KNOXVILLE – As nice as the moniker may sound, Kenny Hall prefers a partially different label than new and improved.
For the University of Tennessee forward, he’s the same old Kenny Hall, even with a new coaching staff and an overhauled roster creating a different set of circumstances this offseason for the Volunteers’ basketball program.
“Like any other offseason, this is no different from any other one [in] the way I approach it,” Hall said last week after a Rocky Top Summer League game at Knoxville’s Bearden High School. “I approach it as a chance to get better, for myself and for the team. This year is different because they want me to step up and play that leader role. That’ll be the only difference. I’m just trying to get better.”
For the 6-foot-8, 225-pound rising junior, the training regimen has remained mostly the same: 6 a.m. wake-up calls six days a week to get some shots up or lift weights and return visits to the gym or weight room later in the day.
It may sound similar to the rigorous schedule that Tobias Harris, who became the Vols’ first NBA draft pick in nine years when he was taken 19th overall by Milwaukee on Thursday night, used for his freshman season at UT. But Hall views it differently.