With nearly one minute left in Saturday night's men's basketball game, the Cameron crowd starting chanting, "We want Hall. Put in Hall." A couple of seconds into that chant, one Cameron Crazy turned to another and asked, "What's his first name?"
Such is the anonymity of the Blue Devils' 12th man--your own fans don't know who you are. But being an unknown does not bother freshman guard Jeremy Hall. He is just happy to be a member of one of the top collegiate basketball teams in the nation.
"It's one of the best experiences of my life," Hall said. "These guys are great athletes and great competitors, and they are also great people too. It's great to be a part of it."
Hall's statistics so far this year are meager at best--six minutes in three games, two points on two free throws against Western Carolina for an average of 0.7 points per game. They are a far cry from the 15 points and eight rebounds he averaged at Cardinal Mooney High School in Sarasota, Fla. At Cardinal Mooney, he led his team to the state quarterfinals his junior year, the farthest his high school had ever gone in the state playoffs. That year, he was also named all-county.
His senior year, Hall was ready for a big year and a chance at earning a college scholarship, but a shoulder separation kept him out of action for more than one-third of the season. Then the last third of the year, Hall was forced to wear a heavy brace while playing, which limited his shooting ability. And while he was named to the all-county and all-state teams, the phones weren't ringing off the hook to offer Hall a scholarship. A few Division II schools offered him scholarships, and he was contacted by various Division I programs, but none of them appealed to Hall.
So Hall had to do his own recruiting. He got some help from former NBA head coach Bill Mussleman, who was close friends with his coaches at Cardinal Mooney and attended a few of its games. Mussleman liked Hall's style and offered him advice. He even called Boston College and Villanova to praise Hall's efforts.
Hall also made a highlight film from high school and sent it to the schools he was applying to--William & Mary, Notre Dame, Northwestern, Virginia and Duke. Once he was accepted to Duke, he was contacted by the Blue Devils.
"When I got accepted to Duke, Chuck Swenson, the director of basketball operations, contacted me about the highlight tape and told me to try to play pick-up games with the team," Hall said. "I played a couple of pick-up games because I really didn't know what the deal was or if I had a chance."
As fate had it, Hall did have a chance. With sophomore guard Trajan Langdon still injured from the summer, the Blue Devils needed an extra player in practice.
And Hall must have done something right during the preseason pick-up games in Card Gym.
"I got a phone call that they needed an extra person and would be given a chance," Hall said. "So I started with them the first day of practice and I've been there ever since."
With the recent injury of freshman forward Matt Christensen, Hall has become even more important to the team in practices. Hall knows his role in practice isn't to score points, but rather to play tough defense. And in the games, his job is to cheer the team on toward victory. He has received a lot of advice on being a walk-on from fellow walk-on sophomore Todd Singleton.
"I've talked to Todd a lot and we've become pretty good friends," Hall said. "He's told me stuff that he went through last year, the same stuff that I'm going through. Things like how to deal with classes, tutors, how to cheer on the team."
Unlike Hall, Singleton was picked from an open-campus tryout. Hall has heard a lot of people saying they deserve to be on the team instead of him, but he doesn't let that bother him.
People who haven't been too concerned about Hall's status on the team are his close friends. Hall says that they often stay up after the game and ask him how things are going with the team. They are also the ones who often start the "We want Hall" chant.
"I've never been in this position before," Hall said. "A lot of my friends are out there, chanting my name. I get a kick out of it.
"[My friends] are all great fans. They talk to me about the game. They give me pointers for Coach K, but I don't think too many of them are worth passing on."
Hall hasn't even had much contact with Duke's head coach. Instead, he often talks to the assistant coaches about picking up pointers in practice on how to improve his game.
Hall knows that his spot is nowhere near guaranteed. In fact, with Langdon coming back next year and Duke adding at least two recruits, Hall's services most likely won't be needed.
"I'd like to stick with the team, but it's not in my hands," Hall said. "I'll just try to work hard and whatever happens, happens."
That's an attitude Hall has adopted most of his life. It's one that he often discusses when talking about his senior year in high school. Without a bum shoulder, Hall could be getting more playing time and having better statistics at another school. At the time, he was disappointed with the injury. But the way Hall looks at it, that injury may have been a blessing in disguise.
"I think that things happen for a reason," he said. "The shoulder injury happened at my peak, when I was playing my best. But I might have ended up at a smaller school, a school that I might not have wanted to go to as much. I can't be happier with the way things turned out."
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