Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Las Vegas product Jalen Hill aims to take Oklahoma deep into the tournament

Jalen Hill

Orlin Wagner / Associated Press

Oklahoma forward Jalen Hill (1) gets past Iowa State forward Solomon Young (33) during the first half of an NCAA college basketball game in the first round of the Big 12 men’s tournament in Kansas City, Mo., Wednesday, March 10, 2021.

In the wake of the cancellation of last year’s college basketball postseason, then-Oklahoma freshman Jalen Hill returned home to Las Vegas and allowed himself a week or so to rest up and get over the disappointment.

Then it was time to get back to work on his game, an objective that proved far more challenging than expected. He knew practicing in an indoor gym would be impossible with the country on lockdown after the coronavirus outbreak, so he canvassed local parks hoping to find a hoop. No luck.

“Every single court I tried to go to, the rims were all down,” Hill recalls. “So my friend who had a basketball court in his backyard let me use that. I used that the whole time in quarantine, even in 100-degree weather.”

The hard, hot and lonesome hours put in by the 6-foot-7, 225-pound forward for several months before he returned to Norman, Oklahoma, in the fall have contributed significantly to the Sooners’ success this season. Oklahoma has looked like a Final Four contender at times throughout the year, with Hill, now a sophomore, showing off the same unselfish, versatile style he showcased at Clark High from 2015 to 2019.

Hill has served as a steadying, energetic presence off the bench and a spot starter as Oklahoma has climbed as high as No. 9 in the Top 25 polls. A four-game losing streak to end the regular season dropped the Sooners to a No. 8 seed in the NCAA Tournament, but Hill seems confident they can regain their form when it matters most.

Oklahoma opens play in the round of 64 against No. 9 seed Missouri in Indianapolis, March 20 at 4:25 p.m. Vegas time.

“We’ve realized how good we can be, and we still think we can go as far as there is to go,” he says. “We’re our own biggest enemy, but we’re willing to do whatever it takes.”

Oklahoma made history in January by becoming the first team in 25 years to beat three straight top 10 opponents and the first team since 1974 with four top 10 victories in a single month. Hill had one of the most memorable highlights of the run when he soared through the air for an acrobatic one-handed dunk in an upset win over Alabama.

You could say Hill began setting up the play during his summer sessions over the spring and summer, when, he says, he focused on ballhandling and jump-shooting, working to render scouting reports on him useless. During Hill’s freshman college season, in which he appeared in 30 games with one start, opponents sagged off, dared him to shoot rather than risk an open lane to the rim.

That proved fatal for archrival Texas, then ranked No. 5 in the nation, when it hosted Oklahoma on January 26. Hill knocked down three 3-pointers as part of an 80-79 victory. The win over Alabama came next, and Hill says that’s when he began noticing defenders playing him tighter—and took advantage with his highlight-reel bucket.

“It’s opened up my game a lot more,” he says. “My ability to make people respect my jump shot has been something for me. They have to close out, so I’ve been driving more and hopefully dunking on somebody.”

But scoring isn’t, nor has it ever been, the best part of Hill’s game. He averaged 17 points per game through his junior and senior seasons at Clark, yet coaches often preached about him being more aggressive in taking over games offensively.

Hill says he was more concerned with getting teammates involved, and doing “the dirty work,” as he calls it—crashing for rebounds and guarding opposing scoring threats. That mentality has translated well at talent-rich Oklahoma.

Hill has averaged 4.3 points and three rebounds this season for the Sooners, but coach Lon Kruger told the Oklahoman that the impact goes beyond the numbers.

“Not all of it shows up in the box score,” Kruger said of Hill’s production. “He’s always talking defensively, communicating. He’s always in the right spot defensively. He’s blocking out every time. He doesn’t always get the rebound, but he doesn’t give up rebounds, either.”

Hill first met Kruger as a child, while the latter coached UNLV from 2004-2011, but he’s too young to really remember the Rebels’ last deep tournament run under his current coach. Hill was just 5 when Kruger led UNLV to the Sweet 16 in 2007, but he learned about it later while in high school.

“When I was getting recruited by Coach Kruger to go here, I was going through some old stuff in my closet, and I found a UNLV book with Coach Kruger on the front page, talking about all that stuff,” Hill says. “It just kind of clicked with me then that this is the right guy to go play for.”

Hill’s own favorite NCAA Tournament memory is one Kruger and Sooner fans remember less fondly: Villanova’s 2016 national championship win, which instilled Hill’s own Final Four dreams while he was a freshman in high school.

After beating Oklahoma in the national semifinals, Villanova famously upset North Carolina with a buzzer-beating, 40-foot shot from Kris Jenkins to win the title. Hill recalls hearing about how Jenkins, who was roughly the same size Hill is now, was never much of a shooter until he worked hard in college to diversify his playing style.

Hill hopes he’s on a similar path, albeit one with an interesting detour that found him practicing alone in the desert heat instead of chasing a championship to end his first year in college. Having gone through that experience, he’s even more determined to make the most of the NCAA Tournament.

“I missed out last year, so this is very exciting for me,” Hill says. “These are new experiences coming up, and I hope we can go far. I think we can go to the Final Four, to the championship.”

This story originally appeared in Las Vegas Weekly.