Bellwether Hog
Senior raises play, bears leadership
FAYETTEVILLE — Jabril Durham wanted to ensure he’d heard the stat accurately about fellow Arkansas senior guard Anthlon Bell.
“You kind of wowed me when you said, ‘47 percent from the three-point,’ ” Durham said. “Is that what you said? “Man, that’s crazy.” Bell has been crazy good for the Razorbacks in a lot of areas this season, but especially from behind the 20-foot, 9-inch three-point arc.
Going into today’s Arkansas-Kentucky game at Walton Arena, Bell is shooting 47.4 percent (55 of 116) on three-pointers and averaging a team-high 17.1 points per game. He’s been even better in SEC play, shooting 55.3 percent (21 of 38) from three-point range and averaging 19.6 points.
Those are quantum leaps for a player who came into this season as a career 33.6 percent three-point shooter averaging 6.6 points. Last season, Bell hit 35.1 percent of his three-pointers and averaged 7.9 points.
“The thing I’m real happy about with Anthlon is he’s playing like a senior should play,” Arkansas Coach Mike Anderson said. “He’s playing with a sense of urgency.”
Before this season, Bell had some breakout scoring games, but he couldn’t string strong performances together.
“Early on he was just one of those streak shooters,” Anderson said. “He might miss four in a row, and then he might make five in a row.”
As a freshman, Bell scored 17 points against Georgia, but there were 23 games he scored three or fewer points. As a sophomore, he scored 19 points at Mississippi State, 23 against Ole Miss and a career-high 28 against Indiana State in the NIT, but he had 16 games of three or fewer points.
Bell opened last season with 20 points against Alabama State and the next game scored three against Wake Forest. He had 20 points against Iona and 17 at South Carolina, but there were 12 games of four or fewer points, including six where he was scoreless.
This season, Bell has scored 12 or more points in 16 of 17 games — Dayton held him to 5 — including 26 against Vanderbilt, 25 against Mississippi State and 19 at LSU.
“He’s been an incredible shooter,” LSU Coach Johnny Jones said. “He’s one of those
guys that if he gets a good look, you can almost count it.
“You can get after him and try to defend him hard, but you can’t speed him up. He plays at his own pace.”
In Arkansas’ 90-85 overtime victory against Vanderbilt, Bell hit 9 of 18 shots, including 6 of 10 three-pointers.
“You can’t let him shoot standstill jump shots,” Commodores Coach Kevin Stallings said. “You’ve got to try to make him put it on the floor, but he’s even better at doing that this year than he has been in other years.
“He’s what you hope for when you’re coaching. I’m sure Mike’s really excited about the progress that kid’s made in their program. You want your seniors to have the best year of their careers, and it certainly seems like he’s doing that.”
Bell credits his improved shooting to extra work in the gym in the offseason and after practice, playing more minutes, and understanding his role for the team had to increase after the loss of four of the top five scorers from last season: SEC Player of the Year Bobby Portis, Michael Qualls, Ky Madden and Alandise Harris.
“I know the team’s depending on me,” Bell said. “I’m one of the older, more experienced guys.
“I just want to do everything I can to help us win.”
Bell is the Razorbacks’ most experienced player with 114 games played, including 45 starts, which cover 1,942 minutes.
“It’s a big difference-maker, having a guy that’s been through this stuff,” Kentucky Coach John Calipari said.
Bell’s 2.9 rebounds per game are more than double his 1.2 average of last season. He’s fourth on the team with 21 assists but only seventh in turnovers with 16. He’s shooting 78.8 percent from the free-throw line (26 of 33) and has 10 steals. He already has four blocked shots, matching last season’s career-high.
“I think a lot of things have come together for him,” Anderson said. “He’s playing efficient basketball.
“Defensively, he’s not a liability anymore. He used to be a liability.” How much so? “When he was a freshman, he couldn’t guard a telegraph post,” Anderson said. “He couldn’t guard nobody, man.”
Anderson said time on
the bench motivated Bell to gradually improve defensively. Maturing in the program helped, too.
“You think about guys in high school, they mostly work on offense,” Anderson said. “They don’t want to work on defense. The defense we play, it’s total commitment.”
Bell said he’s learned that if he wants to play significant minutes, defense has to be a focus. He’s also realized good defense can help create easier scoring opportunities in transition.
Knowing how games are going to be called by the officials is important, he said, as well as being ready to play physical defense.
“Just having that want-to to go out there saying, ‘This guy is not going to score,’ ” Bell said. “It’s just more of a mind-set really.”
Bell is averaging a career-best 3.2 three-point baskets per game, but more of his scoring is resulting from twopoint baskets. The previous three seasons, 33.3 percent of his baskets were two-pointers compared with 47.6 percent this season, thanks to an increase in midrange jump shots.
“What I like most about him this year is that he’s creating
more off the dribble,” Durham said. “He’s not taking the rushed shot. He’s waiting for it to come.”
Anderson said Bell’s shooting philosophy used to be “just let it fly” if he was open.
“Now he’s getting in position where he’s taking the right kind of shots,” Anderson said. “A lot of times he used to quick-shoot the ball — ‘I’m open, I better shoot it.’
“He’s a little bit more savvy with the shooting, the selection. He’s not just settling for three-point shots.
“I really feel he’s become more than just a shooter. That to me is a culmination of a guy progressing and developing.”
Bell said he’s committed to playing his hardest every possession on offense and defense.
“I know if I put the work in good things will come out of it,” he said. “So I’ve stuck with it.”