistently and fully in the Texas economic landscape. 

While the equal pay date is tied specifically to white women, Black and Hispanic women typically work much longer to achieve equal pay. 

“The Texas economy which is [among] the largest and the strongest in the nation, is increasingly dependent on women to drive its success. The time is now for change and the time is now to act,” she said. 

Texas Women’s Foundation offers statewide research on the issues impacting Texas women and girls and provides corporate, state and local decision-makers and lawmakers with critical data to inform policies, practices and programs across the state.

Hughes White said one way the foundation works to raise awareness around the wage gap across North Texas is by offering practical tools for women to pursue pay equity. 

“When people know the issues, we can solve the issues, it’s going to take all of us to do it,” she said. 

The foundation will offer salary negotiation workshops on April 17 and May 15.