MORGANTOWN — As Jimmy Bell Jr. made his way through the college basketball ranks, the knock was always on his offense.
Beginning at St. Louis and then to Moberly (Mo.) Area Community College, it was his junior-college coach Pat Smith, who once told WVU head coach Bob Huggins that Bell could provide the Mountaineers a little bit of everything except offense.
Huggins, though, saw something different.
“You’ve got a body like that, and you’ve got shoulders that are that wide, all you have to do is be able to look at the rim,” Huggins said Saturday after WVU knocked off No. 15 Auburn 80-77 at the Coliseum.
It sounds simple enough, yet Huggins said today’s bigger players spend too much time looking at the defenders or where they are on the floor, rather than having their eyes on the prize.
In knocking off a second consecutive Top 25 team in a matter of 10 days, Bell had his head in the right spot.
He scored 15 points and added seven rebounds against the Tigers, just days after scoring 15 points in a win against then-No. 14 TCU.
Both times Bell did it against sizable bigs guarding him, with Auburn’s 6-foot-10 and 235-pound Johni Broome holding court against him Saturday.
“My coaches were telling me that (after the game) that I seem to play better against better bigs,” Bell said. “When I play somebody that’s considered better than me, I always get that edge, I always get that feeling. I need to do that every game, not just because a big is considered better.”
No time to foul
One of the biggest questions in college basketball is whether or not a team that’s leading by three points should foul the other team in the closing seconds of a game.
The thought on fouling is the opposing team would only get two free throws and would still be trailing by one point late in the game if both free throws were made.
WVU found itself in that spot against Auburn, holding an 80-77 lead, as the Tigers raced up the floor over the final six seconds.
Huggins said his philosophy is to never foul in that situation.
“Why would I foul, particularly with their athleticism?” Huggins said. “So, they make the first one, they get (the offensive rebound after missing the second) and make it and we lose. Why would you do that? Why would you risk losing? I would rather just go to overtime.”
Auburn guard Wendell Green Jr. raced up the floor and took a tough 3-point shot over WVU’s Joe Toussaint, but the shot came up well short.
WVU players knew in that situation that Huggins didn’t want a foul.
“We were up three. Contest the shot, but don’t foul,” WVU point guard Kedrian Johnson said. “If they make it, we go to overtime and play an extra five (minutes). Overall, just don’t give them an easy three.”
News and notes
** WVU improved to 3-7 in Big 12-SEC Challenge games and the Mountaineers are now 10-14 overall against the SEC since Huggins took over the program in 2007.
** WVU finished 21 of 25 from the foul line against the Tigers and is 49 of 60 (82%) over its last two games.
** WVU is 2-3 against AP Top 25-ranked teams this season. It is scheduled to play seven more by the end of the regular season. The school’s record for most top 25 opponents in a regular season is 11, set during the 2020-21 and 2014-15 seasons.
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