BOZEMAN – Montana State star Tyler Hall has decided to test the NBA waters.
Hall, a junior at MSU, has declared his intention to enter the NBA Draft in June. Hall will not hire an agent and therefore remains eligible to withdraw from the process and return to the Bobcats or another Division I school for his senior season.
Hall said the process offers him the chance to determine his draft status.
Montana State guard Tyler Hall (3)/by Brooks Nuanez
“I’m not hiring an agent in any way, shape or form,” he said, “so I’m just seeing where I’m at in this. If I’m secured as a first or second round pick, then I’ll make the decision. But right now I’m focusing on getting in there with those (other underclassmen) and seeing where I’m at.”
The Rock Island, Illinois, product scored 17.5 points a game in 2017-18, and his 1,861 career points is third in Bobcat history and 10th all-time in the Big Sky Conference. He was a unanimous first-team All-Big Sky selection as a sophomore after scoring a single-season MSU record 739 points. His 23.1 points per game ranked seventh in the country. He entered last season as the preseason Big Sky MVP before earning second-team All-Big Sky honors for a Bobcat squad that lost 11 of its final 13 games.
According to a source close to the situation, Hall has been living and training in Chicago a few hours North of his hometown. He is enrolled in online classes at Montana State. The 6-foot-4 shooting guard has been the subject of a formidable amount of draft hype after hitting 120 3-pointers and shooting 43 percent from beyond the arc as a sophomore. Hall has hit 315 3-pointers in his career.
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Through an MSU representative, Hall said he will not be granting interviews until the process is complete.
Montana State guard Tyler Hall (3)/by Brooks Nuanez
The process officially begins on April 13 with the NBA early-entry candidate application period. Teams conduct and attend workouts with early-entry players beginning on April 24, and the deadline to withdraw from the process and retain NCAA eligibility is May 30.
“I am very excited for Tyler,” Montana State head coach Brian Fish said. “This allows him and his family to gather information without jeopardizing his career at MSU. This is a process the NCAA allows and we are very excited and supportive of the gathering of information.”
Hall has one year of eligibility remaining. Fish has one year left on his existing contract. Montana State is 43-52 in Hall’s three seasons, losing in the first round of the Big Sky Tournament in Reno three years in a row.
Photos by Brooks Nuanez. All Rights Reserved.
