PLANO — If DJ Hall ever kept a low profile, those days are gone.
“I’m now known as state champ,” the 6-7 Plano East forward said. “Some people that I know just call me [that].”
Plano East basketball coach Matt Wester said Hall, a three-star Texas state pledge, is now the face of Plano’s east side and is recognized wherever he goes. A junior last basketball season, Hall went from having one Division I offer in March to at least nine over the course of the summer.
Being the star on a history-making state championship team would earn anyone that treatment. Hall and Plano East beat Round Rock Stony Point 53-41 in the 6A state title game last hoops season, finishing 40-0 and winning the school’s first UIL state championship in a team sport. Plano East, bolstered by the chemistry of childhood friends who grew up playing ball together, became the first undefeated champion in the UIL’s top classification since Duncanville during the 2006-07 season and finished the year nationally ranked in several polls.
“You think of Plano East, you think of the basketball team,” Wester said.
Life has also changed for Wester since that surreal moment at the Alamodome in March. He said he spent parts of the summer speaking at conferences and clinics.
“People from all over the country were familiar with our players and our story. It was just kind of a shock to how much attention we had the whole time,” Wester said. “I’ve been able to sit at different tables than I was sitting at before and be in important conversations that I wasn’t in before.”
But it’s a new season and a new-look Plano East is about to debut, with UIL boys basketball games beginning Friday. The program graduated 11 seniors from last year’s roster and is embracing the challenge of a rebuild after the magical season. Coaches and players alike hope to prove that Plano East can still hang with the best in the state.
“We have a target on our backs, so everyone’s going to be coming for us,” said 6-6 junior forward/ center Moustafa Abualneel. “We’re like the underdogs, since we lost a lot of players. No one thinks we can make anything happen, so we’re just going to go out there and do what we do.”
The return of Hall, the District 6-6A Co-MVP last year who averaged 15.7 points, 7 rebounds, 1.4 assists and two steals ahead of the state tournament, is huge for the program. He had 18 points and six boards in the state title game, earning game MVP honors.
Wester said Hall, listed at 220 pounds, lost about 35 pounds in the offseason and found himself playing on higher-level basketball circuits over the summer.
Abualneel, 6-4 senior forward Izan Qazi, 5-11 junior guard Jayden Parker, and 5-10 senior guard Yohannes Daniel are among the players who will step up this season for the defending state champs.
Qazi and Abualneel were on the varsity roster last season, too.
“It was amazing, it was something I’ve never been part of before,” Qazi said of Plano East’s run to state. “Being part of something that big was a surreal experience.”
“Being able to learn from all those seniors and guys above us just means a lot,” Abualneel added. “We can put it all to use this year.”
The Plano East roster is not the only thing that changed since March.
In June, the UIL approved a proposal that will restructure the basketball playoffs by splitting each classification into two divisions. This basketball season, the playoff structure will resemble the 6A football postseason format, which splits qualifying teams into two divisions based on enrollment and crowns two champions in each classification.
“We have so many schools and such high competition, it doesn’t really water it down,” Wester said of the change.
But the new format does mean Plano East was the UIL’s last undisputed 6A state champion.. Last season will be a tough act to follow, but Hall said he feels confident in this team’s abilities.
“I wouldn’t say there’s pressure on us,” Hall said. “These guys have been bought in since the season ended last year. We know how to play the right game. If our guards play like our guards played last year, I feel like we should be straight and win a lot of games.”
Ahead of last season, Wester said Plano East felt it could make a run at state after losing by a small margin to 2023 state champion Lake Highlands in the playoffs. That potential helped motivate the team to come back better the next year.
Coming off a legendary season, that fuel is still there.
“It was such a meaningful experience, you really just want to do it again. I’ve heard a lot of people comment, ‘I would just retire if I went 40–0,’” Wester said. “That’s the opposite of how I felt when I finished. I got quite a few congratulatory text messages after winning it and if it was someone in our program I just responded, ‘Let’s do it again.’”
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