It’s the one where she cheered the Launceston Tornadoes home for years.

This time the 20-year-old is not sitting on the sidelines of Elphin Sports Centre.

In the pursuit to practice her burgeoning craft, West instead cuts a lonely figure around its empty courts.

There she is surrounded only by the echoes of the bouncing ball, it slamming off the backboard and the swish sound of the hoop.

That sort of solitude is just another world away from inside the noisy US college arenas – at times, upwards of nearly 10,000 fans – that would make WNBL tin-pot venues hush and stay silent.

“They can get pretty insane,” West recalls playing in front of her biggest crowd one night in New Mexico.

“When it’s all against you, it’s actually quite daunting.

“But it’s still phenomenal to play against that many people that are so much into the game and supporting women’s basketball.”

It’s an existence West now lives, breathes and eats on the campus of Utah State, evident from the strange, new twang in her voice.

That has developed slowly over the past two years from adapting to the accents of her Aggies teammates.

That’s not entirely correct.

Among the 11 Americans that smother her at practice every day, West gets a break from rooming with three other Australians on team.

When Shannon Dufficy, Rachel Brewster and Eliza West – no relation – sort of met the former St Patrick’s College student when she finished schooling over the Bass Strait, a basketball scholarship opened up to join the Melbourne trio.

“We kind of clicked really well being all Australians,” West says, “but I guess we feel we have real cultural connections ... yeah, like Tim Tams and that.”

They keep each other grounded among the hype of living in Logan, which is half the size of Launceston, but has a college campus that would dwarf any of the University of Tasmania’s.

It’s about a 90-minute drive from Salt Lake City.

That’s just far enough to ensure that Aggies – whether it’s women’s basketball, the men’s or just the football side that play in a stadium half the size of the city itself – are the local big-ticket item.

But after another NCAA division I season comes to an end, West’s charges found they fell on hard times.

They spluttered their way to an 7-23 win/loss record.

Hardly a set of numbers to remember. She doesn’t.

Not like the upbeat 20-11 in West’s first year, as old campaigners graduate from the university as young hopefuls find their feet.

“Personally, I had an up-and-down season,” she readily admits of this year.

“I started really strong and then our team had a rough season.

“We didn’t really find any consistency and that affected me as a player.”

The determined tone suggests West is not licked.

Those incessant shots at Elphin will not be in vain.

There is a reason for that.

“The work ethic,” West says in three words.

“That’s the thing I’ve learned the most.

“We don’t realise how much work they put in over there in the US.

“We practice, in season, three hours a day, every day.

“Every single day.”

That’s not just running plays and shooting hoops.

Walk throughs, weight sessions, film analysis, the whole lot is just par for the course there for West.

It’s only what WNBL stars, let alone the Tornadoes roster, could only imagine.

So that’s why a holiday back home to visit loved ones in Launceston isn’t quite your usual break.

“In the offseason, everyone is trying to do as much as possible for the next season,” West adds.

“I feel like that was the main shock for me.

“I thought I was working hard, but I wasn’t working as hard as some other people.”

All of this and the very reason why West is playing basketball in the collegiate system: an education.

The sophomore that has changed her classes from dietetics to physiotherapy loves life on campus.

“We are student athletes, so we have college to attend, but we can walk from class to the stadium and go and shoot, and then go back to class,” West says.

“They constantly plan our workouts around our classes by making sure we’re just set up for success.”

Every player is assigned an academic advisor that conducts weekly meetings as part of the terms of their sporting scholarship.

West reckons classes are certainly “not as full on” as universities in Australia, but tutors are just as available.

The free education with not a HECS debt in sight sounds too good to be true.

“Don’t get me wrong – my classes are still hard, but I feel like there is a lot more flexibility for the fact that we’re athletes,” West says.

“Because we’re playing basketball for the school, they’re also pretty lenient.

“We still have more rules though and have to keep a certain grade or else we’ll get kicked off the team.”

For West, the future could just about hold anything.

WNBL next? Or Europe? Possibly even the WNBA?

Recognised as Utah State’s athlete of the week – one of hundreds that play – in December initially showed her career was on the rise, with two years left at varsity.

But 12.3 points per game, the only player to reach such tough double-figure averages, according to utahstateaggies.com, right through to March when three Australians made the top four, point to good signs.

West can feel that her success proves a kid from Launceston can make it on the big-time college scene.

“I definitely think it’s been a good opportunity if it’s right for you,” she says.

“It’s a big thing to move over to America, being on your own from your family.

“But if we stay in Australia, you can play SEABL until you work up to WNBL, so we also have good pathways.”