Before she began ninth grade, Tyish Hall decided on a whim to attend a basketball camp.
Little did she know that six years later she would be the starting center on a top 25 women's basketball team.
"Basketball wasn't even serious then, it was just a way to make friends," Hall said. "It never was something that I planned to go to college on.
"I went to camp two weeks before school started, and I had no clue. I didn't even know what a pick was. They told me to set a pick and I said, `A pick? What's that?' Everyone just burst out laughing."
Nobody's laughing at Hall's game now. The 6-3 Duke sophomore has started all but one of the team's 26 games this season, averaging 8.8 points and 6.3 rebounds per game for the 22nd-ranked Blue Devils.
Duke (19-7 overall, 10-6 in the Atlantic Coast Conference) will play Clemson Friday in the first round of the ACC tournament at Rock Hill, S.C.
"[Hall] is unstoppable on the offensive glass," head coach Gail Goestenkors said. "We have no one on the team that can box her out, and lots of teams in the ACC have trouble boxing her out."
Hall initially rejected the idea of playing basketball because she didn't want to be stereotyped because of her height. But she eventually learned to appreciate the game when she played in an Amateur Athletic Union league during the summer after her sophomore year of high school.
"Slowly but surely, I really began to like basketball," Hall said. "Through high school, with the camaraderie and learning to love to play, I decided it would be fun to play in college."
Beginning in her junior year, Hall began to receive numerous letters from top collegiate basketball programs. But she was inexperienced at the recruiting game, and she brushed aside many of the top programs in exchange for a top academic school.
She visited Clemson, Northwestern, Michigan and Duke and decided on the Blue Devils because of their reputation around her home town of Centreville, Va.
"Duke was the last school that I visited, and after I came here, I knew I wanted to be here," Hall said. "When I went to an awards banquet, there was Grant Hill and Tommy Amaker from Duke. Everywhere I turned it was."
At Duke, Hall joined two of her teammates from the AAU team--Kira Orr and Windsor Coggeshall. In fact, Goestenkors first became interested in Hall while watching Orr and Coggeshall play.
All three players are from the Washington, D.C., area.
"She was somebody who I saw had a lot of potential," Goestenkors said. "Tye went unnoticed by a lot of people. But we knew she would become a great player because of her work ethic and her athletic ability."
One of the first things Hall had to adjust to in college was limited playing time. In high school she was a star and always knew she would play.
"I remember in the first tournament, I didn't play at all," Hall said.
Hall broke into the Blue Devil starting line-up midway through her first year. But a knee injury limited her number of starts for the rest of the year.
"With my knee last year, it was kind of hard going back and forth--wanting to play but not being sure what was wrong with my knee," Hall said.
During her first season, Hall also had to adjust to the physical nature of the college game.
"I like to use more of my quickness to get around people," Hall said. "I can [play physical] if other people are playing physical with me, but I'm not the one who is going to initiate the physical game."
Hall's personality also limits her physical nature. It takes a lot to make her mad, and she realizes she has to work at using her emotions to improve her game.
"Coaches are yelling at me because they know we have to be more physical, but that's not my personality," Hall said. "I remember one game where everything just bubbled up, and I got so mad. And then I scored 10 points in five minutes."
Hall credits her improved inside game this season to her trip to Russia with the Atlantic Coast Conference All-Stars.
"I have never seen myself play the way I played there, and I think that has helped a lot at Duke," Hall said.
Unfortunately for Hall, playing basketball at Duke has prohibited her from venturing into other hobbies.
During her first semester in Durham, she was selected to be a member of the singing group "Rhythm and Blue", but had to quit after finding the strenuous in-season schedule too demanding for other activities.
"When I got here, I was not used to living one thing, and here basketball is life," Hall said. "I'm with my team almost 24 hours a day. I was always keeping busy, never having to focus on one thing.
"I had all of this stuff planned out, and then I realized when the season got started I had no time for everything."
Hall did have the chance to show off her vocal talents earlier this year when she joined teammate Zeki Blanding in singing the National Anthem before the Duke-Wake Forest men's basketball game.
"Afterwards, I couldn't believe that I had done it," Hall said. "It was definitely a once-in-a-lifetime thing."
Even though she doesn't have time to commit to many activities, Hall says she does not regret her recent dedication to basketball.
"When I think what would have happened had I decided not to go to that camp two weeks before school . . . I definitely don't think that I would be in the same position that I am right now," Hall said.
"There is no way I would give it up for the world."
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