Just two and a half weeks after a motivating feature story on the MalibuPatch website junior guard Keion Bell was suspended from play for the remainder of the 2011 season for “conduct detrimental to the team Head Coach Tom Asbury mentioned in a halftime interview during Saturday’s game against USD on Saturday Feb. 5. According to Asbury and collegiate analysts Bell isn’t expected to return to play next season.
In recent weeks other D-1 schools have suspended team leaders for conduct detrimental to the team such as Michigan State’s dismissal of Korie Lucious on Jan. 25, last week’s Southern Illinois suspension of three players for attendance and dissention, and yesterday’s Wake Forest suspension of star freshman Melvin Tabb for not upholding the expectations of the team and university through public misconduct.
CORRECTION: A previous version of this story, which also appears in the print edition of the Graphic, reported that Bell was suspended during the 2009-2010 season after reportedly shoving” Coach Asbury. Although discussion of this alleged event appears on Internet forums it cannot be verified and has been denied by Pepperdine Sports Information and Bell.
Bell received local attention on KTLA and YouTube last semester after dunking over a record seven people in the Firestone Fieldhouse. He also averaged a team high of 19 points per game before his suspension despite suffering an ankle injury earlier this season.
Despite losing their leading scorer the Waves have given some of their best performances of the season in games that Bell did not play such as the weekend overtime win against San Diego.
This season alone the Waves have won four out of six games in which Bell did not play and only won 6 out of 20 in which he did.
Sports discussion blogs and writers all across the West Coast have been blogging about the suspension for the past couple days.
The consensus by both the bloggers and the sports analysts in which Jake Curtis a Bay Area sports writer called the suspension “the biggest loss that may not be a loss.”
Loyola Marymount Gonzaga San Diego and other universities have not taken the suspension lightly and are preparing to face a stronger and more unified Pepperdine team as every columnist reporter and almost every blogger agree that Bell’s suspension might not be the worst thing for the Waves.
In regard to Bell’s future he faces three options to move forward as an athlete:
1.Transfer to another university. In order to do so by NCAA regulation he must wait a minimum of one year before becoming eligible to play thus forcing him into a fifth year of college.
2. Attempt to turn toward a professional career in which even smaller professional teams would be unlikely to recruit him due to conduct inconsistency and his smudged collegiate track record.
3. Humble himself in the attempt to play for the Waves senior year. Yet every athletic journalist reporting on the suspension mentions the improbability that he will return to play for the Waves next season.
4. Quit competitive basketball.
The Waves next face Portland today at 7 p.m. and Gonzaga on Saturday at 7 p.m. at home in the Fieldhouse.
Bell won’t be in the lineup and it’s up to the Waves as they will show if losing Bell helped or hurt as Mychel Thompson and Lorne Jackson the second and third highest scorers respectively have a chance to lead the team and shine.
Specific details regarding Bell’s suspension are still pending. Check for updates on pepperdine-graphic.com.
