Carlsbad’s Jake Hall traded the beach for the desert when he decommitted from UC San Diego last spring to follow longtime Tritons coach Eric Olen to New Mexico — but inside the Lobos’ locker room, it feels a lot like home.
Chris Howell, a 2021 San Diego Section Player of the Year at Torrey Pines who spent last season at UCSD, anchors the backcourt, while San Diego native Luke Haupt, a former Point Loma Nazarene standout, adds depth off the bench.
On the sidelines, Chris’s older brother, Mikey Howell — a three-time league champion at San Marcos and UCSD’s all-time assists leader — serves as an assistant coach. Olen also brought along Tom Tankelewicz and Sam Stapelton from his La Jolla staff.
“Those are guys I grew up watching,” Hall told the Coast News during a recent road trip to Kansas City. “It’s been really fun. They’re great leaders and people to look up to, and you can talk to them about the college game because they’ve been in it for a long time. They’re just great role models and leaders to have. And it helps that they’re from San Diego.”
Hall, the second all-time leading scorer in San Diego history with 3,106 points, started the first four games of the season for the 3-1 Lobos, including a 14-point effort against UC Riverside. Despite the early showing, he said he expects more from himself — understandable perhaps for a player who scored 40 points or more seven times as a high school senior.
“I feel like I’ve underperformed,” Hall said. “I’m just trying to build off those tough games. Defensively, I want to be able to guard everyone on the floor, one through five, fight off the switches, and continue developing on that end. Once I do that, I think it will lead to offensive success. I haven’t shot the ball great yet, but I’m just leaning on my work ethic and trusting that the shots will drop. I’m nowhere near where I want to be.”
The advice from the elder San Diegans in the room? Trust your work and trust your process.
“That’s cliché, but I think it’s great advice, and I’ve really leaned on it over these first few games,” Hall said.
Hall called the size and speed of the game the toughest adjustment to Division I basketball.
“The transition with the size and athleticism has been a big jump, but I think I got used to it pretty quickly,” he said. “The pace of the game is fast, so adjusting early has helped me make an impact. Through these games, my focus has just been doing whatever it takes to help the team win — whether that’s scoring or whatever else the team needs me to do.”
Hall, a six-foot-four guard who filled what Carlsbad head coach Clark Allard described as the team’s de facto center role last year, said competing in California’s rough-and-tumble Open Division prepared him well for the college game.
“Playing those Harvard-Westlake games in 2023-24 — they had real bigs competing at the highest levels — facing that physicality definitely helped me,” Hall said. “It’s been a point of emphasis in the offseason, knowing where I needed to get physically.”
Had Hall stayed committed to UCSD, he would have played for Clint Allard, the brother of his high school coach, Clark Allard.
On his decision to decommit, Hall said, “I knew I wanted to play for Coach Olen, but I definitely had conversations with UCSD coach Clint Allard, and he expressed the same type of interest — whether Coach Olen was there or not at UCSD. At the end of the day, I just wanted to play for Coach Olen at New Mexico.”
Watching from afar, Hall said he still expects Carlsbad to be competitive in the race for an Open Division crown, even in his absence.
“They’re going to be really fun to watch. I can’t wait to catch a game — I think they’ve got some great pieces this year,” he said. “Clark’s going to do a great job.”
Stepping into his own role as an elder San Diegan, Hall had advice for Carlsbad senior guard Briggs Young, a Northwest Nazarene commit expected to shoulder much of the load left by Hall’s graduation.
“Stay in the gym. I tell him all the time, you’re going to have to make big sacrifices if you really want this, and you really have to love it. I think he’s made strides toward that, especially this offseason,” Hall said.
