Tuesday marked the official opening for the Utah State men’s basketball preseason. The team practiced for two hours in front of fans and media, giving a full of what this team plans to be like under new head coach Ben Jacobson.
It’s a welcome sight for fans who’ve waited throughout the summer to see, or at least hear, a hint of how this squad will turn out in its debut campaign in the Pac-12. It’s also a relief for Jacobson, who has been itching to get more than a handful of hours each week to work with his players. In the summer, they only get eight hours per week, including workouts. So it comes out to four hours of on-court team workouts. With the start of fall, that number goes up to 20.
“We really like the 20 hours. When you’re in the eight hours, your four hours of basketball, you’re counting every minute to make sure you just don’t get the amount of time,” Jacobson said. “We’ve got a group of guys that really want to be in the gym. And now not only do our practices go from an hour and 15 minutes up to two hours, you also get time during the day where the guys — they already started their shooting groups — so they’re in today for kind of 30, 40 minutes. They get their shots up, get to be around them, and then you get two hours with them for practice. I really enjoy that part of it.”
Was able to watch USU men’s basketball practice today in their first official fall session. I shared some thoughts on the Full Court Press, and will have written content soon. But until then, here’s head coach Ben Jacobson and guard Dallin Hall from post-practice. pic.twitter.com/rsux6pI8wK
— Jason Walker (@jwalker_sports) September 23, 2026
There is still a decent amount of time before the season begins in full, though opportunities for anyone to see this Utah State team are coming up quickly. Aggie Madness is this Thursday, and while it won’t feature scrimmages, it’ll be a chance to see some of the skills the team has. On Oct. 10, the first of three preseason exhibitions will take place with Utah State hosting Denver in the Dee Glen Smith Spectrum.
But with all of that still in the future, here’s my attempt to empty the notebook from my two-hour glimpse of the team this week.
Lineup Hints
Practice lineups are not necessarily representative of future starting lineups, though one of the five-man units certainly looked a lot like early projections for the Aggies. For a brief five-on-five scrimmage, Dallin Hall, Mason Falslev, Solomon Callaghan, Will Hornseth and Connor Turnbull donned blue jerseys and faced off against the white-clad unit featuring AJ Bates, Ace Reiser, Brayden Boe, Kingston Tosi and Sean Felts. The former of those two lineups features four out of my five projected starters from a month ago. The only difference from mine is that Callaghan is in as one of two secondary ball-handlers instead of running a two-point guard lineup with Bates and Hall.
The five-on-five didn’t last particularly long, but the blue team dominated. Their ball movement was a spectacle, and the unit generated several open looks, with most shots feeling like they were off the hands of Callaghan. The transfer from Wright State is the team’s smoothest scorer, and he’ll be an incredibly valuable piece because of that one trait. If Callaghan is a starter, or a bench scorer who averages north of 25 minutes per game, he’ll push Falslev for being the team’s scoring leader.
“He’s one of the best shooters in the country,” Jacobson said. “We’re going to do what we can to help him get shots. He’s creative enough to get some on his own, but his teammates really trust him already.”
You may have noticed one name missing from the blue and white lineups: Karson Templin. He wasn’t absent from this portion of practice. Instead, he subbed in for Turnbull, which led to a Hornseth/Templin frontcourt pairing, a duo very much expected to see the floor together this season.
An interesting gap in Utah State’s roster is the small forward position. The ideal is for a player with decent perimeter skill and a 6’6″ (or taller) frame to fill that spot. Unfortunately, there are few players in that height range with the skills necessary to get minutes at the collegiate level. And the ones who do are getting paid a lot of money to play in the SEC, Big 12 or Big Ten.
Mid-majors, and even some high-majors, typically fill that small forward spot with the tallest guard on the roster, usually someone 6-foot-3 or 6-foot-4. Utah State has been starting and closing games with Falslev, Ian Martinez and MJ Collins at small forward for years. These players are undersized as small forwards, but not in a way that is crippling. And since most of college basketball is doing the same, it only becomes a problem when you run into the few teams who do have size at the position.
This year’s rotation for the Aggies might lack a player with the necessary combination of size and skill. The key word there is “might” since there is one player, redshirt freshman Kingston Tosi, who could fit that role. Tosi stands 6-foot-8, has jump-out-of-the-gym athleticism, and a growing perimeter skill set. It’s a combination that makes him unique on the team, and its most intriguing player.
Dallin Hall
Utah State’s most recent, and final, addition to the roster, fifth-year guard Dallin Hall, may very well be the best late roster addition since Neemias Queta back in 2018. According to EvanMiya.com preseason player rankings for the Pac-12, Hall is the sixth-best player in the conference and second-best on the Aggies behind Falslev. Based on the same metrics from EvanMiya, a Utah State team without Hall would go from being ranked 48th nationally to 59th.
