The greatest thing about West Virginia fans is that they are extremely passionate about the Mountaineers. And sometimes, that can be its biggest problem.

Fans are 100% within their right to let their frustrations be heard, boo, and be critical of how players play and coaches coach, but there is such a thing as going too far.

WVU men's head basketball coach Ross Hodge spoke on this during his radio show on Thursday night, saying that the personal attacks and harsh criticism that the players received online last year were not something he had answers for.

“When I took this job a year ago, I was fully prepared for the level of criticism. When all this was going down, I set my family down and I’m like, ‘Look, you’re going to have to learn to not read the internet.’ You can read the article, just don’t read the comments. It wasn’t too far long after that; Shelly’s mom, Donna, she told Shelly, she’s like, ‘You know, Ross told me not to read the comments, and I just think I’m not going to read the comments.’ I felt like I was fully prepared for that. I understood that comes with the job. Being this job in particular, you have no pro sports teams, and it comes with the territory. The one thing I was not prepared for in any way, shape, or form was the level of vitriol and criticism that the players receive. I was not prepared for that, and that was a major learning curve for me personally, trying to help them navigate that part of it.

"I feel like I’ve done a better job earlier having those conversations with this group," Hodge continued. "It’s easier for us. I’m 46, and I can not read it. I can. I can not get on there. Very hard for the players. You can say, ‘Hey, just don’t read it.’ They do. I think there’s a lot of different converging time periods — the amount of monetization that can be created by internet accounts that receive views and clicks, and let’s be honest, the negativity does drive that. So there’s actual financial incentives to be shocking and critical. And there’s the gambling component now that is directly tied with our players. Some of it is viewed as: they’re professional, they’re compensated. I’ve always said, if we play like crap and our players don’t play well… there’s criticism of the game, and the player in the game is fair. But when you take it to the other side of things where you are, like personally attacking them, direct messaging, threatening, that’s a part that’s like… it just isn’t helpful.”

Hodge is spot on here. I've never understood why some folks get so upset with a game or a player's performance that they feel the need to send them direct messages and curse them out, tell them that they are horrible, or worse, take it to another level with threats, as Ross mentioned.

This isn't a WVU problem, though. It's like that at pretty much every Power Four school that has a passionate fanbase, unfortunately.

Social media is great because it allows us to easily access news and interact with one another, but it's also a place where people think they can hide behind a made-up name and profile picture and say what they want because no one knows their true identity.

Not all burner accounts are malicious, and it's not always a burner account attacking a player. Sometimes it's someone's actual account. Regardless, it's something that players, coaches, ADs, and presidents shouldn't have to deal with. Criticism is fair game; just don't make it personal.