When the college basketball season began last month, St. Peter’s College senior point guard Brandon Hall had to go through a number of big changes.
First, the senior captain had to notice that several members of the Peacocks, who guided the team to the Metro Atlantic Athletic Conference championship and a berth in the NCAA Tournament last March, were gone. They graduated, leaving the program in Hall’s hands.
“I definitely felt like I had the weight of the world on my shoulders,” Hall said. “They were our leaders and it was tough losing those guys. We had so many new faces and it was my job to lead the new guys. I had to make sure that we played hard and played together. Being the captain, that’s my most important role. We can’t look back. I had to step up and be a leader.”
Hall demonstrated a lot of those leadership traits in a 63-54 loss to Seton Hall at the Prudential Center last Saturday night, especially making two plays that didn’t show up in the box score.
One, Hall made a great defensive play early in the game, when he sprinted back on defense to make a steal on Seton Hall’s Jordan Theodore as he apparently moved toward a breakaway layup.
Hall busted his tail to make the steal on Theodore. Then, as he was falling down, he had the presence of mind to pass the ball to a teammate. He got up to bring the play up the court. It was nothing but pure hustle in its finest sense.
“Two years ago, that’s a play I probably couldn’t have made,” Hall said. “But I have to make sure every single play that we don’t give up.”
Later in the game, one of the Peacock newcomers got into a physical tussle with a Seton Hall player after the whistle had blown. Before the skirmish became more heated, there was Hall, physically pulling his teammate away. He then got in his teammate’s face, instructing him that he could not do such a thing.
“The Seton Hall player was trying to get in his head and frustrate him a little,” Hall said. “I just had to step in and cool him off. I have to make sure that everyone keeps a level head. With this group, I have to make sure that we all keep jelling together and moving forward. Even though we lost, I think we showed a lot of people that we’re getting there.”
Just the fact that Hall is there in the first place is astounding. When he was a player at Colonia High School, Hall was not considered an NCAA Division I product. He had offers from some Division II New Jersey programs and the one offer from Harvard on the Boulevard.
“My goal was to get a Division I scholarship,” Hall said. “Looking back, I did hear a lot of negative criticism, but I thought St. Peter’s was the level that I needed to be playing at.”
SPC head coach John Dunne also heard the critics and knew he raised some eyebrows when he offered Hall a scholarship. But in Dunne’s eyes, he looked at the other things that Hall provided when he pursued Hall.
“The way I looked at it, we needed to change the culture a bit,” Dunne said. “We had to eliminate some bad things we had here. I saw that Brandon was a good guy with a great work ethic. You can’t underestimate those qualities. I knew that he had a blue-collar attitude and would be willing to sit and wait for his turn to play. He was strong, tough, could defend and had an unselfish attitude.”
So for three years, Hall was patiently entrenched as Nick Leon’s backup and when Leon graduated last June, the starting point guard role was left to Hall.
“I don’t think any player wants to be a backup,” Hall said. “Everyone wants to start. But I knew my role. I enjoyed playing behind Nick and learning from him.”
“We’re blessed to have Brandon,” Dunne said. “As a person and as a leader, he had everything to do with changing the culture and for that, I’m forever grateful. He’s the kind of kid that you would want for a family member. He’s just a selfless human being.”
Hall also knows what it means to be a good friend, because he’s been very close to Eric LeGrand since the two were in grade school. LeGrand is the former Rutgers football player and current radio analyst who was paralyzed during a game against Army last year.
“In reality, I don’t even consider him as a friend anymore,” Hall said. “He’s my brother. I don’t think we can get any closer. We stay in touch almost every single day.”
The friendship began when the two were in grade school and it began as adversaries.
“I went to Avenel Middle School and he went to another school,” Hall said. “We played against each other in basketball. We weren’t the best of friends. We would play for a trophy called the Mayor’s Cup and Eric would do a lot of chirping back and forth. I’d hear all this junk about how they would beat us, but we wound up winning by 30.”
When it came time to attend high school, there was the big trash-talking basketball player in the same classes with Hall.
“Freshman year of high school, we started hanging out together and Eric convinced me to play football,” Hall said. “We became closer because of that. He was the star of the football team and I stuck with basketball and we both became Division I athletes.”
Hall said that he went to several Rutgers games to see his friend play and was supposed to be at the New Meadowlands Stadium a little over a year ago, when Rutgers played Army.
“I called him right before the game and told him that I couldn’t make it,” Hall said. “We had practice that day and he understood.”
Hall then received the text from a friend that said LeGrand was injured in the game and taken to Hackensack University Medical Center.
“I went to the hospital with my friend and I was extremely nervous, because I knew it was bad,” Hall said. “When I saw his sister, I knew things weren’t right. She’s usually laughing and smiling, but she was so serious. I didn’t want to ask. It was really one of the hardest days of my life, seeing my best friend like that.”
LeGrand broke his neck and is paralyzed, but has been making strides.
“I can’t be any more proud of him, the way he’s handled everything,” Hall said. “The first time I saw him, I didn’t know what to do. And he just asked what we were doing later that day, where we were going to hang out. I’m so proud of him. He’s touched so many people and yet, he can’t move. He’s made it so easy to cope with it all. He never has a down day. He’s always smiling. He’s the same person he was before he got hurt. He just does what he has to do.”
So when this season was ready to tip off, Hall had an idea to honor his friend.
“I called him and asked if I could wear his number this year,” Hall said. “He said, ‘Of course.’ I had to do it for him.”
So when the Peacocks got their new uniforms last month and Hall’s jersey number went from 10 to 52, Hall pulled the jersey out and grabbed his cell phone.
“I pulled it out and looked at the jersey with 52 on it,” Hall said. “I took a picture of it and texted it to Eric. He was the first person I showed it to. I’m going to wear that jersey and eventually, I get to give it to him.”
LeGrand got to see Hall wear the jersey in person last week, when SPC played its first home game against Binghamton, a game the Peacocks won, 66-43. In the early going of the season, it’s been the only game that the Peacocks have emerged victorious.
“When I first saw him there, I got a little nervous, but then I got focused and played well,” Hall said. “He’s definitely an inspiration for me. If I’m tired in practice and don’t want to do sprints, I think of Eric and know that he would want to do it. If I am wearing his number, I have to live up to his work ethic. He’s definitely my inspiration, because I know what he does every day to try to walk again.”
Dunne knows that he has a special captain in Hall.
“I’ve been blessed to have Brandon for the last four years,” Dunne said. “For what he is as a man, as a player, as a person. He’s made himself into a Division I player. He’s tremendous.”
And obviously, Brandon Hall is a tremendous friend to Eric LeGrand.
Jim Hague can be reached at OGSMAR@aol.com.
You can also read Jim’s blog at www.jimhaguesports.blogspot.com.