Dallin Hall's role has changed with BYU basketball, but his leadership hasn't

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — At halftime of its first Big 12 Tournament semifinal against top-seeded Houston, BYU men's basketball trailed the other Cougars in the conference 41-20 and needed a spark.

In most respects, that spark came from Keba Keita, the lob threat who had a career-high 14 points, 12 rebounds and two blocked shots that initially rallied BYU before falling Houston ultimately pulled away for its second tournament title game appearance.

But the spark actually started much earlier than that.

It started in the locker room, when a visibly frustrated first-year head coach Kevin Young exited the court and addressed his team. And then, Dallin Hall — BYU's one-time starting point guard who has been coming off the bench for most of the season — got up and opened his own mouth.

We'll leave the specifics of the halftime address to the locker room, where things are said that rarely get repeated. But suffice it to say, and by multiple accounts, it all stemmed from Hall, the 6-foot-4 junior from Plain City with the 7.3 point, 4.2 assists per game average who takes seriously the captaincy he inherited from his teammates — even if it's not from the starting five.

"I think Dallin started it right," Keita said. "We were looking down, looking like we were defeated and stuff. And Dallin was not having it; he got into all of us, as captain, as a leader.

"We had to pick the energy up. We knew we were better than that, and we just had to go out there and be the most physical team out there, play our game, not play on our heels. Just punch first."

On a night that was mostly forgettable following the end of a nine-game winning streak, when BYU (24-9) shot just 31.7% from the field and 21.4% from 3-point range, Hall's 2 points and four assists may seem like a box-score footnote.

Certainly, they didn't jump out like Keta, or Dawson Baker, who added 11 points on 4-of-9 shooting in his reserve role. Richie Saunders had his moments, too, with his 10 points and six rebounds.

But Hall's impact was more ethereal than statistical.

He had just one turnover to go with those four assists, and despite an 0-for-3 shooting performance, Hall was often the first one off the bench in his 23 minutes — especially to fill in for five-star freshman Egor Demin, who had 6 points, four assists and two steals with five turnovers in 25 minutes.

The captain's role is "something I don't take lightly," Hall admits.

"The occasion definitely demanded someone within the team step up," he said of halftime against Houston. "So that's what I felt was the right thing to do. The guys, I thought, responded. But we just dug ourselves in too deep of a hole early.

"But these are my brothers, and we're going to keep finding ways to win."

Hall, too, will keep finding ways to lead — which isn't an easy thing to do. He started 51 of his first 68 games at BYU as a freshman and sophomore, becoming the consummate floor general in former coach Mark Pope's system.

But when Young's offense mixed with Demin and an established veteran in Hall, something didn't click for the first 10 games of the season.

Young made a change, moving Hall to the bench in what he says was an effort to help guide the team's rotations — former starter Fousseyni Traore has come off the bench during his senior year, and Hall's skillset plays particularly well with the 6-foot-6 big, for example.

And off the Cougars were running, not without hiccups but with fewer than not, toward becoming one of the most dangerous teams in the country with a top-four finish in the Big 12 and likely single-digit seed in next week's NCAA Tournament.

Everybody on this BYU team has a role, including both playmakers. Sometimes Hall's is more vocal than numerical.

But his teammates have taken note.

"Great leader, part of this team, and he really just kind of gave it to us, things we need to focus on, about responding, and I think it just took us too long to respond," Baker said Friday night underneath the T-Mobile Center to conclude BYU's second trip to Kansas City for the Big 12 Tournament.

"In the second half you could kind of see life come back into us. But, unfortunately, against a good team like that it's kinda too late. Dallin Hall got us motivated and told us there is a lot left on the table and how we are going to respond. I'm glad we did. We didn't just shy away from the opportunity to respond."

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