West Virginia forward Jimmy Bell is entering the transfer portal. Jon Rothstein announced the move on Friday, saying Bell informed him that he is planning on entering his name into the portal.
Last season Bell played in all 34 games for the Mountaineers and started all of them. The 6-foot-10, 285-pound center, averaged 4.8 points per game, and 5.2 rebounds per game last season.
This comes as Bell was possibly trying to test out football for Neal Brown during spring practice in April. On Saturday Brown said, “He and I are going to spend some time early part of this week and I’ll talk to Coach Huggins and I think we’ll come to a pretty quick resolution on where this all stands,” with regard to Bell’s future.
If Bell would have stayed at West Virginia and continued playing basketball, his role would almost certainly have been different. The Mountaineers added center Jesse Edwards and still have James Okonkwo and Mohamed Wague on the roster from last season.
Bell was the last senior from the 2022-2023 team who had the opportunity to return for their fifth year. Tre Mitchell and Joe Toussaint already made the decision to return.
This leaves WVU’s basketball roster with returners of Josiah Harris, Joe Toussaint, Tre Mitchell, James Okonkwo, Kobe Johnson, Seth Wilson, Pat Suemnick, and Mohamed Wague. The transfer class currently includes Jose Perez, Omar Silverio, Jesse Edwards, Kerr Kriisa, and RaeQuan Battle.
Bell joins Jamel King and Josiah Davis as the three Mountaineers from last season’s team who have entered the portal so far.