Hall is one of many athletes across the country who sought a fifth season of eligibility after the shift to the five-in-five rule this summer. Athletes like Hall, members of the high school class of 2022, who never utilized their redshirt and played four seasons, have filed dozens of lawsuits seeking the right to play a fifth season.
The path Hall has taken to be eligible to play, and his journey to Utah State, was unconventional. He was initially a plaintiff in a North Carolina-based lawsuit, though that complaint was dropped after a Colorado ruling temporarily gave blanket eligibility to the entire class of 2022. When the Colorado ruling was overturned on appeal, Hall became part of a lawsuit in McLennan County, Texas. On Aug. 20, plaintiffs in that lawsuit were granted a temporary restraining order.
The Aggies were the first to reach out to the newly re-eligible Hall.
“As soon as I became eligible, Coach (Jacobson), Mase were the two first phone calls,” Hall said. “Me and Mase have known each other since fourth grade and had a lot of success and a lot of fun together.”
Two days after getting the TRO from the Texas lawsuit, Hall had committed to play for the Aggies. The pitch was simple and convincing.
“(Jacobson) let me know about the team here. He let me know about the situation,” Hall said. “And he said that they could really use me to help them build a winning team and to win even more because that’s what they do here. And then, in talking to Coach Jake and his vision for me and how I could grow as a player, as a person, and ultimately to have that chance to play for my home community. This is close to where I grew up. It meant a lot to me.”
Seeing Hall in action in Utah State’s practice, it’s pretty clear the hype behind him is real. Defensively, he secured several deflections and steals, and his playmaking might easily be the best on the team. His experience as a four-year starter across time in the WCC, Big 12 and ACC stood out in his ability to quickly pick up concepts and mesh with teammates on the court.
“He’s been great,” Jacobson said. “It’s almost been like Dallin’s been here the entire summer.”
Adding a player to the roster so late can throw a wrench in the chemistry of a team that’s already spent weeks trying to get to know each other on and off the court. But Jacobson said Hall’s addition has “just made it better” in the locker room. And Jacobson spoke glowingly of what Hall brings on the court.
“You feel his experience. You feel his leadership. He’s a high-level player,” Jacobson said. “The leadership and the experience that he brings and the maturity he brings to our team, it’s going to be valuable.”
While Hall has been ruled eligible for now, there are still likely more battles to be fought in the courts. But the latest update from his case brought good news as he was granted a temporary injunction on Monday, extending his eligibility beyond the temporary restraining order from August.
Injuries
Three players were held out of participation at practice: Collin Mulholland, Jax Allen and Bron Roberts. The latter of the three is unsurprising, as Roberts is expected to be out until January at a minimum, recovering from an ACL injury. Mulholland and Allen were less expected. The two were both full participants during the open practices held during the summer and played rather well. None of the three showed any outward signs of injury — no crutches, braces or bandages — with each dressed in practice gear, just not taking part in drills.
The coaching staff has provided estimates for Roberts’ return, ranging from January to mid-February depending on how his rehab goes. For Mulholland and Allen, the timeline could be between seven and 10 days, though Jacobson didn’t fully commit to that assertion.
“Just some things they’ve got to go through protocol-wise. So we’ll see where that ends up,” Jacobson said. “Hopefully we’ve got them back in a week to ten days.”
Ball Screen Offense/Defense
A good chunk of the practice featured drills and instruction on the team’s ball screen offense and defense. Both are important aspects of Jacobson’s system. I provided a basic overview of both in my two-part series about Jacobson’s schemes shortly after he was hired.
The building blocks of his Five-Out offense and Pack Line defense were very clearly being laid. The offense is coming along rather smoothly as that style of offense is fairly common, and many of the current Aggies have run something similar at some point in their careers. Players like Hall and Bates are practically tailor-made to be operating from a five-out, ball screen-heavy offense like Jacobson’s. Opportunities to score from these actions are plentiful, but there’s also a buffet of passes.
“We’ve got short roll options, lob options. Some bigs that can really score in the post,” Hall said. “It’s great to have versatility at the big man position, because it allows your offense to do so much more. We can play through them. We can get it to them, and then get off ball to get the ball moving. So it makes us super hard to guard.”
Defensively, the work is still in progress. The hedging on ball screens and level of activity required from the help defense is something players are still adjusting to.
“We guard ball screen is a little different, so that’ll be a little bit of an adjustment,” Hall said. “But I think it’ll allow me to make more plays on the ball.”
When all is said and done, Jacobson should have the team in good shape. Last year, Northern Iowa faced one of the highest rates of pick-and-roll attacks on its defense, but ranked 69th in defending guards attempting to score off ball screens and 27th in defending rolling bigs according to Synergy Sports tracking data. Transitioning that success from UNI to Utah State will be one of Jacobson’s top priorities.
