Marshall University Athletics
MCGILL: Jarrod West's legacy will last on and off the court
3/24/2021 11:36:00 AM | Men's Basketball, Big Green Scholarship Foundation, Word on the Herd, Buck Harless Student Athlete Program
Marshall senior leaves as the program's all-time steals leader
By Chuck McGill
HerdZone.com
HUNTINGTON, W.Va. – If Jarrod West's legacy were only about the numbers he left behind after a four-year men's basketball career at Marshall University, he would be one of the best to ever suit up for the Thundering Herd.
It is well known that West is the all-time steals leader, but his all-around statistics put him in rare company in college basketball over the past three decades. Since the 1992-93 season, only 22 players have reached these career totals:
Points: 1,200
Assists: 400
Steals: 250
3-pointers: 200
West, who is tied for No. 5 in school history with 126 games played, wrapped up his Herd career with 1,204 points, 424 assists, 254 steals and 202 three-pointers. Among the names of the other 21 college basketball players in the past 30 years who were able to reach each of those career numbers:
Troy Bell (Boston College), Kerry Kittles (Villanova), Gerry McNamara (Syracuse), Jameer Nelson (Saint Joseph's), D.J. Cooper (Ohio), Eddie House (Arizona State), Shabazz Napier (UConn), Jevon Carter (West Virginia) and Brandin Knight (Pittsburgh).
West ended his senior season in similar fashion. He scored 262 points, adding 126 assists and 52 steals while shooting 40.8 percent from 3-point range. Do you know how many other players in men's college basketball scored at least 250 points with a minimum of 125 assists and 50 steals while making more than 40 percent of their 3s during the 2020-21 season?
Only three – and all were Big 12 all-conference players. Baylor's dynamic duo – Jared Butler and Davion Mitchell – each accomplished the feat, as well as WVU's Miles McBride.
But the records and the short lists West has wiggled his way onto are only part of his story here.
He epitomized what Marshall Athletics is about. Perhaps he is a bit undersized, but he is going to do more with less. Maybe some think less of him because he is from West Virginia, but he is going to work to prove naysayers wrong. If nothing else, West was going to put his team before self and compete relentlessly. The aforementioned numbers tell the story of a student-athlete who made a difference, but most times, West's contributions to the game – or an outcome – didn't show up in a box score.
His value to the program on the court pales in comparison to who West was away from the game.
West is impossibly polite and pleasant. In pre-pandemic times, he never failed to greet you with a handshake. Sir or ma'am was commonplace. He was never without a smile.
West dazzled in the classroom and was a multi-time honoree by Conference USA on the league's all-academic team. He was an all-conference player, but an all-world human being.
On the court, West embraced the "bulldog mentality." He knew what he had to be – and who he had to be – to succeed at Division I basketball and to help his team win games. Everyone fed off his emotion.
Need an example? In Marshall's first round upset of Wichita State in the NCAA tournament – the program's first NCAA berth in three decades and first tournament win ever – West drained a 3-pointer 68 seconds into the game to give Marshall a 3-0 lead in front of a nationally televised audience. The millions of college basketball fans across the country who root for upsets in the big bracket every year went wild. And the Herd, as a 13 seed, ultimately delivered.
West had four steals in that game. The eventual record-holder showed us he was going to put a firm grip on that all-time mark that day in San Diego, California. College basketball was put on notice.
Before West took that school mark from Skip Henderson, I asked Dan D'Antoni about West and what makes him special. D'Antoni took the time to list all of West's attributes, talked about West's father, who himself is a former college basketball star and now a high school head coach, and mentioned how important young Jarrod's mentality was to his game.
But the first words out of D'Antoni's mouth were these: "Obviously, he has big heart."
Jarrod West does have that. He has it for the school that gave him a shot at Division I basketball. He has it for his family. He has it for his basketball brothers. He has it for every person who helped him along the way.
And he'll have it at the next place he plays college basketball.
Someday, he might have it as the head men's basketball coach at Marshall University. No matter what he accomplishes, and there's no doubt it will be special, he'll do it as a Son of Marshall.
Chuck McGill is the Assistant Athletic Director for Fan/Donor Engagement and Communications at Marshall University and a nine-time winner of the National Sports Media Association West Virginia Sportswriter of the Year award. In addition to HerdZone.com's Word on the Herd, McGill is the editor of Thundering Herd Illustrated, Marshall's official athletics publication. Follow him on Twitter (@chuckmcgill) and Instagram (wordontheherd).
