Freshman guard Max Christie noted Hall’s subdued tendencies as a captain and said he does a good job of pushing things “in a quiet way.” But as of late, he said the team has been trying to help Hall be more vocal on and off the court to help lead the team. And beyond the box score, it showed a different Hall, closer to the one promising to speak up and take the reins when the team falters.Īs captains, senior forward Gabe Brown and Hall form an admitted yin and yang of leadership styles: Brown playing the role of the highly energetic spark plug and Hall as a more quiet do-it-all guy.Īccording to some players, that dynamic changed a little on Saturday night. It was a more focused glimpse at one side of a one-two punch with Hauser in the mix at power forward that Izzo said should be one of the strengths of the team. Hall did a little bit of everything, driving and shooting the ball well and staying extremely active in the post and on the glass to help his team to a victory. Hall picked it up to the tune of 15 points and nine rebounds in 24 minutes for his season-high and highest point total since he dropped 19 in Michigan State’s loss to Maryland in the first round of the 2020-21 Big Ten Tournament. “I think Malik got upset with Malik and he was different in the huddles and he was different on the floor and (in the) last three quarters of that game, he could have been our best player,” Izzo said. Just tried to pick it up as much as I could.”Ĭomfortable or not, Michigan State men's basketball Head Coach Tom Izzo had a different idea of what happened.
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“I don’t know, I just started a little flat at the beginning. “I think as the game went on, I got a little bit more comfortable,” Hall said. Reserved as ever, Hall continued to choose his words carefully when describing how he picked it up after a slow start against Eastern Michigan. But steadily, the junior forward emerged at the other end of the rough stretch, tied the game up with a put-back layup off a Hoggard miss and settled in nicely to play a big role in turning the tide on the Eagles to force a blowout.
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Hall, spot-starting in place of sore redshirt senior Joey Hauser, was mired as much as anyone in the early dysfunction. Heavily favored Michigan State looked disjointed on both ends of the floor, struggling to get stops, giving up too many easy shots and generally playing down to their competition. Flash forward a couple months later to the first ten minutes of a game against Eastern Michigan.