GLENDALE — Before Jordan Bell became college basketball’s hottest meme, before reporters crammed into his locker room stall to ask which celebrity he wants to dance with or what rap song his game resembles, the Oregon center began a long road to the Phoenix Final Four … in Phoenix.
Tempe, actually. In the fall of 2013, the athletic big man from Long Beach Poly High School showed up near the ASU campus, hanging out with friends, working on his game and attending parties.
Everything about the college experience, except the college.
Bell couldn’t get cleared to enroll at his school of choice, Oregon, due to a test score issue. But he didn’t enroll in a prep school or show up at Oregon anyway, not wanting to deal with people in Long Beach or Eugene who wondered why he wasn’t playing.
“It was students who went to Poly with me — I hung out with them, went to college parties and went to the rec,” Bell said. “I felt so bad going to high school and not being in (college) yet, so I just hung out with them.
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“I had to get away from people asking me questions and just be able to do my own thing.”
He was basically a free agent at that point. Bell could have enrolled in a prep school or a junior college and eventually turned elsewhere for a four-year school. But Oregon coach Dana Altman said he was never fearful Bell wouldn’t show up.
“He had to get some NCAA requirements,” Altman said, without detailing it further. “We knew he was trying to get everything put together so that he could join our program.”
Bell said he didn’t waver, either. He said he didn’t even play with or talk to ASU players or coaches while he was around.
“Oregon was the school I was going to,” Bell said. “I just had to wait for some NCAA stuff to pass by and it finally did. It was test score, I guess, something came up, so I had to wait for all that stuff to pass. Once I got it, I was still committed to Oregon and nothing changed my mind.”
Bell was finally cleared in December 2013, though he didn’t begin playing until 2014-15. That made the 2013-14 season effectively a grayshirt year, meaning he’s still only a junior at age 22 and can play next season, too.
If he wants to, that is. Draft Express projects Bell as the No. 37 pick in the 2017 NBA draft, having impressed scouts while becoming the Pac-12 defensive player of the year this season and exploding in the NCAA Tournament without fellow shot-blocker Chris Boucher.
The stats say it all, really: Bell has grabbed 12 or more rebounds in all four Oregon NCAA Tournament games and he set a new school record for blocks in an NCAA Tournament game with eight against Kansas last weekend in the Elite Eight.
Bell actually nearly recorded a triple-double in that shocker in Kansas City, getting 11 points, 13 rebounds and the eight blocks. That effort, on top of 16 points and 13 rebounds against Michigan in the Sweet 16, earned him the Midwest Regional’s MVP award.
And a bunch of admirers in the social media sphere. You can do a search for #thingsjordanbellcouldblock, or go straight to the Twitter handle known as @bellcouldblock to see all the latest memes where he’s inserted into scenes in full block mode.
There are doctored photos of Bell blocking Donald Trump’s hair from blowing away, blocking a girlfriend from reading her boyfriend’s cellphone messages, keeping a salmon from a bear’s mouth and even shielding the Hunny Pot from Winnie the Pooh.
Bell has a favorite, too.
“LaVar Ball is with a microphone, but I’m blocking him from talking,” Bell said, chuckling, referring to the outspoken father of former UCLA star Lonzo Ball.
Oregon coach Dana Altman said Bell has showed him a few of them.
“I’m sure he’s excited about it,” Altman said. “Social media, those guys like it, and he’s pretty excited about it. So I hope he can get a few on Saturday.”
Odds are pretty good he will. Even though North Carolina will challenge him with size inside Saturday, the Tar Heels know it won’t be easy.
UNC’s Theo Pinson said it should help that the ACC threw a bunch of shot-blockers in front of the Tar Heels this season, but said he remembered how Bell changed games with his shot-blocking ways even in high school.
Then, after teammate Justin Jackson offered some strategies about pump-fakes, drop-offs and times “when you just gotta go straight into his chest,” he mentioned a more practical idea.
“It will be key to get him in foul trouble,” Jackson said.
That’s not as easy as it sounds. Bell’s athleticism and precise timing keep him in front of shots and out of trouble with officials. He only fouled out once all season and, even while averaging 31.2 minutes since Boucher was lost, Bell has never picked up more than one foul a game.
That Bell has been able to go on a foul-free tear throughout the tournament so far can be traced back to the Ducks’ 83-80 loss to Arizona in the Pac-12 tournament semifinal, their first without Boucher.
Altman said finding out earlier that day that Boucher was gone for the season was “stunning,” and that the Ducks had trouble defending the paint against the Wildcats that evening.
But in the long run, it proved to be a good thing. Bell said the loss helped the Ducks realize what they needed to do without Boucher, not only the obvious stuff like getting more from Bell and reserve big man Kavell Bigby-Williams, but also to get more production and concentration from the guards.
“The guards knew they couldn’t get beat (defensively) as much because if I get in foul trouble, there’s not gonna be as much help without Chris around,” Bell said. “So everybody is just trying to do the little things, keeping guys in front of them and not putting me in a difficult situation.”
But there’s no doubt that Bell’s instincts and timing are the biggest factors. He’s been working on that for years, since he was a defensive end for Poly’s perennial powerhouse football team.
Because of that experience, Bell was never one of those offensive-minded high school stars who had to be prodded into defense.
“Defending is something you have to want to do,” Bell said. “Everybody works on their offense, but coming with a mindset of just defending, that helped me a lot.”
That’s the mindset, and the physicality. The other part of Bell’s development is impeccable timing.
That didn’t just come from the court, or even the football field.
Instead, the living room.
“Guitar Hero, the video game,” Bell said. “I think that helped me out with my timing. You gotta strum at the right time. After a while, I was getting perfect on every game.”
Because he’s been just about perfect in every NCAA Tournament game so far this season, Bell is back in the Phoenix area again. Under a circumstance that looked all but impossible nearly four years ago.
