Penny Hardaway had a fantastic career in the NBA as a player, making four All-Star appearances, three All-NBA selections, and winning the 1993-94 Rookie of the Year Award. Now, he’s one of the best head coaches at the mid-major level, leading the Memphis Tigers.

In seven years as Memphis’s head coach, Hardaway has a record of 162-68 and three NCAA Tournament appearances. It’s safe to say the man knows what it takes to win, and knows a winner when he sees one.

On Thursday, Hardaway was asked about West Virginia’s hire of Ross Hodge, who he’s faced twice over the last two years, and gave the new Mountaineer head coach a glowing review.

“Ross is definitely one of my favorite coaches in the country. He is the next big-time coach to take West Virginia back to the glory days of winning and playing in NCAA Tournaments. He is arguably one of the best in the country defensively and his teams will always be a hard out. They are relentless in their efforts for 40 minutes. It’s one of the hardest teams that I have ever had to coach against because they are so tough.”

Hardaway and Hodge split their two meetings against each other with Hodge and the Mean Green taking the first game 76-66 last season and Memphis getting their revenge this season with a narrow 68-64 victory.

Hardaway isn’t the only college head coach who has praised Hodge, either. Michigan’s Dusty May, Baylor’s Scott Drew, and Texas Tech’s Grant McCasland also had great things to say about him, which you can read here.

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West Virginia begins a three-game series on the road on Thursday night as the Mountaineers face BYU.

While all Big 12 series are important, it’s even more vital the Mountaineers get a win after dropping two of three to Arizona last week. However, WVU’s depth will certainly be tested as injuries are starting to take their toll.

For most of the season thus far, WVU’s batting lineup has been steady at the top with Brodie Kresser leading off, Logan Sauve batting second, and Sam White batting third.

This past weekend against Arizona, two-thirds of that equation was taken out as Sauve got hurt on a slide on Saturday, and White exited Sunday’s game early after dislocating his shoulder celebrating.

“Logan, inflammation of the shoulder. He just landed on his shoulder sliding, had this inflammation. So we’re pretty hopeful that he’s going to be able to return at some point this weekend. Sam White, more pain, he dislocated his shoulder, and so I think with that just comes more time. So not a doctor, don’t know exactly what that means, but probably a longer time frame for Sam White. I would imagine not ready this weekend, begin more physical therapy, treatment, that kind of stuff,” WVU head coach Steve Sabins said.

Sabins has had to reshuffle his lineup on Sunday as well as on Tuesday against Marshall, but he’s relying upon his depth to carry them through this. Freshman Gavin Kelly replaced Sauve, while it’s somewhat of a trial by matchups between Armani Guzman and Spencer Barnett at second base.

“Sam White and Logan were obviously out, two of our leaders and best position players on our team, but we’ve talked about the depth of our team. And Barnett and Guzman entered the lineup, and they were both really good today. I was proud of Guzman. He was two for four, he stayed on a changeup, which he had trouble with before, had an RBI off of a changeup, and then showed his bunt skill, left on left, left-handed pitcher on the mound, bunted and was safe late in the game. And so he’s evolving to becoming a ball player and not just an athlete, so really fired up about what he did. And Spencer, I believe, drew two walks, and that’s what that guy does. He’s a quality at-bat most of the time, so he slipped into Sam White’s spot at second base,” Sabins said.

As for Kelly, there’s no surprise for his success whether he be behind the dish or in the designated hitter spot. Kelly is fourth on the team in batting average, as well as fourth in runs scored, despite having just the eighth-most at-bats. Kelly has also produced defensively, throwing multiple runners out this past weekend.

“If you do a scouting report and you watch Gavin Kelly, it’ll say it’s going to be really hard to run on. And so within two weeks of catching more, he’s basically established you can’t run on the guy because it’s really good arm strength, and good transfer, and pop times. And so they tested him early and they found out,” Sabins said.

WVU begins a three-game series against BYU on Thursday, with the first pitch of game one set for 8:30 p.m.