Hulls gets offers from IU, Purdue
By Chris Korman 331-4353 | ckorman@heraldt.com
May 8, 2008

They’ll probably keep saying what they’ve been saying for so long about Jordan Hulls.

Too small. Not fast enough. Won’t be able to handle the physicality of Division I basketball.

Those words, fully and finally, will bounce harmlessly off the Bloomington South point guard because they are rooted largely in the opinion of opposing fans or the people who banter about these things under anonymous names on the Internet.

There are a couple of people who think Hulls, a wiry 6-foot coach on the floor, can play at a high level.

And their opinions carry real weight.

One is Tom Crean.

He coaches the Indiana Hoosiers.

Hulls met with Crean — his second visit to Assembly Hall since a stellar performance at an AAU event in Pittsburgh made him one of the rising stars of the early tournament season — on Tuesday night.

Crean offered him a scholarship, which not even Hulls expected.

Purdue’s Matt Painter also thought he was worthy of a scholarship, and offered him one Wednesday when he visited West Lafayette.

Though Hulls has felt for some time that he could play at a high level, he said Tuesday afternoon that he thought the top schools were still getting to know him as a player and a person.

“Obviously if they are calling you, they have some serious interest in you,” Hulls said. “I hope I’ll know more in the next couple weeks, but I think they are just really starting to realize that I can help them.”

Hulls, who was a first-team H-T All-Area selection after leading South with 16 points per game, has attracted the interest of college coaches with his play on the Indiana Elite Under-17 team.

That team, which will play in Bloomington this weekend at the May Classic AAU tournament, features no fewer than seven other players getting interest from high major schools. While coaches flock to court-side of Indiana Elite games to watch Stephan Van Treese and Miles Plumlee and Ray McCallum Jr., they can’t help but notice the player who makes the team work.

“They like my vision, my ability to run the point,” Hulls said, referring to the coaches who are now trying to draw him to their schools. “They like the way I run the show. I’ve always been a leader on the floor.”

Hulls admits that he needs to improve his quickness. He knows his strength will improve when gets on campus.

“They’ve got strength coaches who make sure you are going to get stronger,” he said.

He’d like to become a better ball handler and build his endurance for the intensity of the college game.

Hulls is a prolific shooter — he hit 52 3-pointers last year and made 50-of-55 free throws — who has proven to college coaches that he can play against the top talent in the country the past month.

“He’s doing it a higher level now, against more consistently above average players,” said Criss Beyers, a South assistant and Indiana Elite administrator. “In high school, the talent might not always be there every game. But in AAU he’s going up against the best guards in the country and driving into the lane where a 6-8 player is waiting. He’s handling that, and that’s why he is getting the interest he is now.”

Hulls has also been contacted by Stanford and Duke.

Via HeraldTimesOnline