Bubba Wells

Sporting News, The, Nov 25, 1996 by Anna M. Jones

Defining Bubba Wells in the realm of basketball takes some work. And lately, so does stopping him.

A 6-5, 225-pound, bald country boy, Wells can make himself at home just about anywhere on the court. Back to the basket double-teamed, no problem. Roaming the perimeter, taking the 3-point shot or finding the open man, again no problem.

So, is he a center in a wing's body or vice versa?

"I'm a small forward, a small power forward," Wells says.

And therein explains why Austin Peay senior Bubba Wells is the nation's leading returning scorer.

"He can score in so many different ways," Governors coach. Dave Loos says. "He can post you up, he can shoot the 3,he can drive the ball to the basket, he has a good right hand and a very good left hand, he makes his free throws, he's a real athletic guy.... The amazing thing about his game last year was that he never took bad shots.

"And his game has definitely stepped up since then."

Slowly, Wells, who should have missed the first half of last season after a pin was inserted in his leg, is making a name for himself and catching the attention of NBA scouts.

He already has led the small Tennessee university to its first NCAA Tournament appearance since 1987 and won hearts over with his colorful style of fist-pumping, arm waving celebrations and cackle of a laugh. This is the same Wells who used to be so moody he wouldn't always talk to reporters. Now he's on his way to becoming the school's first 2,000-point scorer.

Once one of the shortest and fastest kids in Russellville, Ky., Wells grew up a football and baseball junkie before stumbling into a growth spurt that left him too skinny for football and eventually led him to the basketball court.

By the time Loos saw him, Wells was "a man against boys" on the high school court. But that manhood wasn't as overwhelming in the low posts of the college ranks.

But just as he started to blossom, he went down with a stress fracture in the first half]f of the Ohio Valley Conference championship game in his sophomore season. The fracture was a repeat of an injury that led him to redshirt his first season.

A steel rod was inserted in his lower right leg the next week, and Wells was ready to go by September, three months before his scheduled return.

Already a package of strength, speed and leaping ability, Wells averaged 26.3 points a game last season--the first Austin Peay player in nine years to average more than 20 a game--and shot 54.9 percent from the field. He also averaged 7.3 rebounds, produced 44 blocked shots and 46 steals, and made 43.6 percent of his 3-point attempts. But one of his his favorite numbers was his assists--he averaged 2.9 a game.

"A lot of people think I'm just a scorer, but I was also second on the team in assists,') says Wells, who could still use some work on his defensive consistency and ballhandling. "Sometimes, Coach gets after me for trying to make that extra pass."

Among his 78 assists last season one in particular implanted itself in the memory of Loos. It was one of seven Wells had against Georgia Tech in the first round of the NCAA Tournament. "Bubba caught a pass in the post and it looked like he was going to shoot a turn-around jumper to the left," Loos says, "but instead he backhanded a pass to (guard) Colby Pierce. To this day, I have no idea how he knew he was there. If any one thing epitomizes Bubba, it would be that play that shows how far he has brought his game along."

Since then, Wells has done the camp circuit, helping at the Nike All American camp with Wake Forest's Tim Duncan and other key players in college basketball and working a Portland Trail Blazers camp while focusing on his outside game.

"I had no idea I'd step in and achieve what I achieved last year," says Wells, who will get his degree in criminal justice this spring and plans to go into law enforcement. "I just worked hard and was blessed to come back as early as I did.

"I hope it's not hard at all to repeat."