Key Points:
- Wichita basketball star Xavier Bell to play last year of college eligibility for WSU.
- NCAA decision allows players to make up for 2020-21 season due to COVID-19 pandemic.
- Bell plans to pursue a master’s degree in sports management and hopes to play pro basketball.
Hometown basketball star Xavier Bell will be playing his last year of college eligibility for the Wichita State University Shockers even though he graduated with a degree in business administration this month.
“I have one more year of eligibility and I’ve already been accepted in graduate school,” said Bell, the son of Small Business Administration District Director Wayne Bell.
Xavier, a 6’3” guard, was a Shocker star his senior year, starting all 34 games, shooting 43.6% from the field and 73.3% from the line. Notably, he had 20 games in double figures and led the team in assists nine times.
His “extra” year of eligibility comes from an NCAA decision to allow players to make up for the 2020 season, which was all but wiped out by the COVID-19 pandemic.
He said he will use it to start a master’s program in sports management, following in the footprints of his oldest sister, Ashley, who currently has an ownership share and manages a chain of fitness clubs in Oklahoma City.
A master’s in sports management opens up opportunities to manage a pro sports team, serve as an athletic director or manage a sports facility, just to name a few options.
“It’s pretty much about the business side of all sports,” he said.
What happens after his final year as a Shocker depends on next season and the potential for an offer from the NBA.
Bell said he would obviously like to play pro basketball, but he is laying out a career path in case that doesn’t happen, and he expects to be well on the way to his master’s degree, which requires 30 hours of academic classes plus a six-hour internship.
Wichita Native
Xavier is a Wichita native who attended Bostic Elementary and Allison Middle School before going on to star in basketball and football at Andover Central High School.
For college, he wanted to experience life away from home and choose to accept an offer from Drexel University, a smaller Division 1 college in Philadelphia. He started his freshman year in 2020, just in time to experience the pandemic hundreds of miles from home.
The COVID Year
“It was really hard,” Bell said of the pandemic experience.
“There were no team workouts. We had to get tested every single day and anyone positive had to quarantine for seven days,” he said. “Games would be canceled if anyone on either team tested positive.”
His dad, Wayne, said it was hard for the family because of travel restrictions and rules against having spectators at games. “We were only able to see him play one game early in the season,” he said.
The tapering off of restrictions allowed him to get a more traditional college experience, Bell said. But he was ready to come home as a junior and join the Shockers.
“I’m glad I had the experience of getting away from home and learning all the lessons of being on your own, but I wanted to come home. I wanted to be back with my family and have them be able to watch me play without having to travel so far,” he said.
Big, Sports-Loving Family
Bell’s Wichita family is extensive. He is the baby of a blended family with four sisters, two brothers and a brother-in-law he counts as a sibling.
His family – especially his dad, who was a college athlete and played football for Wichita State until the program ended in 1986 – are all sports fans. In fact, he was named Xavier after basketball star Xavier Daniels, a WSU classmate and friend of his dad.
His dad was one of his first coaches.
“I got him into sports young,” Wayne Bell said. “We tried every sport and he was really good at football.”
The younger Bell said he was interested in football but his heart was in basketball and it was there that he put in his all. “I’ve often wondered what would have happened if I put in the total effort I did in basketball into football.”
In high school, he participated in summer AAU leagues and played tournaments in the invitation-only circuits, which he said serve as “exposure tournaments” for college recruiters and coaches to watch promising high-schoolers play. The Bell family spent their summers during those years following and supporting Xavier in his basketball travels.
This summer, Bell says he plans on working out regularly, making a trip to Philadelphia to visit friends, and spending time with family.
