Kenny Hall Commits

By McKenzie Jackson Published: Thursday, March 13, 2008 10:37 AM CDT
Redan frontcourt star Kenny Hall committed to playing college basketball for the University of Tennessee early last week.

The 6-foot-8 junior committed to the Volunteers after a junior season that featured averages of 24 points, 12 rebounds and 2 blocks per game.

Hall picked Tennessee over Duke and several other schools that tried to recruit him, said Redan coach Dalton Greene.

“He went to a couple of the games and had a good rapport with Coach [Bruce] Pearl,” Greene said. Hall will join former Tucker High star Cameron Tatum in Knoxville.

A three-year varsity player at Redan, Hall began his transformation into one of the top players in the state in the second half of his sophomore season, Greene said.

“He began to dominate in practice some and you could see the potential,” he said.

“Everything that we’ve been teaching him and trying to instill in him in the last three years really manifested, and it’s been peaking ever since then.”

Greene said Hall made a jump in his playing level, mentally and physically.

“Kenny is like a sponge,” he said. “You can tell that he is trying to understand and apply to his game whatever you are teaching him.”

He said he has had players make drastic improvement in their time at Redan, but none like Hall, who grew from a seldom-used player to a star in three seasons.

“People talk about this kid maybe making the McDonald’s game and how he may eventually play on the next level,” Greene said.

After standout performances at several basketball camps and tournaments last summer, Hall began to draw the interest of major college basketball programs. The interest continued when he kicked off the season with an all-tournament performance during the DeKalb Thanksgiving Classic.

By the time the season was over, Hall and Greene were receiving letters and calls from programs including UCLA, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Kansas State, Kansas, Texas, Texas A&M, Washington, Kentucky and Miami.

Greene said a school in every major conference was after Hall.

“I’ve met coaches from the Pac-10, Big 10, SEC, ACC, Big 12,” he said. “When [Duke assistant coach] Steve Wojciechowski called on behalf of Coach [Mike Krzyzewski] I knew Kenny was pretty special.”

Now Hall has to take his game to another level, said Greene.

“I told him it’s all about his legacy now,” he said.