(Photo courtesy of Hunter Hensel)

BROOKLYN, NY – Despite exceeding expectations by almost every metric in head coach Tony Skinn’s first season, beating then-No. 16 Dayton at home and earning a very respectable No. 8 seed in the Atlantic 10 Tournament, a different storyline hijacked the end of George Mason’s season. 

Instead of celebrating the successful start of a new era of George Mason basketball, the circumstances surrounding sophomore forward Keyshawn Hall’s ankle injury dominated headlines. The All-Conference second teamer missed the final three games of the season, and despite Skinn confirming that he was available for their second round tournament game against No. 9 seed Saint Joseph’s, Hall only played for four minutes in the first half. 

In those four minutes, Hall went 0-3 from the field. Skinn never looked Hall’s way for the rest of the game, even when George Mason was attempting a furious second half comeback, coming back from being down by as many as 18 points to make it a three point game with 1:25 left in the game with a chance to tie. 

“[Hall] did practice a couple of days in a row. But this time of the year, we’re not really going that hard. So he’s been dealing with that, and we were going to use him as fit today,” said Skinn. “Obviously, for the most part, it was a rhythm game. I thought that Woody Newton has been playing exceptionally well the last couple of games, so I didn’t want to throw that off. I just thought that tonight, when he was in, he didn’t do anything wrong. But just from a rhythm standpoint, it just wasn’t there.” 

Skinn then confirmed that Hall did not re-aggravate his ankle injury during his four minutes on the court and that he was available to return after he was benched for good with 9:38 left in the first half.

George Mason ended up losing 57-64 to Saint Joseph’s, failing to advance to the quarterfinals of the A-10 Tournament. 

A George Mason spokesperson said that Hall was unavailable for comment after their second round loss and that he had already made his way to the bus by the time the postgame press conference concluded. 

Hall led the A-10 in rebounding with 8.4 per game, was fourth in scoring with 17.2 points and shot 35.7% from three. 

The first game that Hall missed due to what Skinn described as a “tough ankle sprain” was on March 2 against Duquesne. The Dukes beat George Mason 59-51 at EagleBank Arena, and after the game, Skinn was asked about whether or not he could get some traction at that point in the season. Here’s what he had to say according to Patrick Stevens of the Washington Post:

Tony Skinn on whether Mason can get some traction at this point … pic.twitter.com/XuOttTxI3N

— Patrick Stevens (@D1scourse) March 2, 2024

“I hope so. I will be realistic, though. It’s March 2nd, and the nature of the beast is portal time is coming,” said Skinn. “When you’re dealing with that, you can humanly try to put together a locker room that still has to fight. We’re trying to stay away from playing on Tuesday [in the A-10 tournament.] But when you add that portal combination with NIL, it’s tough.”

Skinn continued, “when you start losing some bodies and you start throwing some of the other variables in there–I’m going to coach my ass off for the next two weeks, but it’s a variable that exists.” 

After that, speculation on Twitter and other parts of the online college basketball world began to circulate as to why Hall was really out. 

Check around, Jon. Hall has been poached and is sitting out, per his new NIL deal. The glories of “player empowerment”! Quitting on his school, teammates, coaches, and fans during the season. EXPOSE THIS STUFF! Be a journalist!

— Sausage Sassone (@SausageSassone) March 6, 2024

Rumors about Hall supposedly “quitting” on George Mason in order to stay healthy and save himself for the transfer portal became so pervasive that he released a statement on his own Twitter account claiming that he was still “locked in” with George Mason and that he was just focusing on returning to the A-10 Tournament. 

Anything anyone heard is not true still locked in with Mason💚💛 if you know me you know I never quit or just sat out of any game I always want to play! just getting treatment on my ankle so I can be Good for A10 tournament🙏🏽. https://t.co/502OoHDcgr

— xkeyy (@xkeyy2) March 6, 2024

Technically, Hall did return for the A-10 tournament. But, something felt off. If he was deemed healthy enough to play those four minutes in the first half, why wouldn’t Skinn have had a little more faith in his best scorer, especially when Mason just needed to get some points on the board down big in the second half?

Before finding his way to George Mason, Hall spent his freshman season at UNLV. Hall struggled with weight, weighing-in as high as 295 during his senior year of high school. He dropped down to 225 by the time he was able to get on the court at UNLV, but he struggled to get consistent minutes. 

Hall only played in 18 games for the Runnin’ Rebels, averaging 5.4 points per game, 1.6 rebounds and 0.4 assists in 10.7 minutes. 

Once the season was over, Hall entered the transfer portal, and found his way to George Mason. Skinn, who was forced to rebuild after former head coach Kim English took a job at Providence and brought former Patriots Josh Oduro, Ticket Gaines and Justyn Fernandez with him, had seen Hall play in the summer of 2021 in Ohio when he was an assistant coach at Ohio State. 

Hall committed to George Mason in April. 

Bet On YourSelf let’s Rock Mason Nation💚💛
Shock the world! @CoachTonySkinn @MasonMBB pic.twitter.com/EYDPlIbMgV

— xkeyy (@xkeyy2) April 22, 2023

At the time of Hall’s commitment, it was NCAA policy that in most circumstances, two-time transfers would have to sit out a season, meaning Hall would likely finish out his collegiate (or at least his undergraduate) career at George Mason. 

However, this past December, a federal judge ruled that student-athletes who were sitting out due to the two-time transfer regulations were immediately eligible to play. It is unclear whether or not student-athletes who transfer for a second time will be eligible for the 2024-25 season, but most in the industry are acting under the assumption that they will be. 

Skinn’s comments on March 2 confirmed that belief.

“I’m pretty sure they’re going to pass the two-time transfer,” said Skinn. “I got a little birdie that told me that.”

This upcoming offseason was further complicated after another federal ruling lessened the NCAA’s ability to regulate how student-athletes are able to earn deals off of their name, image and likeness (NIL). 

These two rulings would hypothetically give Hall the ability to transfer to a high-major school with a significantly larger NIL collective, capitalize on the lack of NIL regulations and be able to immediately play without sitting out a season despite having already transferred. 

George Washington head coach Chris Caputo spoke to A10Talk before the A-10 Tournament about Skinn’s comments on March 2nd and how the transfer and NIL rulings have impacted college basketball.

“With the way the goalposts moved in the middle of the season… the NCAA, the courts and the attorney generals have created a very destabilized environment in college basketball,” said Caputo. “The difficulty is when you get young people who don’t have a ton of life experience in an environment where they’re being told if something doesn’t go their way, they can always leave, and you add in the financial part to that, it’s going to probably cause some bad decisions, certainly going to cause some moments that take away from the group or even take away from that player’s development.”

Caputo continued, “If a guy in his mind is thinking, ‘I’m out of here in two weeks,’ because their people are talking to them, I can see there being frustration with that. You can’t control that if you’re a coach, that’s the environment that’s been created.”

The college basketball transfer portal officially opens on Monday, March 18. Based on Skinn’s comments and Hall being benched in George Mason’s second round A-10 tournament loss, it seems like an inevitability that Hall’s name will be one of the first to officially enter the portal. 

If that happens, expect a long list of elite programs with significant NIL opportunities to be in the running for Hall’s services.

Liam O’Murchu and Nick Perkins of WRGW Sports contributed to the reporting of this story. 

https://www.a10talk.com/2024/03/what-we-know-about-the-confusing-end-to-keyshawn-halls-season/

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