Jake West

Jake West (born May 17, 2006) is an American college basketball player who plays for the Northwestern Wildcats of the Big Ten Conference (B1G) and is a social media influencer. He was voted as the 2025 Mr. Pennsylvania Basketball and invited to be a Ballislife All-American Game participant. He joined TikTok in 2021 and has had over 1 million followers on the platform since 2023.

He became a starter for Northwestern midway through his freshman season. His collegiate highlights include setting the school freshman single-game assists record (13) and tieing the school freshman single-game Big Ten Tournament points record (18). He also established the school freshman single-postseason Big Ten Tournament assists record (10).

Early life Jake West was born to Shannon and Matt West and has a brother named Luke who is four years his junior. He had accumulated over a million followers on TikTok by August 2023. In February 2024, despite losing its first two league games of the season, Penn Charter became the first team to win the Inter-Academic League (of the Pennsylvania Independent Schools Athletic Association, AKA PAISAA) Championship with three losses since 1969 with West leading the team with 22 points in the championship game against.Episcopal Academy. West was a 2024 non-PIAA 2nd team All-state selection.

Northwestern's recruiting interest in West ebbed and flowed during the summer of 2024, but they visited him in September 2024. West visited Northwestern on October 4 and 5. Head coach Chris Collins and assistant coach Bryant McIntosh returned the visit on October 9 to collect his commitment, and he publicly announce his verbal commitment on October 15, 2024. Two weeks later, he was the sixth best recruit in Pennsylvania and had 1.5 million TikTok followers.

West led Penn Charter to an undefeated (10–0) 2024–25 Inter-Academic League record and was named the league MVP. He then won the 2025 Mr. Pennsylvania Basketball. West was a Pennsylvania Sports Writers 2025 All-State selection for non-PIAA schools, but their non-PIAA player of the year was K.J. Cochran. Kevair Kennedy was the 2024-25 Pennsylvania MaxPreps Player of the Year. , while Jordan Ellerbee was the 2024-25 Pennsylvania Gatorade Player of the Year. West was a participant in the 2025 Ballislife All-American Game, and as an athlete with a social media following, he was approached with an NIL deal by Passes Inc..

College career

West began his career at Northwestern playing 16 games off the bench, and he averaged 2.8 points and 1.8 assists. He moved into the starting lineup on January 14, 2026, against number 13-ranked Illinois. The two previous freshman to start for Northwestern at point guard had been Boo Buie and McIntosh. Through his first 12 career starts, he held the highest assists:turnover ratio in school history (3.16). He started in his final 17 appearances for Northwestern, averaging 7.4 points and 3.9 assists with a 36.8% three point field goal percentage in those games. In his fifth career start (against Penn State on January 29) he posted 13 assists. West is the fourth Wildcat to achieve 13 single-game assists. He averaged more points each successive month of the season. West's 2.8 assists ranked 4th among 2025–26 Big Ten freshmen and was the most by a Northwestern freshman since McIntosh (4.7) for the 2014–15 Wildcats. Jayden Reid, who had been the primary point guard with 5.0 assists per game, transferred to Memphis via the portal. Accounting for players out of eligibility, this left Northwestern with 3 holdovers who did not enter the transfer portal, including West who is considered a cornerstone of the program. Tariq Francis scored 30 points off the bench in a 77–75 overtime loss. Bennett Stirtz took advantage of West for a career-high 36 points.

During the 2026 Big Ten tournament, West tied his career high with 18 points to help Northwestern defeat the 2025–26 Hoosiers and achieve its 7th consecutive victory against Indiana. His 14 first half points kept the halftime deficit to one point. The last time Northwestern had beaten Indiana 5 times in a row had been 1915. West's 18 points tied a school freshman Big Ten men's basketball tournament single-game record set by T. J. Parker in the 2003 Big Ten tournament. His single-postseason Big Ten tournament assist total of 10 was also a school freshman record, while his 28 single-postseason Big Ten tournament point total of 28 was second in school history among freshman.