It’s been a while since I posted about Harding basketball, so this will have to serve that purpose. Last week, Matt Hall was named to the GSC “Top 10” for his all-around performance as an athlete, in the classroom, and in extracurricular activities. Matt is the Bisons leader and star player, and he will be counted on to lead the Bisons back into the GSC tournament in 2008. That’s not really news, but I thought I’d throw it out there.
Here’s Hall’s profile from the press release:
Matt Hall, Harding University
Men’s Basketball & Men’s Golf/Forward
Senior/DeQueen, Arkansas
Kinesiology/3.24 G.P.A.Ten minutes into the 2005-06 basketball season, Matt Hall’s year was over and there were doubts if he would ever return to the court.
The knee injury was a crushing blow for the Harding University squad, but for Hall, it was just another of life’s challenges, and he was determined to overcome the adversity and return better than ever.
That is exactly what the All-American did, and then some. The DeQueen, Arkansas native used the injury as motivation to work hard and return to the top of the GSC basketball world.
And what a year it was: Hall tied for second in the league in scoring (22.0), en route to becoming just the third player in league history to win multiple GSC Player of the Year awards. He was also tabbed First Team Daktronics and NABC All-South Region and was a Third Team Basketball Times All-American and an Honorable Mention on the Division II Bulletin All-America squad. Hall’s athletic demands did not end after basketball season, hitting the links with Harding golf squad and posting the team’s third-best stroke average including a 37th place finish (+15) at the GSC Tournament.
Not surprisingly, Hall applies the same discipline and desire to the classroom, achieving a 3.24 overall G.P.A. and a 3.41 mark as a Kinesiology major. He held the rare distinction of being named to two separate GSC All-Academic teams this season, garnering his second in Men’s Basketball and his first in Men’s Golf. Hall has put himself in perfect position to graduate as a double-major and to earn a master’s degree by the time he has completed his eligibility.
Hall also enjoys working with young people and volunteering his time to worthy causes. For the past three summers he has worked with junior high and high school kids as a counselor and recreation coordinator at the “Uplift” church camp held on the Harding University campus. He volunteered as part of the Katrina Relief Effort in New Orleans where he helped clean up homes that were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina and traveled to Nicaragua for a summer church mission. Hall has also spent the past four years volunteering for the “Day of Service” community project and regularly volunteers in local schools drug-free “Red Ribbon Week” activities.
Consider this a college basketball open thread, since there’s not much else to report on the D-II landscape unless you’re an AD looking to schedule a game for the upcoming season. I’ll be on the lookout for news about next year’s schedule and roster as that becomes available. I expect plenty of discussion about which players may or may not be returning, as well as information about the latest formerly incarcerated addition to the Henderson State team.
jfwiii.net 
Some of Henderson State’s basketball players also volunteer their time to worthy causes. Though unlike Matt Hall, their community service hours are court-ordered as a result of their guilty pleas.
It’s almost too easy, but it’s still fun to perpetuate this joke. Although, it is becoming less of a joke and more of a cry for help from the athletic department there.
The sad thing is that it’s D-II, where you can still recruit a good enough group to win just by picking off JC talent. So I guess it’s not like their program is suffering, at least not on the court. They did make the NCAA Tourney, after all.