Jordan Hulls Details His Approach to Recruiting
Jordan Hulls was once an overlooked, undersized point guard searching for someone to take a chance on him. He used to send out highlight tapes to anyone who’d watch. ESPN ranked 33 point guards ahead of him.
When playing in an AAU tournament in Pittsburgh, Pa. for Indiana Elite, Hulls was finally noticed alongside his talented teammates and more physically-imposing opponents. Still, only two schools offered him a scholarship – Indiana and Purdue – and over 100 players were ranked ahead of him in the class of 2009. Hulls’ recruitment continued to be different than most. A Bloomington, Ind. native, Hulls didn’t wait more than two weeks to announce his commitment to the Tom Crean-coached Hoosiers.
He’d go on to win a Big Ten title at Indiana, making two Sweet Sixteen appearances as a career 44 percent 3-point shooter. After a nine-year professional career that featured stops in Poland, Belgium and Germany, Hulls is back in his hometown, joining Mike Woodson’s staff as the recruiting coordinator for Indiana University basketball.
“This is a great phase for me and my family,” Hulls said. “This next stage of life that we're super excited about and I'm just going to attack it like I did when I went on the court and do the best that I can as hard as I can and things tend to work out that way."
Hulls’ took his first recruiting trip to the Charlie Hughes Indiana Boys’ High School Shootout last week, where he watched Cathedral forward Xavier Booker, a top-five player in the country, among other in-state hoopers. But aside from trying to secure the nation’s top talents, Hulls’ experience and knowledge can also be used to find players like him who were overlooked.
“You look at a guy like me, who wasn't the most physically looking person in the world,” Hulls said. “But you can just tell with some people that they just got it, whether or not they're a super athlete.”
During Hulls’ first weekend of recruiting, he kept a close eye on how a player can control the game, their fundamentals, turnover tendencies and whether or not they’re good teammates. Hulls believes absorbing that kind of in-person insight can go a long way. He keys on traits some might look past, like how a player interacts with teammates or even the way they run off the court.
“That's the fun part for me,” Hulls said. “Really diving in and seeing a player that I think can have the intangibles to help us succeed.”
And whether it’s in business or recruiting, relationships are everything for Hulls. First and foremost, he wants to understand potential recruits on a personal level – what makes them tick. Beyond basketball, Hulls realizes the importance of academic and personal fit as incoming recruits devote their life to the school. Because of this, he’ll also keep an eye on work ethic as he sifts through the recruiting landscape.
“Knowing you've got to go out there and work, and I know that's what worked for me and I know that's still a good recipe for kids today,” Hulls said. “I think learning more about the kids and how they work for me is something I'll be looking for too."
Hulls thinks his strong ties to the state of Indiana will help in his new role, too. He has connected with high school coaches throughout the state not only during his playing career, but also when he ran his own training business, JH1 Dream Big Skills Academy.
And throughout his four-year collegiate career and nine-year professional career overseas, Hulls has adapted to different playing styles, learning how to relate to his teammates. As a point guard, this was an important aspect of team chemistry and something he hopes to translate into recruiting.
“Being a point guard over there and having a lot of different guys that I had to connect with like 'This is how he likes to play. This is what motivates this guy,'” Hulls said. “I think I can really, really be a good advocate for that and trying to get these guys going.”
In his return to Bloomington, Hulls and the rest of Woodson’s coaching staff are hoping to bring Indiana basketball back to the top of the Big Ten. Veteran leaders like Trayce Jackson-Davis and Race Thompson haven’t been shy when expressing their Big Ten and National Championship goals, and Hulls is working to prove what Indiana can become.
“For me it's just instilling that when this place gets going, it gets going,” Hulls said. “There's no other place that you'd rather be playing basketball.”
Related stories on Indiana basketball:
- HULLS' RETURN ALLOWS FOR INTERNATIONAL RECRUITING: After playing college basketball in his hometown of Bloomington, Ind., former Indiana point guard Jordan Hulls became a world traveler over his nine-year professional career. With connections made in four different countries, Hulls could help the Hoosiers bring in international talent. CLICK HERE
- HULLS COULDN'T SAY NO: Former Indiana point guard Jordan Hulls was headed into his 10th season of professional basketball, but an opportunity to join Mike Woodson's coaching staff at his alma mater was too good to deny. CLICK HERE
- GUNN WORKING TO BE 3-POINT SHOOTER INDIANA NEEDS: Lawrence North High School product C.J. Gunn joins Mike Woodson and the Indiana basketball program with a reputation partly built on 3-point shooting prowess. It's an area in which Indiana has struggled recently, but Gunn is working to fill that void. CLICK HERE
