Sam Neumann spends as much time with Tyler Hall as anybody. The Montana State freshmen are enduring the grind of their first Division I seasons together. When school and basketball are done for the day, the duo goes to their shared dorm room.
While Neumann and Hall have shared a similar experience — coming from the Midwest to Montana to help Brian Fish rebuild his program — their experiences on the court have been a world apart.
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Neumann, a 6-foot-7 forward out of Cretin-Durham Hall in St. Paul, Minnesota, had a nice weekend during Montana State’s recent road split. Neumann drilled 3-of-6 3-pointers, played 12 minutes per game and scored a career-high eight points against Portland State.
Meanwhile, Hall is shattering records and putting the Big Sky Conference on notice for what the future may hold. Hall has scored almost four times as many points as Neumann has played minutes, breaking several Montana State records in the process.
“Tyler is my roommate so I attribute all his success to myself since I’m with him so much,” Neumann joked during his first career press conference. “No (laughs), but Tyler has worked harder than anyone I know. He knows what it takes. It’s great to see all that hard work pay off.
“Watching Tyler, it’s hard to believe he’s just a freshman because it seems like he is as old as Quinton sometimes,” Neumann said. “It’s definitely cool to see and it motivates me to do try to get to where he is.”
Quinton is MSU junior Quinton Everett. He is 26. Hall, a 6-foot-4 shooting guard from Rock Island, Illinois, is playing far beyond his years. In Montana State’s bounce-back 79-76 win at Sacramento State, Hall scored 18 points in the first half and 25 overall. Hall already owns eight of the top 10 scoring performances in Montana State history and has scored at least 24 points on eight separate occasions this season.
During the Sacramento State game, Hall surpassed 400 points for his career. His 410 points are the most ever by a Montana State freshman, breaking the record held by MSU Hall of Famer Larry Chanay since 1960. Hall’s 36-point performance against Southern Utah marked the highest single game total by a Bobcat rookie and the second-best total in the Big Sky this season.
“He’s a gamer,” Fish said. “God blessed him with a lot of talent. He loves the game of basketball and he wants to get better. He’s done a great job of fitting in with his teammates. He’s friends with all those guys. When you come in and demand and you can do the things like he does, a lot of times, you will run into situations where guys are jealous. I’ve never seen that one time with this team.
“He reminds me a lot of Joe Young, the young man we had at Oregon who is playing for the Indiana Pacers right now. He has the ability to make the big shot.”
Hall has carried Montana State consistently on offense this season. He scored in bunches down the stretch in wins over San Jose State, Wyoming, Eastern Washington and Idaho. Hall is averaging 19.5 points per game during conference play, tied with UND junior guard Quinton Hooker for fourth in the league. Hall has connected on 37 3-pointers, one shy of Austin McBroom’s league-leading total for EWU.
As MSU navigates the second half of the conference season, Fish knows teams will continue to try to “knock him off the spot” and taylor their defenses for him. He hopes his star freshman can continue to ascend.
“There’s certain things you have to do if you want to go from a good player to a very good player to a great player to somebody that is special. The first step is that you have to work hard. The second step is somewhat like a chess match. No one knew what he could do when he first walked on the floor so everything he was getting was because the game was easy.
“People have all of a sudden skewed their defenses his way and started guarding him with different looks,” Fish said. “Now he has responded and said, ‘Ok, you do this, I’ll take this.’ He can’t settle. He has to take what he wants.”
[/restrict]Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
