Last year, they called him "Bubba" ... and a teammate.
This year, the WVU Tech men's basketball team calls Jaren Marino "coach."
The former three-year starter and two-year captain at Tech and ex-South Charleston High player went, in one offseason, from trusted player in head coach Bob Williams' system to new assistant coach on his staff. He's one of two former Tech players on the coaching staff, joining second-year assistant Nic Kjaerholt, who played for Williams from 2009-11 and served as a captain as well.
Having two young former players on the staff has plenty of advantages, even where there might be some growing pains in the transition.
One of the greatest benefits, Williams said, is having two assistants who are so well-versed in the system.
"It's tremendous," he said. "There'll be times where you need more than one set of eyes out there, because so much is happening. The more sets of eyes we have out there, the more we catch. It really is a benefit to have guys that kind of think like me with the same system."
Kjaerholt and Marino agree that their background as former Golden Bears players help maintain continuity. They may be young coaches helping guide Tech into Saturday's 4 p.m. season opener versus West Virginia State, but they understand how things work, how Williams thinks and what he expects.
Marino said it's been enlightening to now see college basketball from the perspective of the coaches' office rather than the locker room.
"It's been a different learning experience, a deeper learning of basketball," Marino said. "You get to learn why coaches do what they do, why they teach what they teach and why they emphasize the little things."
It's a learning experience for both sides. The players also have to get used to the sight of a former teammate directing them through drills rather than participating in them. The guy they used to joke around with in the locker room and away from the court is now the guy who might have to chastise them for a lack of focus.
Kjaerholt dealt with that at the start of his coaching career when he was a student coach for the Golden Bears for the 2011-12 season. He said that close connection to the roster actually worked to his advantage at points.
"A lot of times, for me, I used that very argument," Kjaerholt said, "that I was in your shoes not too long ago. I know what you're going through, so you've got to trust me when I say this to you. For the most part, that strategy worked. The guys I coached that I played with, they responded very well to me."
Marino is taking the same approach in his first coaching stint. He feels he identifies with the roster and that allows him to reach the players.
"I try to be kind of a player's coach," Marino said. "Since I'm such good friends with them and just finished playing with them, I can talk to them on a player-slash-coach level, so they can have a deeper understanding why I'm saying the things I am and that I'm trying to make them better."
Senior guard Eddie Gordon didn't just play alongside Marino at Tech. He graduated from South Charleston with Marino as well. Even with such a deep and long connection as a teammate, Gordon said Marino is doing well as a coach.
"He's been great," Gordon said. "He has a lot of experience and can help relate to the guys as a player instead of just from a coach's point of view. He's kind of the intermediary between the team and the coaches."
The Golden Bears would like to build off a season where they reached the NAIA Division I national tournament, even though they must replace their top four scorers from last year's team. Williams said the institutional knowledge that Kjaerholt and Marino bring to the coaching staff will be a big plus.
"It's been great having those guys," Williams said. "As you get older, you start to get some guys into coaching. Those two guys were special players to me. To have them on the staff is really nice."