As a youth he played athletics, American football and baseball, but was introduced to basketball by a neighbour when he was 12 years old, but it wasn't until he was in high school that he started receiving some coaching.

Showing his class and skill, Hays averaged 24.6 points, 4.5 rebounds and 9 assists as he helped the 36ers back to the playoffs where they would ultimately be beaten 2–0 in the Semi-finals by their nemesis, the defending and eventual champion Perth Wildcats.

[6] During his first year with the 36ers, Hays also set the still standing club record for assists in a single game in the second of the Quarter finals against the Melbourne Tigers, dishing out 17 to help Adelaide to a 132–96 win.

At the end of the year, the 36ers signed veteran Australian Boomers point guard and local Adelaide product Phil Smyth.

This, combined with the continued development of local guard Brett Maher, saw the then-30-year-old Hays unwanted by the club and he signed with another NBL team, the perennially struggling Illawarra Hawks for two years.