Darious Hall is a changed man, which Mills Coach Raymond Cooper said is a good thing.
Hall, an energetic 6-6 forward for the Comets, signed a national letter of intent to play basketball for the University of Arkansas on Wednesday. Cooper said Hall has harnessed his unbounded on-court enthusiasm into a more effective style of play.
"Believe it or not, he's actually calmed down," Cooper said. "But he still has plenty of energy. He's full of energy every day during practice. It's fun, but he's learned to rein it in. He channels that energy a lot better now. He's really been fun to coach."
"A lot of players just want to score, but I don't want to be known just for that," Hall said. "I play with a lot of energy because I want everybody to play with a lot of energy. I want them to follow my lead."
Hall was the leading scorer (12.5) and rebounder (8.6) for the Comets (24-7) last season. Cooper said the Razorbacks are getting a good teammate.
"Darious is good young man, but he's a great teammate," Cooper said. "He's unselfish. He plays really hard. And a lot of people don't realize this, but he's got a really high basketball IQ. He does a lot of things that don't show up in the stats. He dives on the floor and takes charges. He's just all over the place."
"This is a dream come true. It's something I've been working at for a long time," Hall said. "I feel like I've managed to accomplish a huge goal."
Cooper said Hall will play all five positions for the Comets this season because "he causes so many mismatches."
"He used to let his emotions get the best of him," Cooper said. "He would let a bad play or a call get into his emotions, and he would react by fouling or doing things that just weren't smart. Now he's a lot better at controlling those emotions."
Hall also has become influential in how the Comets run their offense.
"He's coming to me with some ideas," Cooper said. "He's becoming involved and vested into what we're doing. He's not really an in-your-face type of leader, but he has a way with words and a unique way of saying it. And when you stop and think about it, you realize it was really insightful."
Sports on 11/10/2016