How Xavier Bell shook off shooting slump to stay ready in Wichita State basketball win
The hometown kid who grew up dreaming of playing for the Shockers was scoring clutch baskets and helping the Wichita State men’s basketball team rally for a victory.
This was the script Xavier Bell imagined time and time again, and last Saturday he was living out his dream. He scored 10 second-half points to help WSU register the largest home comeback win in program history in a 73-69 victory over Tulsa.
But performances like that one have been a rarity in Bell’s first season at Wichita State, which continues Thursday with a 6 p.m. road game at Memphis broadcast on ESPNU.
“It’s real frustrating and it can eat at your confidence if you let it,” Bell said. “You’ve just got to keep going. Shots are not always going to fall, and I know I am struggling right now. But at the same time, we’re winning and that’s the biggest thing. I just want to help my team however I can to get the win.”
After an all-state career at Andover Central, Bell found immediate success in college as a starter on Drexel’s 2021 NCAA Tournament team during his true freshman season. Last year, Bell led Drexel in scoring with his 11.0 scoring average on 49.2% shooting.
Transferring up a level, like Bell did in joining the American Athletic Conference, it’s not unusual for a player to see their scoring average decline. But Bell has seen his scoring output and efficiency drop, as he is averaging 4.3 points and shooting 32.5% from the field this season at WSU.
While 17 games is enough to officially call it a slump, WSU is just past the midpoint in its season, giving Bell enough time to turn around his season.
“We always tell him, ‘They’re going to fall, they’re going to fall,’” WSU point guard Craig Porter said. “He’s going to be good. I don’t know when they’re going to fall, but I know they’re going to fall because he works his butt off every day in practice and he puts the work in.”
There are other ways to impact winning without shots falling, like playing dependable defense, setting good screens, cutting hard and being reliable with the basketball. But so much of Bell’s job description depends on him knocking down jump shots, which is why his playing time has been up and down throughout the season.
Bell made 38% of his three-pointers in 48 career games at Drexel, but he is off to a 7-for-41 start (17%) beyond the arc at WSU. He is scoring just 0.33 points per possession and making 17% of his open catch-and-shoot jump shots this season, according to Synergy, after scoring 1.07 points per possession and making 53% of those same looks at Drexel last season.
So what do you do when the same shots you’ve made your entire career simply aren’t falling all of a sudden?
“I’ve just got to keep going,” Bell said. “Not every shot is going to fall, not every one is going to go in, but I’m still going to get opportunities and take more shots. So getting in the gym late at night by myself and getting up extra shots after practice, whatever it takes, I want to make sure that when those opportunities do come, I stay ready.”
Bell’s preparation was rewarded in last Saturday’s game.
He didn’t play a single minute in the first half against Tulsa, but Bell was ready to make an impact when WSU head coach Isaac Brown turned to him with the Shockers down by double-digits early in the second half.
Like many of WSU’s first-year transfers, there have been times this season when Bell has looked unsure of himself. It shouldn’t be a surprise: Bell is trying to adjust from being his team’s leading scorer to playing a different role entirely at WSU.
But against Tulsa, in those 15 minutes, Bell looked like himself again: smooth, confident and decisive. He went back to his bread-and-butter, a probing drive finished with a left-handed push shot to earn a three-point play and then a three-pointer that swirled in from the wing — all in less than 30 seconds.
“We always tell those guys to trust the process and it doesn’t matter if you played in the first half or not, you’ve got to be ready to go when your number is called,” Brown said. “X is a high-character kid that went out and did the right things on the floor. He was big for us. If he doesn’t come in that game and make those big plays, we don’t win that basketball game. I’m just so happy for X. Every day he comes to practice with a great attitude and he practices hard and does the little things right, on and off the floor.”
Bell hopes his second-half performance against Tulsa will be a breakthrough moment for him as a Shocker.
While his outside shots haven’t fallen, Bell did display the one thing that has been working for him against Tulsa: attacking the basket. He is scoring 1.39 points per possession and making 65% of his shots at the rim this season, per Synergy, a superb mark for a 6-foot-3 guard.
Regardless of if he makes his eighth start of the season on Thursday or if he doesn’t play until the second half again, Bell said he will be ready whenever WSU needs him.
“Whether your number is called early in the second half or with two minutes left, it doesn’t matter,” Bell said. “Coach tells us every day to come prepared because you never know who’s night it’s going to be. So I’ve got to stay ready.”
This story was originally published January 17, 2023 at 6:00 AM.
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