The Awakening of Jimmy Bell Jr.

Sunday night was a night of firsts for Jimmy Bell Jr.

In his breakout and most dominant performance of the season (and collegiate career), Bell put together his first ever double-double, while also scoring a career high in points.

It wasn't so clear from the beginning that the night would be a big night for the Saginaw native, as he was very quiet throughout the first half, but a flip switched at halftime and it quickly became the case.

"My teammates kept my head high. I didn’t have a great first half but half time they came in there and talked to me. I got my mindset right and just came out ready to play and win the game," said Bell Jr.

Adversity has become something familiar for Bell, who has time and time again proven his ability to deal with whatever situation he faces. Most recently, he has been figuring out a brand new body. When the forward first arrived on campus, he weighed 350 pounds. Now? Somewhere around 280.

“I love Jimmy to death. To go through what that guy went through and to lose the weight that he lost, the way that he runs now, the way that he jumps now… they said he couldn’t score. He scored pretty good,” said head coach Bob Huggins.

"Tunk (Bell Jr.) said earlier that he’s not the greatest offensive player, but there's been times where we’ve seen Tunk dominate an entire practice and not miss anything, and nobody could do anything about it because at the end of the day, when he gets in that mode, theres not many people that are going to stop him," added teammate Tre Mitchell.

This is exactly what happened Sunday night for Bell Jr., who scored 18 points on 5/6 shooting. Eight of his points came from his 13 free-throw attempts, which simultaneously fouled out three of Buffalo's players.

"I’m bigger than most everybody that we play so they gotta try to do what they gotta do and I’m gonna do what I gotta do on offense. So whatever they gotta do to stop me is what they gotta do, and I guess they fouled me all night," said Bell Jr.

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