Ross Hodge Explains Why Amir Jenkins Will Not Play in The Crown

West Virginia freshman guard Amir Jenkins will not be playing in next week's College Basketball Crown as he is set to undergo surgery on a pair of torn labrums in his shoulder, according to WVU head coach Ross Hodge.

During a guest appearance on 3 Guys Before the Game, Hodge went into great detail about Jenkins' injuries, and the story he tells will gain a lot of respect from Mountaineer fans.

“Amir won’t be able to play with us in The Crown. It’s kind of one of those stories you don’t talk much about during the season because you don’t want to put a bulls-eye on it or anything, but when you take a step back and especially in the era we’re in now and we’ve talked a lot about it, to have a player of his caliber…he played with a torn labrum in his left shoulder the entire year. And not one time made an excuse. He could’ve easily shut it down, but never complained. It hindered him. It hindered his shooting ability. It hindered his free-throw shooting — you can’t lift your arms. But he loved his teammates so much, and he’s about as throwback as a player that you could run across in the era of college basketball. Yeah, there was games that it would get out of there and they’d pop t right back in, and you wouldn’t even know.

"And probably the craziest part of the story is we knew about the left shoulder…so we’re at TCU, and he reaches in with his right shoulder and kind of subflexes it…it didn’t dislocate it, but just jarred it pretty good. We knew we were going to have to get the left one taken care of, and after we got back from the conference tournament, we went ahead and had the MRI just to see what else was going on, and they were like, 'Why don’t we go ahead and MRI the right shoulder?' And sure enough, he had a torn labrum in his right shoulder. So he played through two labrum injuries and never said a word, never complained about it, never used it as an excuse, never allowed it to frustrate him.”

Talk about one tough dude...

Feb 5, 2026; Cincinnati, Ohio, USA; West Virginia Mountaineers guard Amir Jenkins (2) and forward Brenen Lorient (0) celebrate after their team’s win against the Cincinnati Bearcats at Fifth Third Arena. Mandatory Credit: Aaron Doster-Imagn Images | Aaron Doster-Imagn Images

For Jenkins to play through one shoulder injury is one thing, but to play the tail end of the season with two bad shoulders is unheard of. Most promising young players like Jenkins would have shut it down and maybe even had thoughts of sitting out the entire year to protect their eligibility and future NIL value. He powered through it and showed signs of being a quality player in this league, particularly on the defensive end where he wasn't impacted maybe nearly as much.

Amir's offensive impact was minimal this season, and there were many times when he would pass up open looks or hesitate to go to the rim. Now we know why. It wasn't for a lack of confidence in his ability, but more so a lack of confidence in his health. He shot just 38% from the floor, 30% from three, and 52% from the free-throw line. You'd have to assume that if it weren't for the injury, those percentages would be much higher.

Jenkins is, without a doubt, a key piece of this rebuild.