Thomas Bell Is North Texas’ Most Important Player

Coach Andy Mac · January 31, 2022

In the 2021 CUSA title game, Thomas Bell took the bulk of the online criticism for his shooting.

By around the 11-minute mark North Texas looked gassed. Guys were slipping, passes were tipped, and shots were short or way off. Thomas Bell took the brunt of criticism, missing six threes over the span. From the 9:42 mark to the 4:42 mark he missed five of those six. NT kept grinding, running the offense, but nothing that was there over this tournament was working. The legs looked spent, and WKU was getting just a bit more confident.

But then he came up big.

read more: https://meangreennation.com/thomas-bell-is-north-texas-most-important-player/

Hunter Green · January 31, 2022

Hard to argue. TB3 is a beast!

Edited January 31, 2022 by Hunter Green

UNTLifer · January 31, 2022

Good article. I was critical of him early in the year which probably wasn't entirely fair. I think he has had to settle into his role and is now more comfortable. I still don't always love the isolation when he is backing his man down, but it has become much more effective. Perry gets noticed for hitting the winning shot, but there is no way we are in that position without Bell. I don't recall when he got his fourth foul, but I would guess he played at the least the final five minutes with four and you would never know it. Extremely smart player.

I don't recall the coach, maybe Stansbury, but he commented that Bell is a match up nightmare.

NorthTexasSportsNetwork · January 31, 2022

4 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Good article. I was critical of him early in the year which probably wasn't entirely fair. I think he has had to settle into his role and is now more comfortable. I still don't always love the isolation when he is backing his man down, but it has become much more effective. Perry gets noticed for hitting the winning shot, but there is no way we are in that position without Bell. I don't recall when he got his fourth foul, but I would guess he played at the least the final five minutes with four and you would never know it. Extremely smart player.

I don't recall the coach, maybe Stansbury, but he commented that Bell is a match up nightmare.

Stans and ODU coach, Jeff Jones. Bell is forming into the player we all expected in the beginning.

Having him be above Scott and I would say teach/show him what he needs to do, along with his amazing athleticism and energy, is something we should be really happy about.

Green Otaku · February 1, 2022

9 hours ago, UNTLifer said:

Good article. I was critical of him early in the year which probably wasn't entirely fair. I think he has had to settle into his role and is now more comfortable. I still don't always love the isolation when he is backing his man down, but it has become much more effective. Perry gets noticed for hitting the winning shot, but there is no way we are in that position without Bell. I don't recall when he got his fourth foul, but I would guess he played at the least the final five minutes with four and you would never know it. Extremely smart player.

I don't recall the coach, maybe Stansbury, but he commented that Bell is a match up nightmare.

I was there with you at the beginning of the year, but I always thought it was more that we all knew he could do better, not that we were criticizing his skills.

Love the guy, and I hope he continues to push himself even further.

emmitt01 · February 1, 2022

5 minutes ago, Green Otaku said:

I was there with you at the beginning of the year, but I always thought it was more that we all knew he could do better, not that we were criticizing his skills.

Love the guy, and I hope he continues to push himself even further.

Bell has been my favorite player for several years now. My issue this year was never with whether he is skilled enough, he has the broadest skill set of any player on the roster, it was with whether he was playing within his strengths. He’s a stellar help side defender, he’s a beast on the boards, he has great length to get his shot off (even from outside)…but he doesn’t appear to be a true threat to post up so I hated to see him dribble the clock away trying to back someone down. He could put up 15-20 a game on put backs and cuts to the basket.

CMJ · February 1, 2022

Guys that bring their lunch pail, rebound, hustle, and play solid defense at numerous positions have always appealed to me. Add to that he also is really good at interior passing (almost is a point forward at times) and can hit an outside shot.

He sorta reminds me of Antonio Lang on the early 1990's Duke teams. But with a much better shot - Lang basically got all of his points on put backs.

Edited February 1, 2022 by CMJ