The West connection with a lot of "layers" will play a major role for Best Virginia in TBT

Dominion Post

17-07-2025

MORGANTOWN — The last time Jarrod West shared the Charleston Coliseum floor with his son — also named Jarrod, affectionately known as Lil Jarrod — the two were celebrating winning the 2017 Class A boys' state basketball championship at Clarksburg Notre Dame.
The reuniting of the West duo in Charleston takes place at 8 p.m. Friday, as Best Virginia begins play in the West Virginia Regional of The Basketball Tournament (TBT).
The elder West is back for his second stint as the head coach for the WVU alumni team in the $1 million winner-take-all tournament.
The younger West will once again be under his father's direction as one of Best Virginia's guards.
'Just thinking about that gets me a little emotional,' coach West said. 'The last time I coached Lil Jarrod, we won the state championship. Having this opportunity to coach him again, yeah, it's going to be emotional.'
There is a backstory to how Lil Jarrod, a Marshall graduate who also played one season at Louisville in college, ended up on a WVU alumni team, one that goes further than just simply extending an invitation or taking advantage of getting coached by dad again.
'We were at our first practice and Lil Jarrod was looking at that gold and blue jersey,' coach West said. 'He just kind of stared at it a couple of times before putting it on. There was definitely some type of feeling for him at that moment.'
There is no story about the elder West that can be told without mentioning his importance to the history of WVU athletics with 'The Shot.'
After the legendary Jerry West graduated, the WVU men's basketball program went 38 years without winning consecutive games in a NCAA tournament.
'The Shot' changed all that.
It came 27 years ago, as West dribbled down the floor in a second-round game inside the Boise State Pavilion.
The 10th-seeded Mountaineers trailed No. 2 seed Cincinnati 74-72. The clock read 7.1 seconds when West got the ball.
'My first reaction was to look up at the clock to make sure we still had enough time,' West said.
He dribbled up the floor and got a screen just past halfcourt from teammate Brian Lewin.
'Brian flipped the screen,' West said. 'I was supposed to go left, but Brian flipped it and so I went to the right side. I thought I was going to be wide open.'
He was for a moment, until Cincinnati forward Ruben Patterson saw what was developing and he left his man near the foul line to make a mad dash at West.
West took a 25-footer, Patterson leaped out at him and somehow that basketball banked in just before the buzzer for a 75-74 victory.
He instantly became a favorite son of WVU, and while West played 110 career games for the Mountaineers, in the 27 years that have followed he is never asked about any of the other 109.
'It's kind of neat, whenever I go to the Coliseum now to watch a game, they still show the shot on the big video board,' West said. 'I totally get the place that moment has in the school's history, but to be honest, once you become a father, your own accolades don't really mean much at all.'
For West, that meant he got to celebrate the historic 3-pointer for a year.
Lil Jarrod was born a year later.
Just how much can change in 27 years?
Bob Huggins, then the coach at Cincinnati, and on the wrong end of history that day, ended up becoming WVU's coach in 2007.
The college town of Boise went from being known as a host of NCAA tournament hoops games to becoming a college football Cinderella powerhouse.
And West went from being a famous buzzer beater in college to becoming one heck of a high school coach in West Virginia.
Which is where Lil Jarrod comes into the picture.
Notre Dame defeated Ravenswood 63-55 to win that 2017 Class A state title in Charleston.
Lil Jarrod was more than just the star of the team, he had developed into one of the state's top high school basketball products.
Yet WVU, then coached by Huggins, showed very little interest in recruiting the younger West out of high school.
'Just to be completely honest, there's no friction between me and Huggs at all,' coach West said. 'I've been over to his house. He'd always introduce me as the guy who beat him and we would laugh and tell that story.
'There is also a part of me that had a tough time in dealing with WVU not wanting to recruit Lil Jarrod out of high school. That just didn't sit well with me. It hurt Jarrod, too.'
Lil Jarrod instead went to Marshall — WVU's in-state rival — where he became a four-year starter who scored 1,204 points for the Thundering Herd.
When the COVID-19 pandemic hit and college athletes were granted a fifth year of eligibility, the younger West played his final season at Louisville.
'It wasn't until that transfer year that WVU recruited him,' coach West said. 'He ended up at Louisville, which was a different experience for him.
'He never got to wear that WVU jersey, though, and that's just life.'
The thought of the younger West playing in the TBT for Best Virginia almost never happened.
It wasn't until Erik Stevenson got a call up from the Miami Heat to play in the NBA Summer League that the idea was even entertained. The younger Jarrod West (right) played four years at Marshall and one year at Louisville. He scored 1,400 career points and connected on 254 career 3-pointers. (AP Photo)
After all, Lil Jarrod is a Marshall guy and Marshall has its own alumni team, Herd That, playing in the same region.
If both teams win their first-round games, the two teams will meet in the second round on Sunday.
'The funny thing is, when I called him, he was in Huntington,' coach West said. 'He was working out with Jon Elmore and all of guys at Marshall.'
The obvious connection is the elder West is a WVU hero, and this would be maybe one final chance to coach his son.
'It does create an elephant in the room if we end up playing Marshall's team,' coach West said. 'I'm sure it will feel a little weird for him, because Jarrod truly loves his Marshall family.'
And so, we get back to that day of practice when Lil Jarrod stared at the gold and blue jersey.
Now a part of Best Virginia, no, it isn't exactly the same as being a Mountaineer, but …
'I don't want to speak for my son, but there's probably some sense of justification for him,' coach West said. 'It probably feels good for him to finally be associated with the school I went to. It probably feels a little weird for him. There's a lot of layers to it.'