Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, March 25, 1993 TAG: 9303250230
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: CHARLOTTE, N.C. LENGTH: Medium
LITTLE BELL IS KING OF HILLTOPPERS
Star-gazing at the NCAA's Southeast Regional isn't only a heads-up experience.Big men Jamal Mashburn of Kentucky and Rodney Rogers of Wake Forest are the marquee performers in tonight's doubleheader at the Charlotte Coliseum, but Western Kentucky has a guy who knows how to stand out in a crowd.
Mark Bell, the Hilltoppers' senior point guard, is like the Energizer bunny. He just keeps going - and going - and going - whether he's playing or listing his brothers and sisters.
If there's strength in numbers, Florida State is in trouble tonight against the Sun Belt Conference champions.
Bell has nine brothers and eight sisters living, and many of them will be in the sellout crowd. Little wonder the majority of the house is expected to be Kentuckians. Bell's mother, Mary Durham, will be there, too.
"I'm the baby of 22 kids," Bell said Wednesday. "Four have passed away. People always ask me why I'm aggressive. I think it's pretty obvious.
"When you're the baby, you have to fight for everything. If you're 5-foot-8 in basketball, you have to fight for everything."
Mary Durham's children range in age from 53 to her point-guard son's 22. A retired cook, Durham had her first child at age 15. He died two weeks later. One daughter, at age 2, burned to death in a house fire. A son came home from serving in the Vietnam War and was shot to death two weeks later.
Durham also somehow found time and space to raise two of her younger sisters and three cousins. When Bell and his siblings were growing up in Lebanon, Ky., they sometimes slept six to a bunk bed. They moved to Louisville, where Bell starred for Ballard High.
He was the little all-stater feeding the ball to Allan Houston, the All-America forward now at Tennessee, but still scored enough to finish close behind his teammate on the school's career scoring list.
Bell, however, came up short on his college entrance exams. He went to Barton County (Kan.) Community College, where he set a school scoring record for career points. After his two junior-college years, he considered Tulsa and North Carolina State, but came home. He is averaging 16.8 points this season and is a nominee for the Naismith Hall of Fame Award, which goes annually to the nation's best player under 6 feet tall.
"I'm fortunate to have a big family," Bell said. "The best thing about it is the support you get. The worst thing? I can't find a worst thing."
Bell himself is adding to the crowd. He has a son, Mark, who is 5. He was born when Bell still was in high school. Bell married in June 1991, having met his wife-to-be, Dacia, 10 months earlier at Barton Community College.
She was the Barton women's team point guard. In January, they had a son, Isiah.
"My mom says that makes 90 grandkids," Bell said. "Really, I think it's more than that."
It's obvious that Bell's strength is his strength. He grew up poor except in the love department. He's a little man in a big man's game.
Because Bell is on an athletic grant-in-aid, he can work only during the summer. His wife works at a Taco Bell and as a secretary in WKU's physical education department. Since they live off-campus, he gets $160 in meal money instead of a dormitory meal card.
Certainly, Bell personifies his team. The Hilltoppers (26-5), who average less than 6-4 in the starting lineup, are fighting for respect for a rebuilt program that has experienced greatness over the years, but one that has played in the Bluegrass shadow of Kentucky and Louisville.
"I guess we're going to have to win the whole thing to get some respect," Bell said.
Bell remarked that he has played in a Sweet 16 before - the Kentucky State High School Tournament. Ballard won the title his junior year. He doesn't have to be reminded that his 23rd birthday, April 3, is the date of the Final Four semifinals.
"It would be nice to celebrate in New Orleans with my family," he said.
That would include sisters Annie, Bridget, Brenda, Cathy Jo, Mattie, Patricia, Shirley and Shelia, and brothers Albert, Charles, Dave, John, Joe, Clem, Lee, Tony and Mike. "I think I got them all," Bell said.