TERRE HAUTE, Ind. - Indiana State head basketball coach Greg Lansing announced today (Nov. 9) that the Sycamores have received a signed national letter of intent from TJ Bell on the first day of the NCAA Early Signing Period. Bell will be a freshman and is slated to join the program for the 2012-13 campaign.
"We are excited to have TJ join our Basketball Family," coach Lansing said. "TJ is a guy our staff targeted early in summer recruiting and pursued awfully hard. Playing on a high profile AAU team against the best players in the country, TJ more than held his own. He has excellent skill and athleticism and most importantly is a great kid. He fit in very well with our guys."
Bell is a 6-8 guard/forward who will begin his senior season at Charleston (Ill.) High School later this month. He was listed early in his career as one of the Top 25 players in the state of Illinois and averaged 13.9 points as well as 8.2 rebounds as a junior. Bell was named to the All-Apollo Conference in 2011 for his Charleston team which finished with a 16-13 record.
Bell is the son of Eastern Illinois women's basketball assistant coach Quacy Timmons, who competed collegiately at Indiana. She was a first team Big Ten selection in 1998 and is the Hoosiers' all-time leader in blocked shots with 269 to her credit. She played professionally in the WNBA with stops at Sacramento, Seattle and Phoenix.
"He certainly has it in his genes with his Mom being a tremendous college player at Indiana and in the WNBA and now a college women's assistant," Lansing said.
The Sycamores will lose Dwayne Lathan, Jordan Printy, Carl Richard and Myles Walker after the 2011-12 season due to graduation and coach Lansing expects Bell to step in and compete for playing time right away.
"TJ will join a talented team next year that loses four very important players and tremendous people from our current squad," Lansing said. "Losing Myles and Carl will leave a void that he can help fill. He will have to compete to keep up with our hard working group. Even though Marcus Belcher was new on our staff, he went right to work and was the guy that really made the difference with TJ and his Mom."
The NCAA Early Signing Period continues until Wednesday, November 16.
