Rising Star: Troy Bell

Basketball Digest, May, 2001 by Brian Koonz

AS A HIGH SCHOOL SENIOR IN Minneapolis, Boston College guard Troy Bell was an enigma in sneakers. Sure, he averaged 35.9 points to lead the state in scoring, but outside of Minnesota, who had ever heard of him? Not many, including Boston College coach Al Skinner.

Bell was the poor man's Khalid El-Amin. But unlike El-Amin, a huge high-school star from Minneapolis, Bell wasn't even a top 200 recruit when Skinner signed him.

"When I saw him, I liked him, and I felt he was someone who could help us," Skinner recalls. "I really don't pay too much attention to high school rankings and stuff like that."

Good thing for the Eagles.

These days, Bell is one of the best point guards in college basketball. The 6'1" sophomore was named Co-Big East Player of the Year after leading Boston College to a 26-4 record during the regular season and a No. 3 seed in the NCAA Tournament.

"I was a player that got overlooked, that's all," says Bell, 20. "I have talent and I believe in myself. I just used it as motivation to get better and make my team better."

Although Bell was named Big East Rookie of the Year last season, Boston College finished dead last at 3-13. This season, the Eagles were 13-3 and scripted the biggest turnaround in league history. In the regular season, Bell led Boston College with 20.1 points. 4.2 assists, and 2.7 steals.

"Troy's award came about because the guys around him had gotten better," Skinner says. "It allowed him to do the things he does best; his assist-to-turnover ratio has gotten better, his defense has gotten better. All those things got better."

But Bell sees room for improvement in his game, admitting, "I'm not thinking the NBA at this point."

Bell and Notre Dame junior Troy Murphy are the only players in Big East history to go from Big East Rookie of the Year to Big East Player of the Year the following season. Maybe they're not Patrick Ewing and Chris Mullin, who shared Big East Player of the Year honors twice in 1984 and 1985. But they're the closest thing the league has seen in 15 years.

The Big East can thank an enigma in sneakers.