When Dallin Hall entered the transfer portal a couple of months ago, 15 schools reached out to him for his services. It was a moment of uncertainty for the BYU men’s basketball team, which had just lost coach Mark Pope to Kentucky and several key players from last year’s roster, and prized recruit Collin Chandler in the wake.
But in the end, Hall chose to return to BYU, a place he called “an incredible home” Thursday after a summer practice.
Hall said he and new coach Kevin Young built a good relationship quickly, and he felt Young’s vision would help get him to the next level of his basketball career.
“Just talking about how he saw me fitting in his style play, the things that he wanted to help me grow my game in order to make those dreams of being a pro reality,” Hall said. “So that combination, as well as just the relationship that we built over that time, is ultimately what helped me feel really good about coming back here and accomplishing all my goals on and off the court.”
Hall was reportedly considering Utah, Utah State, Creighton, Clemson, Cincinnati, Florida and Washington during his time in the portal, while also mulling a return to BYU. He said as he talked to coaches at other schools — many of which had played against the Cougars — they gave him tips on what parts of his game he could improve.
“I was just trying to be a sponge in the portal as well and take in everything I could,” Hall said.
Young, most recently the associate head coach of the Phoenix Suns, has said he wants to make BYU a place that can be seen as a pipeline to the NBA. The way he’s doing that, he said Thursday, is by bringing in assistant coaches, a strength and conditioning coach and mental performance coaches who all have NBA experience.
“It’s not just one specific thing,” Young said. “I think it’s an overarching mindset of how we’re organizing the program.”
Hall said that even in just four days, he’s started to see that NBA influence. Young has broken up the team into groups and had them run pro sets and taught them how to play out of them, Hall said.
“He gives us a lot of freedom to play,” Hall said.
Young said he has already seen leadership from Hall and Richie Saunders, another player who briefly entered the portal only to return to BYU.
