Jordan Bell is the anchor that could deliver Oregon a national championship

Jordan Bell has been fueling the Oregon Ducks on this NCAA Tournament run

The Oregon Ducks are in the Final Four for the first time since 1939, their run to Phoenix quite literally centering around a 6-foot-9 junior who does all of the team’s dirty work.

Jordan Bell, a former four-star recruit out of Long Beach Poly in Long Beach, CA, joined the Oregon program in Dec. 2013 after finally resolving a “NCAA issue” that kept him from being able to play in his first post-high school semester. Entering college, he was billed as a terrific athlete, rebounder and rim protector. All three things have proven themselves true over the course of his college career.

Bell didn’t actually suit up for the Ducks until the 2014-15 season, but even as a freshman, his talents were on display. In 23.7 minutes per game, he averaged 6.1 rebounds and 2.7 blocks. Those skills — rebounding and rim protection — are often found in the defensive big men that help anchor some of the toughest defenses in the country. Bell’s NCAA Tournament performances have proven that he’s one of the best in the sport.

In the Ducks’ four wins in the tournament, the junior is averaging 12.5 points, 12.5 rebounds and 3.0 blocks per game with his most impressive outings coming during the Midwest Regional in Kansas City last weekend.

In an Elite Eight win over Kansas, Bell’s full defensive arsenal was on display as he tallied a near triple-double with 11 points, 13 rebounds and eight blocks. He set the tone early as the centerpiece of head coach Dana Altman’s 2-3 zone, a scheme designed to take away penetration from the Jayhawks’ senior leader and National Player of the Year favorite, Frank Mason.

“I thought Jordan Bell was unbelievable on the defensive end tonight. He got a couple of blocks early and I thought it really put a thought in their mind,” Altman said after the game. When Mason, or any other Kansas player, was able to get into the lane, Bell was there to greet them, often with emphatic rejections that shut down the Jayhawks’ offensive attack.

Even as the game grew closer in the second half, Bell was there to halt the opportunities Kansas had to swing the momentum. For example, out of the under-16 timeout with Oregon ahead by 15 points, the Jayhawks dumped the ball into junior Dwight Coleby, an Ole Miss transfer who has struggled to recover from a knee injury and has just a 16.0 percent usage rate in limited minutes on the floor this season. It was a plan doomed to fail from the start. Coleby dribbled toward the middle of the floor before spinning back over his left shoulder for an awkward shot attempt. Bell met him at the apex and delivered a block that simply paused the ball between the two players’ hands for a brief moment before going out of bounds.

Later in the second half, Bell was there again to put an end to an attempted Kansas run. With just over nine minutes remaining, he committed a turnover on a baseline out of bounds play. Kansas wing Sviatoslav Mykhailiuk grabbed the ball and tossed it to Mason who flung it forward to big man Landen Lucas for what looked like an easy transition dunk, but there was Bell timing his run and leaping from outside the charge circle to pin the ball against the basket.

Time and time again Bell made the big play in front of a hostile crowd at the Sprint Center and while he declined to agree to that he had scared the Jayhawks, he admitted that he might have altered their plans, “I think I made ’em change their shot maybe a little bit at the end.”

While Bell’s defense has been one of the keys to Oregon’s deep run, his offensive performance against Michigan in the Sweet Sixteen was also emblematic of the improvements that he’s made on that end of the floor. The 22-year old scored 16 points on 7-of-10 shooting in the win, including a crucial late putback after grabbing an offensive rebound off of a missed free throw by Dylan Ennis. “We have a play that we practice on, if one of us misses a free throw. We executed it perfectly,” Bell said of the action.

Bell’s offensive rebounding during the NCAA Tournament has been a fantastic weapon for the Ducks, allowing them to extend possessions and create additional scoring chances. As a freshman, he posted a 9.6 percent offensive rebounding rate before raising it to 12.3 this season. More impressively, in Oregon’s four tournament wins, Bell is averaging six offensive boards per contest.

Although it has been more pronounced in the NCAA Tournament and is taking place on a bigger stage, these are some of the things that Bell has been doing all season long. As a junior, he’s averaging 10.9 points, 8.6 rebounds, 2.2 blocks and 1.3 steals per game. Bell is one of just five players in Division I — and one of two in the major six conferences — to post those averages this season. Bell also earned Pac-12 Defensive Player of the Year honors prior to the start of March Madness for finishing top 10 in the league in rebounds, blocks and steals.

Now, he and the Ducks will turn their attention to a new challenge, one that the program hasn’t faced in nearly 80 years, when they square off with the North Carolina Tar Heels in the Final Four on Saturday. North Carolina’s frontcourt will present Bell with a new test as it has been one of the most imposing in the country this season. Both Kennedy Meeks and Isaiah Hicks are averaging more than 12 points per game while freshman Tony Bradley and sophomore Luke Maye give the Tar Heels plenty of depth.

That’s a luxury Oregon no longer has after a torn ACL sidelined senior Chris Boucher for the season, leaving Bell and junior Kavell Bigby-Williams as the team’s only real frontcourt pieces. If these first four games suggest anything, though, it’s that Bell will be up to the task as the anchor of the Ducks’ defense with an improved offensive game. He knows his role, too.

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When asked what the team is thinking in a tight game down the stretch after the win over Michigan, Bell replied, “Do whatever you can to win. Me, get every rebound, offense or defense, help my team out as much as possible.” What else would you expect from the 6-foot-9 centerpiece that has gotten Oregon this far?

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