Bell starting to ring again

For nearly 18 months, Pasadena (Calif.) guard Keion Bell has been out of sight, out of mind. For the last two, the 6-foot-3 unsigned senior is starting to come out of his shell again.

Bell is making up for lost time this season at Pasadena (Calif.) High School. His junior year, Bell sat on the sidelines at Serra High School and never played a game his junior year.

Because of his time away from the game, Bell went into basketball oblivion. Recruiting was put on pause. The accolades quickly faded away. Bell says now that he's back in action, he's playing with something to prove this season.

"It made me real hungry. I was ranked really high and coaches were recruiting me. But because I didn't play last year, I kept dropping and dropping and coaches kind of forgot who I was. I really didn't care about the rankings but it was tough," he said. "I don't know how to explain it. Not being able to play made me more focused and I don't take things for granted.

"Every possession I try to go hard. Sometimes I try to do too much but I am just so hungry to play again."

He's back in action again and since the Ocean View Tournament of Champions, Bell has been on fire. Bell scored 38 points against Peyton Siva and his Seattle Franklin team in the first game of the Max Preps/Torrey Pines tournament last month and has sprinkled in several other key games along the way.

"I think I'm playing great. Right now, I'm playing the best high school basketball that I've ever played," Bell said. "I think I started out the season trying to make up for last year…The last 10 games, I'm averaging 30 points and double digit rebounds. I'm trying to make up for lost time."

Now that his game is back to where it used to be, Bell said he is hoping to see his recruitment climb back to where it once was.

"Most of the college coaches that I've talked to said they have never even heard of me," Bell said. "I was talking to (a coach) and he said he's never heard of me and I went to their camp a couple of years ago. Not playing my junior year hurt me. He said that was the most important year for a high school basketball player. He told me that he thought I was the most underrated basketball player on the West Coast right now. He said I could be similar to Russell Westbrook in being under-recruited and then have a great college career."

That assessment isn't that far off. Bell is a high-energy guard with good athleticism and size. His jumper is still a work in progress and his ability to get into the lane and create mismatches on both ends of the floor. In a talent depleted group of guards in 2008 this late in the game, Bell certainly has the talent that the high-majors will want to get involved with. He says the big-timers are coming on of late.

"It changed dramatically. I went from having some low-majors to having high-majors. After the Ocean View tournament, it picked up a whole lot," Bell said.

Bell said Southern Cal, Cincinnati, UNLV and Miami-FL all inquired after the tournament. Southern Cal was the only school that saw him play in the week-long event.

UC-Riverside, San Diego State, San Francisco and Nevada are also in the picture and count as his offers to date.

"I'm not going to worry about it until the end of the season," Bell said of his recruitment. "As far as now, if a college wants to come watch me, I'm all for it. But I won't be doing anything until after the season.

"I want to go to a college where at the end of the year I can say I got better and better. That's what Miami does. They do a good job of developing their players. That is the main thing that they have talked to me about. They are all about player development."

With a 3.2 grade point average and all five visits left, Bell will be a busy man once the season is over. He's been waiting to get to this stage in the recruiting process for a long time.