Cape Henry product Hall sparks 10-2 Italian team
The latest in our budding series on local players in international pro basketball takes us to Italy, where former Cape Henry Collegiate and Virginia Cavaliers standout Devon Hall could be on a championship contender in a city famous for fashion.
Hall, 27, often is the starting 2-guard for Olimpia Milano (10-2), which holds second place among the 16 teams in Serie A, trailing only Virtus Bologna.
The Milan team sometimes is known as “Scarpette Rosse” (Little Red Shoes) because team officials imported red Converse All-Star shoes for American players, and the name stuck.
Hall, a 6-foot-5, 215-pounder, is averaging 8.6 points, 2.8 assists and 2.5 rebounds per game for a deep squad whose top scorers are former NBA forward Timothé Luwawu-Cabarrot (14.0 ppg), 2013 Portsmouth Invitational Tournament MVP Brandon Davies (13.4) and Billy Baron (10.0).
Davies starred from Brigham Young, played sparingly in the NBA and found his niche overseas. Baron played in 2010-11 for UVA before becoming a bigger factor with Rhode Island and Canisius, and he is on his seventh overseas team.
Hall arrived in Charlottesville in 2013 and, like so many players in the successful Tony Bennett coaching era, developed his skills. After redshirting for one season,
Hall earned increased minutes and provided more offense with each passing year. In his senior year, he was on the 2018 All-ACC Tournament first team as the Cavaliers took the championship. For the season, he was on the conference’s All-Defensive team and overall second team.
After enduring UVA’s infamous NCAA first-round loss to No. 16 seed Maryland Baltimore County, he bounced back to make the All-Portsmouth Invitational Tournament team.
Drafted by the Oklahoma
City Thunder, he played 11 NBA regular-season games for the Thunder in 2019-20 as well as competed in the summer league and the G League for a couple of years. He also played for Cairns in Australia in 2018-19.
In ’20-21, Hall played 42 games for Bamberg in Germany, then found his way to Milan in 2021-22. He’s now in his third season there and, as usual, has proved to be a quality complementary player — something his father, Cape Henry coach Mark Hall, helped instill in him.
Coming up
Monday: Christopher Newport’s men’s basketball team will play a home game against Brandeis University of Massachusetts at 5 p.m. at Freeman Center.
Thursday: The William & Mary men will play host to Colonial Athletic Association foe Northeastern at Kaplan Arena at 7 p.m . ... Old Dominion’s women will welcome Louisiana-Monroe to Chartway Arena for a 6:30 p.m. Sun Belt game.
Friday: The Professional Box Lacrosse Association’s Hampton Hammerheads’ first home opener will be at 7 p.m. against the New Jersey-based Trenton Terror at Hampton Coliseum. The Hammerheads began their inaugural campaign with an 18-12 road victory over the Salem Mayhem.
Saturday: The Tidewater Striders will conduct 6- and 10-mile runs at 8:30 a.m. on the Dismal Swamp Canal Trail in Chesapeake . ... There’s an ultra-distance run at Sandy Bottom Nature Park in Hampton, lasting eight hours for some, starting at 8:15 a.m . ... The Tribe men will return to Kaplan Arena for a 2 p.m. contest against Hofstra, traditionally one of the CAA’s most consistent programs . ... The ODU women will return to Chartway Arena to meet South Alabama at 2 p.m . ... Also at 2 p.m., the Virginia Wesleyan men will play host to Roanoke at TowneBank Arena.